Xaction Basics – FTPing a file

Here is another little xaction that demonstrates the FTP capabilities of xactions. Just like the last one, make sure to save it in the workspace directory for Design Studio so that it displays properly when you try to edit it.

Open the ftp_prpt_report_w_parm.xaction file in Design Studio (Eclipse).

You will want to change the default values for each input.  Notice if you left it the way it was and ran it from PUC, you could change the default values to your FTP settings.  At first I tried to use an @ sign in the username from our Datamensional.com server, but the solution will not work with this.  It causes a problem because the output part of the .XACTION uses the @ sign to separate the username from the server name.  There may be a way to get around it through escape characters.

Go to your inputs in Design studio and change all the defaults for the following:

  • reportname
  • ftp_host
  • user
  • password
  • directory

Keep all others their default.  You will want to change the solution listed under Resources to one of your own reports as well

Save it to the solution directory in Design Studio.  In the BI Server, refresh the repository and double click on the .XACTION.  After completing successfully, you’ll see “Action Successful.” Log into the directory that you saved the FTP to, and it should be there.