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Overview

File transfer source and target are specified using Fragment elements.

Fragments are children of the ProtocolFragment element and have child elements that specify the parameters such as the authentication method, connection type and proxy.

Fragments are protocol specific - that is, there is a fragment element defined in the XSD schema for each file transfer protocol. This enables the properties of each protocol to be reflected in the schema and allows dependencies and incompatibilities to be defined. A trivial example is that a PassiveMode element can be specified for an FTPFragment but not for an FTPSFragment.

Any number of Fragments can be specified within a file transfer configuration.

Individual Fragments are mainly referenced from the Profile Branch (see ....

Operation-dependent source and target elements specify how a Fragment is to be used. For example:

parameters in YADE are defined hierarchically and are sorted into two branches - Profiles and Fragments. A Profile specifies what is to be done (e.g. copy from A to B) and the Fragment defines how this is to be done (e.g. using protocol X, authentication Y, etc.).

Fragments (see the link to the relevant section of this manual at the foot of this article) are generally configured before Profiles. The considerations necessary for defining the Profile branch of the configuration are described in this article.

How to generate the Profile configuration

The diagram below shows the minimum parameter hierarchy (i.e. without optional parameters) required to specify a file transfer from a remote source per FTP protocol to the local file system.

When the XML Editor is used to generate the configuration you will be guided using the Add child button to insert valid elements starting with the Profiles element and proceed down the hierarchy.

Note that the links behind each element name in the diagram lead to the Parameter Reference Documentation for that element, which provides detailed information about the parameter.

• Profiles
  • Profile (profile_id= 'p1')
    
    • Operation
      • Copy
        
        • CopySource
          
          • CopySourceFragmentRef
            
            • FTPFragmentRef (Has the ref attribute which specifies the source ProtocolFragment)
          • SourceFileOptions
            
            • Selection
        • CopyTarget
          
          • CopyTargetFragmentRef
            • LocalTarget (A ProtocolFragment does not need to be defined here as the target is the local file system)
          • Directory
  • Profile (profile_id= 'p2')
  • etc.

Each individual file transfer is headed up by a Profile, which is added as a child of the Profiles element.

The individual parameters that have to be specified in the Profile are as follows:

• The Profile requires a profile_id which is used to call the profile when the transfer is called from the command line.
• Each Profile element is required to have an Operation element.
  Note that the Operation specified defines subsequent descendant elements. For example, a Rename operation will require a different descendants to a Move operation. See the YADE User Manual - The Operation - What is to be done? article for more information.
• In the example, a Copy operation is specified, which, in turn, A Copy operation requires that CopySource and CopyTarget elements are specifiedset.
• The CopySource and CopyTarget elements in turn require that CopySourceFragmentRef and CopytargetFragmentRef elements are defined, that respectively specify the Fragments to be used for both parts of the operation.

The advantage of this approach - which may at first seen somewhat complex - is that fragments can flexibly reused within the otherwise strict XML hierarchy and that configurations can be validated against an XSD schema to greatly reduce the possibility of configuration errors.

A Fragment can be used as a source or as a target within the one Configuration.

ProtocolFragments can also be referenced from other fragments:

...

• element has two child elements:
  • a CopySourceFragmentRef element, which is required. This element in turn requires an FTPFragmentRef element, which contains the reference specifying the protocol fragment element. The protocol fragment then specifies the transfer connection parameters such as authentication, protocol, etc.
    • Note that the FragmentRef element (FTPFragmentRef), which is used to specify the fragment element, is protocol-specific. This allows optional pre- and post-processing child elements - which are not shown in the hierarchy - to be added to the profile as child elements of the FTPFragmentRef element. Such elements are protocol-specific.
  • a SourceFileOptions element which is also required - together with the Selection element - and is used to specify a range of parameters related to aspects of file selection.
• The CopyTarget element does not need a corresponding FTPFragmentRef child element as the target is the local file system. However, the LocalTarget element must be specified.
  • The Directory element is used to specify a target directory if a directory other than the user's root directory is used.

Calling Profile Elements

A Profile is specified by its profile_id attribute, which is used to call the profile when the transfer is called from the command line.

An example showing the YADE command line call syntax can be seen in the Configuring and Running File Transfers article.

Further Information

Related Sections of this User Manual:

• YADE User Manual - Configuration Formats & Tools
• YADE User Manual - Configuring and Running File Transfers
  • YADE User Manual - Configuration 1 - An Overview
  • YADE User Manual - Configuration 2 - The Fragments Branch
  • YADE User Manual - Configuration 3 - The Profile Branch (this page)
    • YADE User Manual - The Operation - What is to be done?

Other documents

• The use of the Operations element - the only Profiles child element whose use is required - is described in the Operation section of this manual.