Automate FTP Tasks in Power Automate Using CData API Server

Microsoft Power Automate is a cloud-based, low-code/no-code platform that makes it easy to automate repetitive tasks and streamline business processes across various applications and services.

CData API Server extends the capabilities of Power Automate by enabling access to data from multiple sources and applications—whether on-premises or in the cloud. With the FTP Connector in the API Server (or any of the hundreds of available connectors), you can natively create actions and complex workflows and trigger them in Power Automate using industry-standard data access protocols like OData and Swagger.

In this article, we'll set up Power Automate and CData API Server to create a simple trigger that sends an email or notification whenever a lead in a FTP table matches specific criteria.

Let's begin!

Prerequisites

1. CData API Server: Download a free trial here.
2. Microsoft Power Automate: Signup for a free trial from here.
3. An active FTP account with access to your data.

Overview

Here's a quick overview of the steps we'll follow:

1. Install CData API Server, configure a connection to FTP, and generate OData API endpoints for FTP data within the API Server.
2. Use these endpoints in Power Automate to build a flow that automatically sends an email based on triggers from your FTP table when specific criteria are met.

Step 1: Install the API Server and Add a Connection to FTP

1.1 Install the API Server

If you haven't already, download an installer for your operating system from the CData API Server page. Follow the installation wizard to complete the setup on your machine.

Once installed, you can start the server in the following ways:

• Windows: CData API Server runs as a service by default. Ensure the service is running, then open http://localhost:8080/ in your browser to access the API Server admin console.
• Linux/Mac: You can run the server manually or as a service. To start it manually, navigate to the installation directory and run java -jar apiserver.jar.
• Alternatively, run service.sh with root privileges to set up API Server as a Linux system service.

1.2 Enable CORS

When Microsoft Power Automate and the CData API Server are hosted on different domains, CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) must be enabled to allow seamless cross-domain communication. To enable CORS in the API Server:

1. Go to Settings and click the icon to edit CORS settings.
2. Enable Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS).
3. Enable Allow all domains without '*' to accept any origin.
4. In Access-Control-Allow-Origin, enter your FTP origin domain, or use * to allow all domains (suitable for public APIs).
5. Enable Access-Control-Allow-Credentials to allow cookies and auth headers.
6. In Access-Control-Allow-Methods, enter GET, PUT, POST, OPTIONS.
7. In Access-Control-Allow-Headers, enter Authorization, Content-Type.
8. Set Access-Control-Max-Age (default: 3600 seconds) to cache preflight requests.
9. Click Save.

👁 Enabling CORS Settings in the CData API Server

1.3 Add a FTP Connection in the API Server

1. Go to Settings and click Add Connection in the top-right.
2. Select FTP. If it's not visible, toggle off Only Installed to view all connectors.
3. Click Install Connector to auto-install. For a manual setup, choose Manual Install and upload the downloaded ZIP file.
4. Once installed, click FTP again to open its connection settings and configure using the details below.

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.

5. Click Save & Test to validate and complete the connection setup.

👁 Adding a Connection in the CData API Server (Salesforce is Shown)

1.4 Add and Configure Users

To allow secure access to the created OData endpoints, create and configure Users in the CData API Server. Each user has authentication credentials and role-based access control, ensuring that only authorized users with appropriate roles can query the connected data.

1. Go to Users from the navigation pane, then click Add User in the top-right corner.
2. Enter a Username and set a secure Password for the user.
3. Select a Role:
   • Admin: Full access to all features, including settings and connections.
   • Query: Limited to data access via API endpoints (suitable for Power Automate use).
4. (Optional) Configure rate limits:
   • Requests Per Hour: Number of allowed API calls per hour (default: 1000).
   • Max Concurrent Requests: Number of parallel API requests allowed (default: 10).
5. Define Privileges for the user:
   • GET: Allows data retrieval.
   • POST: Allows creation of new records.
   • PUT, MERGE, PATCH: Allows updates to existing records.
   • DELETE: Allows deletion of records.
6. Click Add User to save and activate the user account.

👁 Adding a User in the CData API Server

Once a user is added, an Authtoken is automatically generated. This token can be used in API requests as a secure authentication method instead of a password.

You can also refresh the Authtoken, disable it, or set expiration rules (e.g., number of days until expiry) by enabling the Token Expiration option in the user settings.

👁 'Authtoken' Settings for the Added User in CData API Server

1.5 Add Tables for the Endpoint

To make data from FTP available in Power Automate via OData, you need to expose your desired tables through the API Server. Here's how:

1. In the CData API Server, go to API from the left navigation, then click Add Table at the top-right.
2. Select the FTP connection you configured earlier, then click Next.
3. Browse available entities and schema by expanding the Tables section. Select individual tables, or click the TABLE NAME checkbox at the top to select all. Then click Confirm.

👁 Adding Tables for API Endpoint in CData API Server

1.6 Access the Endpoints in Power Automate

Now that your API is configured, Power Automate can connect to the OData endpoints to automate tasks. Below are the URL formats for OData endpoints that you can use:

Endpoint		URL
Entity List	http://address:port/api.rsc/
Table Metadata (e.g., albums)	http://address:port/api.rsc/albums/$metadata?@json
Table Data (e.g., albums)	http://address:port/api.rsc/albums

These OData endpoints are now ready to be directly consumed in Power Automate using the URL. Since Power Automate supports OData, you can easily automate workflows, trigger actions, and integrate live data from FTP into your automated processes.

The CData API Server supports full OData filtering capabilities. For custom queries and filtered visualizations, you can append standard OData query parameters like $select, $filter, $orderby, $top, and $skip to your requests.

Step 2: Automate an Email Triggers in Power Automate

You've got the CData API Server up and running now with consumable OData endpoints from your FTP data. Now let's build a Power Automate flow to automate an email trigger based on a criteria.

In this example, we'll build a flow that reads lead and opportunity data from the Opportunity table in FTP. The flow will identify the lead with the highest value in the ExpectedRevenue column and automatically send an email containing the details of that lead.

We'll use Power Automate Desktop along with the Outlook app on Windows 11. If you don't have Outlook installed on your Windows machine, you can download it from the Microsoft 365 official site or install it via the Microsoft Store.

2.1 Filter the API OData Endpoint

With full support for OData URL filters (OData ABNF) in CData API Server, you can filter your tables (resources) directly in the URL to limit and sort the results before they are even pulled into your flow. This reduces load time and improves efficiency. Check out the complete list of supported filter options here.

For our example, the filtered URL looks like this: http://localhost:8080/api.rsc/public_Opportunity?$top=1&$orderby=ExpectedRevenue desc

You can build your own endpoint URL like this. Here's what each part means:

2.2 Build the Flow in Power Automate Desktop

1. Launch Power Automate Desktop and click on New on top-left to add a new flow.
2. Give your flow a name (e.g., Email-Trigger) and click Create.
   👁 Creating New Flow in Power Automate Desktop
   
3. In the flow designer dashboard, search for Region under the Actions pane and double-click to add it. Give it a descriptive name and click Save.
4. Search for Invoke Web Service, double-click to add it, and configure the following:
   • URL: Enter the filtered OData URL created earlier.
   • Method: GET
   • Accept: application/json
   • Content-Type: application/json
   • Save response: Get text into variable (for web pages)
   • Click Save.
   👁 'Invoke web services' action in Power Automate Desktop
   
5. Search for Convert JSON to Custom Object and double-click to add it.
   • Click the blue {x} icon and select the variable %WebServiceResponse%.
   • Click Save.
   👁 'JSON to custom object' action in Power Automate Desktop
   
6. Search for Outlook and select Launch Outlook. Double-click to add it to the flow, then click Save.
7. Search for Outlook and select Send email message through Outlook. Double-click to add it, then configure the following:
   • Outlook instance: %OutlookInstance%
   • Account: Enter your Outlook email address.
   • Send email message from: Account
   • To: Enter the recipient's email address.
   • Subject: Add an email subject line, e.g., New Opportunity with Highest Expected Revenue
   • Body: Paste the following simple HTML code. Replace the label and table names with your own.:
     

      Top Lead Details:
      Account ID: %JsonAsCustomObject['value'][0]['AccountId']%
      Name: %JsonAsCustomObject['value'][0]['Name']%
      Expected Revenue: %JsonAsCustomObject['value'][0]['ExpectedRevenue']%
      Close Date: %JsonAsCustomObject['value'][0]['CloseDate']%
      

   • Body is HTML: Toggle on this option.
   • Click Save.
   👁 'Sending Outlook Email' Action in Power Automate Desktop
   
8. Search for Outlook and select Close Outlook. Double-click to add it to the flow, then click Save.
9. Search for End region and double-click to add it to the flow.
10. Your final flow should look like this:
    👁 Final Flow in Power Automate Desktop
    
11. Click Run on top to start the flow. The process will automatically open Outlook and send an email to the recipient as specified in the flow. Your email should look like this:
    👁 Executing Flow in Power Automate Desktop
    

2.3 Schedule and Refine the Flow

Your flow now sends an email when a new lead with the highest ExpectedRevenue is found. Since Power Automate Desktop doesn't support built-in scheduling, you'll need to use Windows Task Scheduler or Power Automate (cloud) to run it continuously at set intervals.

To avoid duplicate emails, use the Write text to file action in Power Automate to save the Id field to a file (e.g., lastLead.txt). On each run, use the Read text from file action to compare it with the current Id. If they match, skip the email—ensuring alerts are only sent for new leads.

This flow is just the beginning. You can extend it to update CRM records, log high-value leads to Excel, or send real-time Slack alerts—automating even more steps in your lead management process.

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