Integrate FTP Data in Your Informatica Cloud Instance

Informatica Cloud allows you to perform extract, transform, and load (ETL) tasks in the cloud. With the Cloud Secure Agent and the CData JDBC Driver for FTP, you get live access to FTP data, directly within Informatica Cloud. In this article, we will walk through downloading and registering the Cloud Secure Agent, connecting to FTP through the JDBC Driver and generating a mapping that can be used in any Informatica Cloud process.

Informatica Cloud Secure Agent

To work with the FTP data through the JDBC Driver, install the Cloud Secure Agent.

1. Navigate to the Administrator page in Informatica Cloud 👁 Image
   
2. Select the Runtime Environments tab
3. Click "Download Secure Agent" 👁 Image
   
4. Make note of the Install Token 👁 Image
   
5. Run the installer on the client machine and register the Cloud Secure Agent with your username and install token 👁 Image
   

NOTE: It may take some time for all of the Cloud Secure Agent services to get up and running.

Connecting to the FTP JDBC Driver

With the Cloud Secure Agent installed and running, you are ready to connect to FTP through the JDBC Driver.

Adding the JDBC Driver to the Secure Agent Machine

1. Navigate to the following directory on the Secure Agent machine:

   %Secure Agent installation directory%/ext/connectors/thirdparty/

2. Create a folder and add the driver JAR file (cdata.jdbc.ftp.jar) based on the type of mapping that you want to configure.

   For mappings, create the following folder and add the driver JAR file:

   informatica.jdbc_v2/common

   For mappings in advanced mode, also create the following folder and add the driver JAR file:

   informatica.jdbc_v2/spark

3. Restart the Secure Agent.

Connecting to FTP in Informatica Cloud

After installing the driver JAR file, you are ready to configure your connection to FTP in Informatica Cloud. Start by clicking the Connections tab and clicking New Connection. Fill in the following properties for the connection:

• Connection Name: Name your connection (i.e.: CData FTP Connection)
• Type: Select "JDBC_V2"
• Runtime Environment: Select the runtime environment where you installed the Secure Agent
• JDBC Driver Class Name: The name of the JDBC driver class: cdata.jdbc.ftp.FTPDriver
• JDBC Connection URL: Set this to the JDBC URL for FTP. Your URL will look similar to the following:
  
  

  jdbc:ftp:RemoteHost=MyFTPServer;

  To connect to FTP or SFTP servers, specify at least RemoteHost and FileProtocol. Specify the port with RemotePort.

  Set User and Password to perform Basic authentication. Set SSHAuthMode to use SSH authentication. See the Getting Started section of the data provider help documentation for more information on authenticating via SSH.

  Set SSLMode and SSLServerCert to secure connections with SSL.

  The data provider lists the tables based on the available folders in your FTP server. Set the following connection properties to control the relational view of the file system:

  • RemotePath: Set this to the current working directory.
  • TableDepth: Set this to control the depth of folders to list as views.
  • FileRetrievalDepth: Set this to retrieve and list files recursively from the root table.

  Stored Procedures are available to download files, upload files, and send protocol commands. See the Data Model chapter of the FTP data provider documentation for more information.

  Built-In Connection String Designer

  For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the FTP JDBC Driver. Either double-click the .jar file or execute the .jar file from the command-line.

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.ftp.jar
   

  Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

  👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Google Sheets is shown.)
  
• Username: Set this to a placeholder value (since FTP does not require a username)
• Password: Set this to a placeholder value (since FTP does not require a password)

👁 Configuring the Connection (Google Sheets is shown.

Create a Mapping for FTP Data

With the connection to FTP configured, we can now access FTP data in any Informatica process. The steps below walk through creating a mapping for FTP to another data target.

1. Navigate to the Data Integration page 👁 Image
   
2. Click New.. and select Mapping from the Mappings tab 👁 Image
   
3. Click the Source Object and in the Source tab, select the Connection and set the Source Type 👁 Selecting the Source Connection and Source Type
   
4. Click "Select" to choose the table to map 👁 Selecting the Source Object
   
5. In the Fields tab, select the fields from the FTP table to map 👁 Selecting Source Fields to map
   
6. Click the Target object and configure the Target source, table and fields. In the Field Mapping tab, map the source fields to the target fields. 👁 Selecting the Target Field Mappings
   

With the mapping configured, you are ready to start integrating live FTP data with any of the supported connections in Informatica Cloud. Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for FTP and start working with your live FTP data in Informatica Cloud today.