Connect to FTP Data in Aqua Data Studio

The CData JDBC Driver for FTP integrates FTP data with wizards and analytics in IDEs like Aqua Data Studio. This article shows how to connect to FTP data through the connection manager and execute queries.

Create a JDBC Data Source

You can use the connection manager to define connection properties and save them in a new JDBC data source. The FTP data source can then be accessed from Aqua Data Studio tools.

1. In Aqua Data Studio, select Register Server from the Servers menu.
2. In the Register Server form, select the 'Generic - JDBC' connection.
3. Enter the following JDBC connection properties:
   • Name: Enter a name for the data source; for example, FTP.
   • Driver Location: Click the Browse button and select the cdata.jdbc.ftp.jar file, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
   • Driver: Enter the Driver's class name, cdata.jdbc.ftp.FTPDriver.

   • URL: Enter the JDBC URL, which starts with jdbc:ftp: and is followed by a semicolon-separated list of connection properties.

     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.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

     For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the FTP JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.ftp.jar

     Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

     A typical JDBC URL is below:
     jdbc:ftp:RemoteHost=MyFTPServer;

Query FTP Data

You can now query the tables exposed.