Connecting with FTP/FTPS Tasks
The Tasks' connection parameters can be set in their own tab. The connection properties are used to establish the connection to the FTP server. The FTP Tasks share similar connection parameters.
The Address field specifies the server that is to be connected to and the Port field specifies the port that is to be used when establishing the command channel. Usually with FTP servers the default port for the command channel is 21. The Task uses a username and password for authentication.
You are able to select the Transport type to be either ASCII which sends the files as text or Binary which sends the files as raw data. The ASCII should only be used when the files are ASCII text files. Binary, which is the default value for the Task, enables you to send different types of files, for example, UTF-encoded text files.
The next parameter is Mode, aka Data transfer mode, which can be set as Passive or Active. When using passive mode, the FTP client handles both command channel and data channel creation, while in Active mode the FTP client establishes the command channel port, and the server handles the data channel port. Active mode provides more security to the FTP server but might cause problems with firewalls. Passive mode provides no security to the FTP server but doesn't have connection issues with firewalls.
Next you can set the Keep connection alive interval which keeps the connection alive by sending NOOP commands at a specific time interval. You can also set the Connection timeout parameter which is used to stop the execution of the Task if the connection can't be established in the given time.
The Encoding parameter enables the Task to encode and decode command parameters and server responses such as file names. Lastly, a Buffer size can be set to the Task. This will determine the size of the buffer when files are transferred. With bigger sized files a bigger sized buffer is recommended. This will usually improve the performance.
To enable FTPS you need to enable the Use FTPS Boolean parameter. This will open up more parameters which are required in FTPS mode. You will be able to determine whether to use a secure data channel and select the SSL mode for the Task to use. SSL mode allows you to choose whether the Task uses Explicit or Implicit SSL or let the server decide that for you. Possible values are None, Explicit, Implicit and Auto.
The next article is Introduction to DownloadFiles and UploadFiles Tasks