On-prem Files

This connector lets you integrate with files within a secure network. These files typically are behind a corporate firewall and cannot be accessed directly. To create a connection to on-prem files, you must use an On-prem agent.

Workato's On-prem files connector allows you to securely connect to those on-premises files and build automation around them.

How to connect to on-prem files on Workato

Before creating a connection for this connector, make sure you go through an on-prem agent setup and create a profile for on-prem files.

When setting up connection directly in workato using cloud profile

You don't have to edit on-prem config file, set up all properties directly in workato as shown below.

On-prem files connection using on-prem agent

Field	Description
Connection name	Give this On-prem files connection a unique name that identifies which On-prem files instance it is connected to.
Is this app in a private network?	Select the on-prem group that you setup earlier.
On-prem connection profile	Name of the profile you wish to connect to. This should be defined in your config.yml file in your On-prem agent.
Base	If you have selected on-prem group that supports setting up connection detials directly in workato you will specify base path here.

Working with the On-prem files connector

Relative path

Relative path is a way to specify the location of a file or folder based on the location of another folder. This is different from absolute path where you specify the full location of a file.

When setting up connection directly in workato using cloud profile

You don't have to edit on-prem config file, set up base path directly in workato. Please skip below configuration.

File or folder path in the on-prem files connector are all relative paths. It is relative to the base path you define in the connection profile of your config.yml file. Let's take a look at an example.

Here, we have a profile with the base path defined as the /Users/admin/projects folder using the base property.

files:
  projects:
    base: /Users/admin/projects

Now, if you wish to point to a file in this sub-folder /Users/admin/projects/engineering/2018_roadmap.csv, you will have to use the relative path /engineering/2018_roadmap.csv. When used in a download file action, it will look like this.

Download content from file path

Similarly, to point to a sub-folder /Users/admin/projects/marketing/users, use the relative path /marketing/users.

Move file to a folder using folder path

Naming pattern

Frequently, you may have a log of multiple files with a naming convention. These names typically either includes an incremental count to represent the versions or timestamp to represent the effective date of the contents. Defining a naming pattern allows you to filter files based on these naming conventions. Workato uses the ? and * symbols to represent any single character or multiple characters respectively.

Single character wildcard ?

The ? symbol is used to represent any character once. For example, Report_draft_?.pdf can be used to represent Report_draft_1.pdf, Report_draft_2.pdf and Report_draft_3.pdf.

Multiple character wildcard *

The * symbol is used to represent any zero or more characters. For example, Report_draft*.pdf can be used to represent Report_draft.pdf, Report_draft_1.pdf, Report_draft_2.pdf and Report_draft_3.pdf.

Using naming pattern in a recipe

Let's look at an example of a marketing manager who needs to work with a folder that contains a few type of information series of webinar.

📂 Marketing

• 📂 ProductHour
  • 📄 Attendees_2018_11_29.csv
  • 📄 Attendees_2018_11_15.csv
  • 📄 Attendees_2018_11_01.csv
  • 📋 Poll_responses_2018_11_29.txt
  • 📋 Poll_responses_2018_11_15.txt
  • 📋 Poll_responses_2018_11_01.txt
  • 📊 Slides_2018_11_29.pptx
  • 📊 Slides_2018_11_15.pptx
  • 📊 Slides_2018_11_01.pptx

Based on each use case, files from this folder can be filtered in a number of ways.

Use case	Naming pattern	Usage
Trigger on CSV lines in Attendees information	Attendees*.csv	Filter Attendees CSV files in a trigger
List only Poll responses files from November	Poll_reponses_2018_11_??.txt	Filter Poll responses from November
Trigger on new Presentation slides in 2018	Slides_2018*.pptx	Filter Presentation slides