Directory Browser

This Snap browses a given directory path from various sources (such as FTP, FTPS, SFTP, SLDB and S3) and lists the attributes (such as Name, Type, Size, Last Modification Time) of the contents (files or sub-folders).

Note:

You must install the AzCopy utility, if you use the ABFS (Azure Blob File Storage) file protocol Azure Data Lake Gen 2 for bulk operation. The utility must be installed in Snaplex to fetch the file path. If the path is null, the native Azure Storage SDK is used for all operations. Learn more about the AzCopy command. If AzCopy Utility is not installed for ABS file transfer, the file transfer will not be as fast as using AzCopy because a REST call will be invoked for each file content instead of a bulk operation.

The SnapLogic Platform does not support the installation of utilities or processes on Cloudplexes. Learn more.

Important:

We plan to introduce additional S3 features exclusively in Amazon S3 Snaps, while Binary Snaps with S3 support will not contain these updates. Therefore, we recommend you to use the Amazon S3 Snap Pack for all your S3 operations within your pipelines. However, Binary Snaps will be retained as is to maintain backward compatibility, but be aware that we will no longer provide S3 support for the Binary Snaps.

Learn more: Migrate from Binary to S3 Snaps.



Prerequisites

IAM Roles for Amazon EC2

The 'IAM_CREDENTIAL_FOR_S3' feature is used to access S3 files from EC2 Groundplex, without Access-key ID and Secret key in the AWS S3 account in the Snap. The IAM credential stored in the EC2 metadata is used to gain access rights to the S3 buckets. To enable this feature, set the Global properties (Key-Value parameters) and restart the JCC:jcc.jvm_options = -DIAM_CREDENTIAL_FOR_S3=TRUE

This feature is supported in the EC2-type Groundplex only. Learn more.

Connect to FTP server:

To connect to the FTP server that needs to reuse the session for data transfer over TLS protocol, add:
-DFTPS_SSL_TLS_PROTOCOL=TLSV1.2  (or) TLSV1.3
property as a JVM option under the Global properties of the Node Properties tab:

Known issues

  • This Snap Pack does not natively support SHA1-based algorithms to connect to SFTP endpoints. With the August 2023 GA release, you can now leverage the properties specified in the Configuration settings for Snaps to add support for ones that are disabled on your Snaplex.

Snap views

View Description Examples of upstream and downstream Snaps
Input (binary) Directory Path to be browsed and File Filter Pattern to be applied. It contains values for the directory path to be browsed and the GLOB filter to be applied to select the contents.
Output (binary) The attributes (name, size, and so on) of the contents of the directory path matching the filter pattern. This Snap provides the various attributes (such as Name, Type, Size, Owner, Last Modification Time) of the contents of the given directory path. Only those contents are selected that match the given GLOB filter.
Error

Error handling is a generic way to handle errors without losing data or failing the Snap execution. You can handle the errors that the Snap might encounter when running the pipeline by choosing one of the following options from the When errors occur list under the Views tab. The available options are:

  • Stop Pipeline Execution Stops the current pipeline execution when an error occurs.
  • Discard Error Data and Continue Ignores the error, discards that record, and continues with the remaining records.
  • Route Error Data to Error View Routes the error data to an error view without stopping the Snap execution.

Learn more about Error handling in Pipelines.

Snap settings

Legend:
  • Expression icon (): Allows using JavaScript syntax to access SnapLogic Expressions to set field values dynamically (if enabled). If disabled, you can provide a static value. Learn more.
  • SnapGPT (): Generates SnapLogic Expressions based on natural language using SnapGPT. Learn more.
  • Suggestion icon (): Populates a list of values dynamically based on your Snap configuration. You can select only one attribute at a time using the icon. Type into the field if it supports a comma-separated list of values.
  • Upload : Uploads files. Learn more.
Learn more about the icons in the Snap settings dialog.
Field / Field set Type Description
Label String

Required. Specify a unique name for the Snap. Modify this to be more appropriate, especially if more than one of the same Snaps is in the pipeline.

Default value: Directory Browser

Example: Directory Browser
Directory String/Expression Specify the URL for the data source (directory) that should begin with a protocol. Following are the protocols that are currently supported:
  • adls Gen 2 Storage
  • adl:
  • file:
  • ftp:
  • ftps:
  • sftp:
  • hdfs:
  • smb:
  • gs:
  • sldb:
  • s3:
  • wasb:
  • wasbs:

Default value: N/A

Examples:

  • Read the file from a location of the storage: adl://storename/folder/filename

  • If the Snap is executed in the Windows Groundplex and needs to access D: drive): file:///D:/testFolder/

  • ftp://ftp.mock.com/vehicles

  • If the bucket name is 'testBucket': gs:///testBucket/testDir/

  • project-name

  • s3:///<S3_bucket_name>@s3.<region_name>.amazonaws.com/<path>

  • File in VPC: s3:///snaplogic-bucket@bucket.vpce-0e340d8d5b0eae90a-k9wbom46-us-west-2a.s3.us-west2.vpce.amazonaws.com

  • sftp://sftp.mock.com/students/grades/

  • share

  • sldb:///shared

  • sldb:///project-name

  • If the target folder is /share/folder in server: smb://server/share/folder/

  • If the name of the container is 'Snaplogic': wasb:///Snaplogic/testDir/

    or wasbs:///Snaplogic/testDir/

File filter String/Expression Specify the Glob pattern for filtering the files. The Glob pattern can be applied to select the contents (files/sub-folders) of the directory. You cannot recursively navigate through the directory structures.

Default value: N/A

Example:

  • *.txt

  • ab????xx.*x

  • *.[jJ][sS][oO][nN]
Ignore empty result Checkbox Select this checkbox to enable the Snap to not write a document to the output view when the result is empty.
Deselect this checkbox in the following cases:
  • If the Snap receives an input document, the input document is passed through to the output view.
  • If the Snap does not receive an input document, an empty document is written to the output view.

Default status: Selected
Display update time and owner for S3 subdirectories Checkbox Applicable only for S3 directory.

If selected, the Snap produces Update time and Owner attributes in the output documents for S3 subdirectories. However, it may take a long time or even freeze if there are very large number of files and subdirectories in the file structure under the specified S3 directory. This is because the Snap has to completely examine the S3 objects under the directory recursively in order to get Update time and Owner attributes for subdirectories.

If not selected, the Snap does not produce Update time and Owner attributes in the output documents for S3 subdirectories. Snap output is faster since it examines only S3 files and subdirectories immediately under the specified S3 directory.

Default status: Selected
Number of retries Integer/Expression

Specify the maximum number of retry attempts in case of a network failure.

Minimum value: 0

Default value: 0

Example: 3
Retry interval (seconds) Integer/Expression Specify the minimum number of seconds the Snap must wait before attempting recovery from a network failure.

Minimum value: 1

Default value: 1

Example: 3
Advanced properties Use this field set to define specific settings for directory browsing.

SAS URI

 Dropdown list Specify the URI of the Shared Access Storage (SAS) you need to access. You can generate the SAS URI either from the SAS Generator Snap or from the Azure portal → Shared access signature.
The supported SAS types are:

  • Service SAS on a container

  • Service SAS on blob

Warning:

  • Ensure that the URI is specified in the format described here.

  • If you provide SAS URI in this field, then:
    • the Primary access key given in the account settings is overridden while authentication. If you do not provide the SAS URI, the Snap considers the Primary access key in the account settings.
    • Only this URL is used and the Snap ignores the SAS URI settings that you have configured in the associated account.

Default value: N/A

Example: https://myaccount.blob.core.windows.net/sascontainer/sasblob.txt?sv=2015-04-05&st=2015-04-29T22%3A18%3A26Z&se=2015-04-30T02%3A23%3A26Z&sr=b&sp=rw&sip=168.1.5.60-168.1.5.70&spr=https&sig=Z%2FRHIX5Xcg0Mq2rqI3OlWTjEg2tYkboXr1P9ZUXDtkk%3D
Use fast file-type check for wasb/wasbs protocols String/Expression Specifies whether the Snap can use a fast file-type check while browsing through a given file/directory path (for WASB and WASBS file protocols).

Set this field of the Snap to true to save execution times when working with WASB and WASBS file protocols.

Warning: Snap execution results may not be accurate when using this field. Set this field to true if longer execution times are not a constraint.

Default value: N/A
Snap execution Dropdown list
Choose one of the three modes in which the Snap executes. Available options are:
  • Validate & Execute: Performs limited execution of the Snap and generates a data preview during pipeline validation. Subsequently, performs full execution of the Snap (unlimited records) during pipeline runtime.
  • Execute only: Performs full execution of the Snap during pipeline execution without generating preview data.
  • Disabled: Disables the Snap and all Snaps that are downstream from it.

Default value: Execute only

Example: Validate & Execute