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Query FTP Data from Node.js
The API Server exposes Web services that allow connectivity to your data. Use the OData endpoint of the CData API Server to execute CRUD queries to FTP data from Node.js.
The CData API Server, when paired with the ADO.NET Provider for FTP, exposes FTP data (or data from any of 200+ other ADO.NET Providers) as an OData endpoint, which can be queried from Node.js using simple HTTP requests. This article shows how to use the API Server to request JSON-formatted FTP data in Node.js.
Set Up the API Server
Follow the steps below to begin producing secure FTP OData services:
Deploy
The API Server runs on your own server. On Windows, you can deploy using the stand-alone server or IIS. On a Java servlet container, drop in the API Server WAR file. See the help documentation for more information and how-tos.
The API Server is also easy to deploy on Microsoft Azure, Amazon EC2, and Heroku.
Connect to FTP
After you deploy the API Server and the ADO.NET Provider for FTP, provide authentication values and other connection properties needed to connect to FTP by clicking Settings -> Connections and adding a new connection in the API Server administration console.
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.
You can then choose the FTP entities you want to allow the API Server access to by clicking Settings -> Resources.
Authorize API Server Users
After determining the OData services you want to produce, authorize users by clicking Settings -> Users. The API Server uses authtoken-based authentication and supports the major authentication schemes. Access can also be restricted based on IP address; all IP addresses except the local machine are restricted by default. You can authenticate as well as encrypt connections with SSL.
Consume FTP OData Feeds from Node.js
OData feeds are easy to work with in Node.js. You can use the HTTP client in Node.js to request JSON-formatted data from the API Server's OData endpoint. After making the request, you can construct the body of the response and call the JSON.parse() function to parse it into records.
The code below will make an authenticated request for MyDirectory data. The example URL below applies a simple filter that searches for records with a value of /documents/doc.txt in the FilePath column.
var http = require('http');
http.get({
protocol: "http:",
hostname: "MyServer.com",
port: MyPort,
path: "/api.rsc/MyDirectory?$filter=" + encodeURIComponent("FilePath eq '/documents/doc.txt'"),
auth: 'MyUser:MyAuthtoken'
},
function(res) {
var body = '';
res.on('data', function(chunk) {
body += chunk;
});
res.on('end', function() {
console.log(body);
var jsonData = JSON.parse(body);
});
}).on('error', function(e) {
console.log("Error: ", e);
});
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