SFTP Authenticate an Element

You can authenticate with SFTP to create your own instance of the SFTP element directly via hostname and port number. Once authenticated, you can use the element instance to access the different functionality offered by the SFTP platform. For more information about generating private keys, see our documentation.

Create Instance Directly via Hostname and Port Number

The following is required to create a SFTP element Instance:

• Hostname: e.g. cm.mycoolapp.com
• Port e.g. 22
• SFTP Username
• SFTP Password
• Home Directory e.g. / or /home

Step 1. Create an Instance

To provision your SFTP element, use the /instances API.

Below is an example of the provisioning API call.

• HTTP Headers: Authorization- User , Organization
• HTTP Verb: POST
• Request URL: /instances
• Request Body: Required – see below

token is returned upon successful execution of this API. This token needs to be retained by the application for all subsequent requests involving this element instance.

A sample request illustrating the /instances API is shown below.

HTTP Headers:

Authorization: User <INSERT_USER_SECRET>, Organization <INSERT_ORGANIZATION_SECRET>

This instance.json file must be included with your instance request. Please fill your information to provision. The “key” into Cloud Elements SFTP is "sftp". This will need to be entered in the “key” field below depending on which element you wish to instantiate.

{
  "element": {
    "key": "sftp"
  },
  "configuration" : {
      "hostname": "<INSERT_SFTP_HOSTNAME_EG_cm.mycoolapp.com>",
      "port": "<INSERT_SFTP_PORT_EG_22>",
      "username": "<INSERT_DATABASE_USERNAME>",
      "password":  "<INSERT_DATABASE_PASSWORD>",
      "home_directory": "<INSERT_SFTP_HOME_DIRECTORY_EG_/home>"
  },
  "tags": [
    "<INSERT_TAGS>"
  ],
  "name": "<INSERT_INSTANCE_NAME>"
}

Here is an example cURL command to create an instance using /instances API.

Example Request:

curl -X POST
-H 'Authorization: User <INSERT_USER_SECRET>, Organization <INSERT_ORGANIZATION_SECRET>'
-H 'Content-Type: application/json'
-d @instance.json
'https://api.cloud-elements.com/elements/api-v2/instances'

If the user does not specify a required config entry, an error will result notifying her of which entries she is missing.

Below is a successful JSON response:

{
  "id": 1234,
  "name": "Test",
  "token": "VAnlQ/V28PT+M62kdajlsd90eHHtUJai+Efq8=",
  "element": {
    "id": 2753,
    "name": "SFTP element Beta",
    "key": "sftp",
    "description": "Add a sftp Instance to connect your existing sftp account to the Documents Hub, allowing you to manage all of your Document activities across multiple Documents elements. You will need your sftp account information to add an instance.",
    "image": "elements/provider_sftp.png",
    "active": true,
    "deleted": false,
    "typeOauth": false,
    "trialAccount": false,
    "configDescription": "Sftp",
    "transformationsEnabled": false,
    "bulkDownloadEnabled": false,
    "bulkUploadEnabled": false,
    "cloneable": false,
    "authentication": {
      "type": "basic"
    },
    "hub": "documents",
    "protocolType": "sftp",
    "parameters": [],
    "private": false
  },
  "provisionInteractions": [],
  "valid": true,
  "disabled": false,
  "maxCacheSize": 0,
  "cacheTimeToLive": 0,
  "configuration": {
    "event.notification.subscription.id": null,
    "password": "********",
    "hostname": "cm.mycoolapp.com",
    "event.poller.refresh_interval": "15",
    "event.notification.callback.url": null,
    "port": "22",
    "home_directory": "/home",
    "event.notification.signature.key": null,
    "event.vendor.type": "polling",
    "event.poller.configuration": "",
    "username": "USERNAME",
    "event.notification.enabled": "false"
  },
  "eventsEnabled": false,
  "traceLoggingEnabled": false,
  "cachingEnabled": false,
  "externalAuthentication": "none"
}

Note: Make sure you have straight quotes in your JSON files and cURL commands. Please use plain text formatting in your code. Make sure you do not have spaces after the in the cURL command.

Instance Configuration

The content in the configuration section or nested object in the body posted to the POST /instances or PUT /instances/{id} APIs varies depending on which element is being instantiated. However, some configuration properties are common to all elements and available to be configured for all elements. These properties are -

• event.notification.enabled: This property is a boolean property, and determines if event reception (via webhook or polling) is enabled for the element instance. This property defaults to false.
• event.vendor.type: When event.notification.enabled property is set to true, this property determines the mechanism to use to receive or fetch changed events from the service endpoint. The supported values are webhook and polling. Most elements support one mechanism or the other, but some like Salesforce.com support both mechanisms. This property is optional.
• event.notification.type: This property can be used to determine how an event notification should be sent to the consumer of the element instance, in most cases your application. Currently, webhook is the only supported value for this property. This means that when an event is received by the element instance, it will get forwarded to the provided event.notification.callback.url via a webhook to you. This property is optional.
• event.notification.callback.url: As mentioned above, the value of this property is an http or https URL to which we will post the event for consumption by your application. This property is optional.
• filter.response.nulls: This property defaults to true, i.e., it's boolean property, and determines if null values in the response JSON should or should not be filtered from the response returned to the consuming application. By default, all null values are filtered from the response before sending the response to the consuming application.