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.

WARNING

Ensure proper access control for the agent process to allow access only to specific files and folders.

Additionally, you can restrict access to this on-prem connection using dedicated privileges (opens new window).

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 details 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_responses_2018_11_??.txt	Filter Poll responses from November
Trigger on new Presentation slides in 2018	Slides_2018*.pptx	Filter Presentation slides