This section describes the FTP/EWSD agent. This is a collection agent for batch workflow configurations.

Prerequisites

The reader of this information should be familiar with:

• The Siemens SAMAR OneFileView file handling

• Standard FTP (RFC 959, http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc0959.txt

The FTP/EWSD agent enables collection of cyclic files from Siemens EWSD switches into the workflow, by using the FTP protocol.

When the workflow is activated, the FTP/EWSD agent connects to the configured FTP service and requests information about the cyclic file by using the LIST FTP command. The switch returns information about the cyclic file. The agent compares the returned information field values COPY-DATA-BEGIN and LAST-RELEASE with its internal state. If LAST-RELEASE has the same value that the agent holds, the agent deletes the cyclic file with the FTP delete command DELE, and thereby releases the currently established copy space.

The agent then retrieves the file contents with RETR and inserts it into the workflow. The RETR command establishes a new copy space. When all the data is successfully collected into the workflow, the agent generates another  LIST  command in order to retrieve the value of COPY-DATA-BEGIN and of LAST-RELEASE. The agent saves these values and then generates the DELE command to release the space of the collected data.

Multiple File View Option

In the Multiple File View mode, the cyclic file is sliced into sections (slices).

By checking Automatic Seq No Assignment you enable the agent to automatically set these sequence numbers. The agent connects to the configured FTP service and searches from the ACTIVE file slice, backwards, to the oldest file slice in the FILLED state. The agent then collects all the file slices, from the oldest to the most recent file slice.

The section contains the following subsections: