Introduction
File transfer source and target are specified using Fragments elements.
ProtocolFragments are children of the Fragments element and have child elements that specify the parameters such as the authentication method, connection type and proxy.
3-LEVEL FROM FRAGMENTS
ProtocolFragments are protocol specific - that is, there is a ProtocolFragments 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 would be that a PassiveMode element can be specified for an FTPFragment but not for an SFTPFragment.
Any number of ProtocolFragments can be specified within a file transfer configuration.
Operation-dependent source and target elements specify the ProtocolFragments element that is to be used. For example:
- A Copy operation requires that CopySource and CopyTarget elements are specified.
- The CopySource and CopyTarget elements in turn are used to specify CopySourceFragmentRef and CopytargetFragmentRef elements, that respectively define the Fragments to be used for each of the two parts of the operation.
3-LEVEL FROM COPY
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. Validation means that the possibility of configuration errors is greatly reduced.
A Fragment can be used as a source or as a target within the one Configuration.
ProtocolFragments can also be referenced from other fragments:
- AlternativeFragments elements can specify a number of Fragments. These fragments will be applied in order, should, for example a server not be available. For example, it is conceivable that in some situations a less secure protocol would be tried if a secure one is not available.