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Get the Report →Analyze FTP Data in Infragistics Reveal
Use the CData Connect Server to create an OData API on top of FTP data and visualize live FTP data in Ingragistics Reveal.
Reveal is a data visualization solution provided by Infragistics and can be paired with the CData Connect Server and FTP Connector to build dynamic dashboards from live FTP data. The CData Connect Server creates a virtual database for FTP and can be used to generate an OData API (natively consumable in Reveal) for FTP. In this article, we walk through connecting to FTP in Connect Server and connecting to Connect Server from Infragistics Reveal to create a simple dashboard.
Add a Connect Server User
Create a User to connect to FTP from Reveal through Connect Server.
- Click Users -> Add
- Configure a User
- Click Save Changes and make note of the Authtoken for the new user
Connect to FTP from Connect Server
CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.
- Open Connect Server and click Connections
- Select "FTP" from Available Data Sources
- Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to FTP.
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.
- Click Save Changes
- Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions (SELECT is all that is required for Reveal).
Add FTP OData Endpoints in Connect Server
After connecting to FTP, create OData Endpoint for the desired table(s).
- Click OData -> Tables -> Add Tables
- Select the FTP database
- Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Next
- (Optional) Edit the resource to select specific fields and more
- Save the settings
(Optional) Configure Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)
When accessing and connecting to multiple different domains from an application such as Ajax, there is a possibility of violating the limitations of cross-site scripting. In that case, configure the CORS settings in OData -> Settings.
- Enable cross-origin resource sharing (CORS): ON
- Allow all domains without '*': ON
- Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, PUT, POST, OPTIONS
- Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Authorization
Save the changes to the settings.

Create a Dashboard in Reveal
With Connect Server configured, we can visualize FTP data in Reveal.
- Log into Reveal and click Dashboards -> New
- Click Data Source -> OData Feed
- Specify the Connect Server API endpoint URL (found in API -> Discovery -> Base URL), for example: CONNECT_SERVER_URL/api.rsc
- Select Generic Credentials and specify the Connect Server username and authentication token
- Select the entity you wish to visualize
- Select fields and choose a chart type
More Information & Free Trial
At this point, you have created a simple dashboard from live FTP data. For more information on creating OData feeds from FTP (and more than 150 other sources), visit the Connect Server page. Download a free, 30-day trial and start working live FTP data in tools that consume OData APIs.