How do I connect Power Automate Connector to FTP in 5 minutes?
Execute the following steps to connect Power Automate Connector to FTP. You only need knowledge of Power Automate Connector and your own business.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is a standard network protocol used to transfer files between a client and server over the internet or a local network, supporting both uploading and downloading.
No technical knowledge is needed nor knowledge on the FTP APIs to connect FTP to Power Automate Connector. This step-by-step plan will tell you exactly which steps you need to go through on Invantive Cloud to create your own Azure data warehouse with data from FTP.
The steps to connect Power Automate Connector to FTP are:
- Register an Invantive Cloud account.
- Create a FTP database.
- Make the FTP database available through the Microsoft OData connector.
- Connect Power Automate Connector to FTP through the connector.
- Load data from FTP into Power Automate Connector data warehouse.
Invantive Cloud offers a FTP connector to download data from FTP into Power Automate Connector, but there are over 75 other connectors available also for SQL, Power BI Desktop, Power BI Service, Power Query and/or Azure Data Factory.
Do you have a large environment? For effective downloads, you can of course also filter the data using the filter step or the transform button in Power Automate Connector.
When you are having questions, please check the forums for FTP.
Register Account on Invantive Cloud
Skip this step when you already have an account on Invantive Cloud. Otherwise execute the following steps one time to register an account on Invantive Cloud:
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Go to Invantive Cloud start page.
Select the Log on-button.
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Select the Next-button.
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Select the Next-button.
Enter your password and repeat the provided password.
You will receive a six-digit verification code by email within 2 minutes.
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Select the Sign Up-button.
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Log on now. >
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Make sure you have an authentication app installed on your phone. Select the Next-button.
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Add the displayed QR code to the authentication app, enter the current verification code, and choose "Finish".
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The Invantive Cloud dashboard will be shown.
You now have a login code on Invantive Cloud with which you can set up the connection with FTP and numerous other platforms. You will use the same Invantive login code and workflow for all other platforms.
Create FTP database
In this step, we set up a database with data from FTP. The database is "virtual" because it is not a traditional database, but is fed real-time from FTP. Invantive Cloud provides Power Automate Connector with a real-time link to FTP. The database will be used for all your FTP reporting with Power Automate Connector. So you only need to perform these steps once.
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Click the Add Database button.
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Please fill out the form with login information for FTP.
Select the OK-button.
Congratulations! You can now process data from FTP within the Invantive Cloud website. You can do this for example with the interactive SQL editor.
Grant connection from Power Automate Connector access to FTP
To retrieve the data from Power Automate Connector we create a link via Invantive Bridge Online. This creates a "bridge" between the cloud of Invantive and the standard OData connector that is available in every version of Power Automate Connector. You do not need to install anything locally: no connector, no ado.NET provider and no Power Automate Connector add-on neither.
Execute the following steps to safely use the data from FTP outside of Invantive Cloud:
Next to the database you will find an orange text requesting you to allow access from your current location (IP address). Select the nearby orange button.
You must completely disable IP address checking by entering an asterisk ("*") since Microsoft Power Automate Connector consists of hundreds of thousands of servers across the globe.
You are now ready to import the FTP data into Power Automate Connector.
Configure Power Automate Connector connector for FTP
You will now pull in Power Automate Connector data from FTP through the established link.
Please note again that Invantive Cloud under the hood handles all complexity such as setting up credentials such as a refresh token, acquiring an access token, optimizing and parallelizing access, accessing an API within the rate limits, scopes and security restrictions. There is absolutely no need for knowledge on complex technical topics such as OAuth access tokens or API. The Microsoft Azure Data Factory steps, activities and pipelines can be constructed using just the OData feed and basic authentication.
Execute the following steps:
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Start Microsoft Power Automate Connector and select 'Ingest'.
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Enter in the window the Bridge Online URL of the Power Automate Connector database. This URL containing the data can be found in the Database-form of Invantive Cloud. Choose authentication type 'Basic authentication'. Enter the Invantive Cloud user name and password.
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The list of available FTP tables appears. Select the desired tables and construct your pipeline in Microsoft Azure Data Factory.