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Get the Report →Integrate FTP Data into Automated Tasks with Power Automate
Use CData Connect Server to create a virtual SQL Server database for FTP data and integrate live FTP data into your Power Automate (Microsoft Flow) tasks.
Power Automate (Microsoft Flow) is an online service that automates events (known as workflows) across the most common apps and services. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to FTP data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to Connect Server from Power Automate and integrate live FTP data into your workflows and tasks.
CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL interface for FTP, allowing you to easily integrate with live FTP data in Power Automate — without replicating the data. CData Connect Server looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Power Automate and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to FTP, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return FTP data.
Create a Virtual SQL Database for FTP Data
CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.
- Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
- Select "FTP" from Available Data Sources.
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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.
Connecting to CData Connect Server
To use Connect Server to integrate FTP data into your Power Automate tasks, you need a new SQL Server connection:
- Log in to Power Automate
- Click Data -> Connections -> New connection
- Select SQL Server
- In the connection wizard:
- Set Authentication Type to "SQL Server Authentication"
- Set SQL server name to the address of your Connect Server instance (connect_server_url)
- Set SQL database name to the name of the virtual FTP database you created earlier (like ftpdb)
- Set the Username and Password and click Create
Integrating FTP Data into Power Automate Tasks
With the connection to Connect Server configured, you are ready to integrate live FTP data into your Power Automate tasks.
- Log in to Power Automate
- Click My flows -> New and choose to create the flow from blank or template
- Add (or configure) a SQL Server action (like Get rows) and configure the action to connect to your Connect Server connection
- Select a Table to work with (from the drop-down menu) and configure any advanced options (like filters, orders, etc)
- Configure any actions to follow and test, then save the flow
SQL Access to FTP Data from Applications
Now you have a direct connection to live FTP data from Power Automate tasks. You can create more connections and workflows to drive business — all without replicating FTP data.
To get SQL data access to 200+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your applications, see the CData Connect Server.
Related Power Automate Articles
This article walks through using CData Connect Server with Power Automate (Online). Check out our other articles for more ways to work with Power Automate Desktop: