Create a local file target in Jitterbit Design Studio

Introduction

A Local File on a private agent can be used as a target in Jitterbit. It must reside on the machine where the private agent is installed, and cannot be used with cloud agents. (See Temporary Storage target for an approach applicable for cloud agents.)

Any file type can be used. Commonly-used types for local files are text (.txt), CSV (.csv), XML (.xml), and JSON (.json).

Prerequisite

Before you can use a Local File target, you must have enabled Local File Location on your Jitterbit private agent. See Enabling local file location for details.

Create a local file target

You can choose to create a new local file target on its own, or within an existing operation. For more information on how sources and targets work within operations, see Creating an operation.

Create a new local file target as a standalone target

Within your project in Jitterbit Design Studio, you create a new File Share target by any of:

• Go to File > New > New Target; or

• In the tree on the left, right-click on Targets and select New Target; or

• In the top toolbar, click the blue target icon .

In the popup, select File Share as the type:

Your new target appears in its own New Target tab in the right pane of the window.

Create a new local file target in an existing operation

A target is usually created by default when you create a new operation. (The exception is an operation that consists only of a script.) With an existing operation, you can specify the type of its target by:

• Double-clicking on the target icon; in the popup, select Create New Target; or

• Right-clicking on the target icon and selecting Create New Target.

In the configuration screen that appears, use the Type dropdown to select Local File, as shown above.

Use an existing local file target in an existing operation

To use an existing Local File target in an existing operation with a target, you can set it by any of:

• Within the operation, double-clicking on the target icon, and in the resulting popup, selecting the desired Local File target from the list; or

• Within the operation, right-clicking on the target icon, choosing Select Existing Target, and in the resulting popup, selecting the desired Local File target from the list; or

• Dragging the desired Local File target from the tree on the left and dropping it onto the existing target icon of the operation.

Configure a local file target

After you have created a Local File target, the configuration screen will open in the main view of Design Studio. You can return to the configuration screen at any time by double-clicking on the target icon in the operation, or by double-clicking on the target in the tree on the left.

Basic configuration

The configuration screen will appear similar to this example:

• Name: Enter an appropriate, unique name for the target.
• Type: Use the dropdown to select Local File, if it is not already specified.

• Connection Parameters: Specify the details for your Local File connection:

  • Browse: The Browse button, if enabled, can be used to quickly enter the folder path. It can only be used if the Jitterbit agent is installed locally on the same machine that Design Studio is running on. If this option is disabled, you may need to enable local files as described in Enabling local file location. If you select a folder or file using Browse, the Folder(s)—and possibly Filename(s)—fields will automatically be populated.

  • Folder(s): Enter a local path on the machine where the Jitterbit agent is installed that points to the folder where the target file(s) are to reside.

    • The path may not contain any of these characters: \~ % $ ? " \< > :
    • The path separators ('/'or '\') used must be appropriate for the OS of the machine where the private agent is installed.
    • Multiple paths can be specified using comma-delimited values. If multiple paths are specified, the same file is written to multiple locations.

  • Filename(s): Enter the desired name for the target file(s). Variables may be used in this field. If specifying a compressed file (ZIP), see the "Compression" section of the additional connection parameters under Options below. The file will automatically be written into the archive at the root level. (Required.)

• Test Connection: Clicking the button will test the Local File target and check that a connection to the specified folder can be made; it will fail if the path is not a valid path on the operating system where the Jitterbit agent is running. If you receive an error, make sure you have enabled local files as described in Enabling local file location.

• Click the Save button in either the main toolbar or the target's toolbar to save the configuration.

Options

Additional connection parameters can be specified by clicking the Options at the bottom of the Connection Parameters section:

• End of Line Type: Determines how Jitterbit writes line breaks when writing to a target. Note that end-of-line characters in the data will not be converted. Available options:

  • Default: Standard end-of-line characters for the platform the agent is running on.
  • Windows: CRLF (ASCII 13 and ASCII 10)
  • Unix: LF (ASCII 10)

• Write Headers: If checked and a flat text target, a header of column/field names will be written as the first line.

• Do not Create Empty Files: If checked, creating the target file will be skipped if there is no target data.
• Auto Create Directories: If checked, any intermediate directories required to complete the paths (as specified above in Connection Parameters) will be created automatically.
• Character Encoding: Used to specify a character encoding for the target file. If left blank, Jitterbit will attempt to detect the encoding. To specify a different encoding than that default, insert one of the supported encodings described in Supported character encodings.

• Success/Error Folder: Specifies if success and/or error folders will be used to archive a copy of all files processed.

  • If a success folder is specified, upon successfully processing the target, a copy of the file will be written to a file in that folder.
  • The file will be named the same as that specified in Filename(s) field above, but with a trailing underscore and a timestamp added. If there is already a file with the same name in that folder, an additional underscore and a counter will be added.
  • Example: if a file named data.csv is successfully processed, a copy named data.csv_2018-01-01_12-00-00-000 could be written to the folder specified as the Success Folder. If such a file already exists from a previous run, a new file data.csv_2018-01-01_12-00-00-000_1 would be added.
  • In a similar fashion, if an error folder is specified, any files that fail will be written to a file in the Error Folder.

• Compression: If the checkbox for Compress target files is selected, target files will be compressed using the ZIP format. Additional options are:

  • Filename(s) in archive: Accepts variables and filename keywords. To keep the filename in the archive the same as the filename defined in the target, use a format of [file].[ext] as shown above.
  • Mode: One of Overwrite or Append. Overwrite will overwrite an existing archive. For non-encrypted archives, Append will add files to an existing archive. This mode is only available for Local File (and Temporary Storage) targets.
  • Password: For encrypted archives, supply a password.
  • Encryption mode: If a password is supplied, two encryption modes are available: AES or Standard ZIP.