Read a File Using the SFTP Connector Example - Mule 4

Anypoint Connector for SFTP (SFTP Connector) provides a Read operation that reads a file at any point in the flow. The operation reads the file in the given path and returns a Mule message with the following attributes:

The file’s content as the payload
The file’s metadata in the message attributes
If the file does not exist, you receive an SFTP:ILLEGAL_PATH error

Note that the operation does not read directories.

Configure the Read Operation in Studio

To add and configure the Read operation in Studio, follow these steps:

In the Mule Palette view, search for sftp and select the Read operation.
Drag the Read operation onto the Studio canvas.
In the General tab of the operation configuration screen, click the plus sign (+) next to the Connector configuration field to access the global element configuration fields.
Specify the connection information and click OK.
In the General tab, set the File Path field to the path of the file to read, for example, #[path].
In the Advanced tab, set the MIME Type field to application/xml and the Encoding field to ISO 10646/Unicode(UTF-8).

The following screenshot shows the Read operation configuration:

Figure 1. Read operation configuration

In the XML editor, the <sftp:read> configuration looks like this:

<sftp:read path="#[path]"
  lock="true|false"
  outputEncoding="UTF-8"
  outputMimeType="application/xml" />

Transactions Per Second

The following table compares the total requests per second (TPS) and average success TPS for the Read operation of the SFTP Connector versions:

Connector version	Mule runtime engine version	Total requests for v1.6.1	Total requests for v2.0.1	Average success TPS for v1.6.1	Average success TPS for v2.0.0	Percentage of decreased TPS performance
1.6.1 vs 2.0.0	4.4.1	301,377.40	247,614.40	1,674	1,375.60	-18
1.6.1 vs 2.0.0	4.5.0	326,915.80	247,296.20	1,816	1,374	-24

MIME Types and Encoding

Each connector tries to determine a file’s MIME type from its extension. You can force the MIME type to a different value with the MIME Type (outputMimeType) parameter.

The same process works for encoding. By default, the connector assumes that the default encoding in the Mule runtime matches the MIME type of the file, however, you can set the encoding through the Encoding (outputEncoding) parameter.

Why MIME Types Matter

DataWeave expressions are embeddable inside operations that generate payloads and other values. Having the correct MIME type set helps DataWeave auto-assign types and also generate the correct outputs. Also, maximizing the use of DataSense’s functionality improves the user experience.

File Locks

File system level locks are not possible in FTP or SFTP, so each operation uses a Mule lock that protects only the file from other flows in the same Mule application. These locks do not protect the file from external processes. However, if the Mule application is running on a cluster, the lock is distributed.

The file lock is automatically released when any of the following occurs:

The Mule flow that locked the file ends
The file content has been fully read

If the file is already locked by someone else, the connector cannot unlock it, resulting in a FTP:FILE_LOCK error.