Filesystem Resource¶
A Filesystem connection is a set of connection parameters needed to perform download/upload operations using a remote file location.
This connection can be stored in two ways:
related to the object which is going to use it (Custom source option)
as a Rulex Platform Resource of Filesystem type (Saved source option), which can be used at any time and in any operation.
If this connection is stored as a Filesystem resource, the user can define a set of permissions linked to this resource (as explained in the permissions page) to limit/control the access other users can have on the inserted connection.
To use a Filesystem resource in any panel, a filesystem connection is required, and the user must have view permissions set to allow on the resource itself, while modify permissions are required to see its internal parameters.
Tip
By creating a Filesystem resource with view permissions for all users and modify permission only for the administrator, you are exposing a connection without sharing username and password used in the authentication procedure.
Filesystem connection configuration¶
Rulex Platform supports the following remote locations:
The configuration interface and its parameters vary for every filesystem type. Further details are listed in the paragraphs below.
Note
The Local Filesystem file location is considered as a filesystem, and it corresponds to the client machine disk. As this filesystem doesn’t require any connection parameter, it is available only as a Custom connection. To use the Local Filesystem in Rulex Platform Cloud version, you can find more information in this note.
Warning
Rulex’s technical documentation does not and cannot provide comprehensive guidelines on the use of third-party software programs, beyond how Rulex integrates with this software. Please read the technical documentation of the third-party software itself for up-to-date information.
This connection allows Rulex Platform to connect to Samba or NFS share drive, reachable from the hosting machine or from the cloud.
The connection parameters needed for this connection are listed in the following table (parameters in bold are mandatory). To define a Custom connection to a Sharedrive Filesystem in Rulex Platform API calls, the user must specify the value sharedrive in the uri field.
Name |
Description |
API param key |
Default |
|---|---|---|---|
Host |
The server host of the chosen share drive location. |
host |
|
Port |
The server port of the chosen share drive location. |
port |
445 |
Username |
If an authentication is required, enter the username exchanged with the share drive server. |
username |
|
Password |
If an authentication is required, enter the password exchanged with the share drive server. |
password |
|
Domain |
The domain the share drive location owns, if available. |
domain |
|
Share |
In Samba Share drive any server can contain more than one exposed share drive. The user must specify which server Rulex Platform must connect to. |
share |
Http/s Server
This connection allows Rulex Platform to perform Web/SOAP/REST API call towards any HTTP/S Server, reachable from the hosting machine or from the cloud.
The connection parameters needed for this connection are reported in the following table (parameters in bold are mandatory). To define a Custom connection towards an HTTP/S Server in Rulex Platform API calls the user must specify the value http in uri field.
Name |
Description |
API param key |
Default |
|---|---|---|---|
Authentication |
The authentication type to use in contacting the HTTP/S Server. The possible values are:
|
auth |
basic |
Username |
If an authentication is required, enter the username linked to the share drive server. |
username |
|
Password |
If an authentication is required, enter the password linked to the share drive server. |
password |
|
Bearer Token |
The Bearer Token to insert in the Authentication header (Mandatory if the Authentication is set to Bearer Authentication). |
password |
|
Authentication Url |
The OAuth2 authentication endpoint used for OAuth2 authentication client-credential or password flows. (Mandatory if the Authentication is set to OAuth2 Authentication). |
authurl |
|
OAuth2 type |
The OAuth2 grant type which selects the type of OAuth2 authentication flow. (Mandatory if the Authentication is set to OAuth2 Authentication). Possible values are:
|
granttype |
ccba |
Client ID |
The application client identifier used in OAuth2 client credential flow to identify the client. (Mandatory if the Authentication set to OAuth2 Authentication and the OAuth2 type is set to Client Credential with Basic Auth, Client Credential with Body Auth or Client Credential with signed JWT) |
username |
|
Client Secret |
The application client secret passphrase used in OAuth2 client credential flow to authenticate the client. (Mandatory if the Authentication is set to OAuth2 Authentication and the OAuth2 type is set to Client Credential with Basic Auth or Client Credential with Body Auth) |
password |
|
JWT Token |
The JWT Token used in OAuth2 client credential flow to authenticate the client. (Mandatory if the Authentication is set to OAuth2 Authentication and OAuth2 type is set to Client Credential with signed JWT) |
password |
|
Scope |
The application authentication scope requested in OAuth2 authentication. (Mandatory if the Authentication is set to OAuth2 Authentication) |
share |
|
Proxy Settings |
A dictionary containing Proxy settings information if a Proxy needs to be used. For more information see Proxy Panel. |
proxy |
|
Headers |
A list of strings written using the syntax Label:Value containing additional Headers to be added to the HTTP/S call. |
headers |
FTP/S Server
This connection allows Rulex Platform to connect to an FTP/FTPS server, reachable from the hosting machine or from the cloud.
The connection parameters required for this connection are reported in the following table (parameters in bold are mandatory.). To define a Custom connection to an FTP/FTPS server in Rulex Platform API calls the user must specify the value ftp in uri field.
Name |
Description |
API param key |
Default |
|---|---|---|---|
Host |
The server host of the chosen ftp location. |
host |
|
Port |
The server port of the chosen ftp location. |
port |
21 |
Username |
If an authentication is required, enter the username linked to the ftp server. |
username |
|
Password |
If an authentication is required, enter the password linked to the ftp server. |
password |
|
Proxy Settings |
A dictionary containing Proxy settings information, if a Proxy needs to be used. For more information see Proxy Panel. |
proxy |
Amazon AWS S3
This connection allows Rulex Platform to connect to an Amazon AWS S3 bucket reachable from the hosting machine or from the cloud.
The connection parameters required for this connection are reported in the following table (parameters in bold are mandatory.). To define a Custom connection to an Amazon AWS S3 filesystem in Rulex Platform API calls, the user must specify the value s3 in uri field.
Name |
Description |
API param key |
Default |
|---|---|---|---|
Bucket |
The Amazon AWS S3 Bucket used in the connection. |
bucket |
|
Username/Access Key ID |
The username used to authenticate to the Amazon AWS S3 service. |
username |
|
Password/Secret Access Key |
The password used to authenticate to the Amazon AWS S3 service. |
password |
|
Proxy Settings |
A dictionary containing Proxy settings information, if a Proxy needs to be used. For more information see Proxy Panel. |
proxy |
This connection allows Rulex Platform to connect to Microsoft SharePoint sites reachable from the hosting machine or from the cloud.
The connection parameters required for this connection are reported in the following table (parameters in bold are mandatory.). To define a Custom connection to a Microsoft SharePoint filesystem in Rulex Platform API calls, the user must specify the value sharepoint in uri field.
Name |
Description |
API param key |
Default |
|---|---|---|---|
Base Url |
The Microsoft SharePoint site Url location. |
host |
|
Authentication |
The type of authentication used to connect to Microsoft SharePoint service; the possible values are:
|
auth |
direct |
Username |
The username used to authenticate. (Mandatory if the Legacy Sharepoint Authentication is selected) |
username |
|
Password |
The password used to authenticate. (Mandatory if the Legacy Sharepoint Authentication is selected) |
password |
|
App ID |
The application identifier of the SharePoint service principal app registered on the Azure tenant. (Mandatory if the Azure Authentication is selected) |
username |
|
Tenant ID |
The Azure tenant identifier. (Mandatory if the Azure Authentication is selected) |
domain |
|
JWT Auth Token |
The signed JWT token associated to the Sharepoint service principal, generated as explained here. (Mandatory if the Legacy Sharepoint Authentication is selected) |
password |
|
Proxy Settings |
A dictionary containing Proxy settings information if a Proxy needs to be used. For more information see Proxy Panel. |
proxy |
Hadoop HDFS File System
This connection allows Rulex Platform to connect to Hadoop File System (HDFS) reachable from the hosting machine or from the cloud.
The connection parameters needed for this connection are reported in the following table (parameters in bold are mandatory.). To define a Custom connection to an HDFS filesystem in Rulex Platform API calls, the user must specify the value hdfs in the uri field.
Name |
Description |
API param key |
Default |
|---|---|---|---|
Filesystem url |
The url location of your Hadoop filesystem. |
url |
|
Port |
The port used by your Hadoop filesystem, if any. |
port |
|
Username |
The username linked to the Hadoop filesystem during the authentication procedure. |
username |
|
Password |
The password linked to the Hadoop filesystem during the authentication procedure. |
password |
Azure Blob Storage
This connection allows Rulex Platform to connect to an Azure Storage Account (Blob service) reachable from the hosting machine or from the cloud.
Warning
This connector works only for Azure Storage Account Blob service (1st or 2nd generation).
For Azure Storage Account Files service use the Sharedrive File System connection while for Azure Storage Account Table service define a Database connection by configuring it as a SQL Server database.
The connection parameters needed for this connection are reported in the following table (parameters in bold are mandatory.). To define a Custom connection to an Azure Blob Storage filesystem in Rulex Platform API call use the value astorage in uri field.
Name |
Description |
API param key |
Default |
|---|---|---|---|
Account Storage Name |
The Azure Storage Account name. |
username |
|
Type Key |
The key type used in the connection string. The possible values are: Account Key (sharedkey) or SAS key (signkey). |
auth |
sharedkey |
Connection String |
The connection string used to authenticate to the Azure Storage Account: it is the Access Key if the Account Key type value is Key, while it is the full connection string if SAS key is selected. |
password |
|
Proxy Settings |
A dictionary containing the Proxy settings information if a Proxy needs to be used. For more information see Proxy Panel. |
proxy |
SFTP/S Server
This connection allows Rulex Platform to connect to a SFTP/SFTPS server reachable from the hosting machine or from the cloud.
The connection parameters needed for this connection are reported in the following table (parameters in bold are mandatory.). To define a Custom connection to a SFTP server in Rulex Platform API calls the user must specify the value sftp in the uri field.
Name |
Description |
API param key |
Default |
|---|---|---|---|
Host |
The server host of the chosen sftp location. |
host |
|
Port |
The server port of the chosen sftp location. |
port |
22 |
Username |
The username exchanged with the sftp server during the authentication process. |
username |
|
Password |
The password exchanged with the sftp server during the authentication process. |
password |
Google Drive
This connection allows Rulex Platform to connect to Google drive, reachable from the hosting machine or from the cloud.
The connection parameters needed for this connection are reported in the following table (parameters in bold are mandatory.). To define a Custom connection to a Google Drive filesystem in Rulex Platform API calls the user must specify the value google in the uri field.
Name |
Description |
API param key |
Default |
|---|---|---|---|
Api key |
API key endpoint pointing to the chosen Google Drive filesystem. |
host |
|
Client ID |
Client identifier of the registered application on Google domain. |
username |
|
Client Secret |
Client secret passphrase of the registered application on Google domain. |
password |
|
Refresh Token |
Refresh Token obtained by a client credential OAuth2 flow which can be used to obtain a new access token at any run. |
connstring |
Microsoft Outlook
This connection allows Rulex Platform to connect to a Microsoft Outlook account through Microsoft Graph API, reachable from the hosting machine or from the cloud.
The connection parameters needed for this connection are reported in the following table (parameters in bold are mandatory.). To define a Custom connection to a Microsoft Outlook filesystem in Rulex Platform API calls the user must specify the value outlook in the uri field.
Name |
Description |
API param key |
Default |
|---|---|---|---|
Mail account |
The mail address account to connect. |
url |
|
Client ID |
The client identifier of the delegated application registered on Azure tenant for Microsoft Graph API access (see this section). |
username |
|
Authentication |
The method to use for the authentication. The possible values are: Interactive (interactive) and Refresh Token (refreshtoken). The Interactive method requires the physical confirmation of the user and then cannot be used in CLI/API mode. |
auth |
|
Refresh Token |
The Refresh Token obtained by a client credential OAuth2 flow which can be used to obtain a new access token at any run. (Mandatory if the Authentication type is Refresh Token) |
connstring |
|
Tenant ID |
The identifier of the Azure tenant. |
domain |
|
Save refresh token in vault |
The path to a vault resource used to store the refresh token obtained from an interactive authentication for subsequent use. (only if the Authentication type is Interactive) |
path |
|
Secret Name |
The name of the secret created in the vault to store the refresh token. (only if the Authentication type is Interactive) |
authurl |
Creating a Filesystem Resource¶
To create a Filesystem resource, you need to open the Explorer panel (for more information refer to the corresponding page) and follow the procedure below:
Procedure
Click the Explore Resources icon to open the Explorer panel.
Deactivate the primary resource filter by toggling off on the Primary filter on the upper right side of the Explorer panel to add general resources.
Hover the mouse over the Plus button.
Select Add new Filesystem and a dedicated window will appear on the screen.
Select the Filesystem type you want to connect to (see supported types).
Configure the connection parameters following the provided guide. A test connection will be performed; if unsuccessful, an error message is displayed, offering also the opportunity to continue working anyway.
Type a unique name for the new resource.
Click Create: the new Filesystem resource is now added to the list.
Once the Filesystem resource is defined, it can be referred as a Saved source in any location where a remote connection can be used.
As an example, you’ll find below the most important Filesystem saved connection applications:
Import files tasks (Import Excel, Text file, XML, JSON, PDF, Parquet, Doc).
Export files Tasks (Export Excel, Text file, XML, JSON, PDF, Parquet, Doc).
In any of the applications listed above, it is still possible to define the connection while performing the operation itself, by inserting a Custom connection in the parameters of the section above.