ATE Log files at FTP location

[Grey]

Hi,

I built a ATE and saving the Test log files at my Local Hard Disc.

Now my customer is asking to save the log files at ftp site.

I have no idea how to proceed !

I discussed my IT guy and he is saying that we can't link ftp like the local server location.

Honestly saying i do not understand half of his technical speech.

My customer is not having the privilege to access my local server / local hard disc to view the log files.

they demand the info should be at ftp and anybody has dealt this ftp automation before?

My IT guy is ready to provide the ftp username and password to me.

anything i can do using this info in labview to save files to ftp site?

thanks.

[ShaunR]

You will need the LabVIEW Internet Toolkit if you are going to do it from LabVIEW.

e.g.

[hooovahh]

An alternative to the toolkit could be a command line call to FTP the files. I think the toolkit version is the clearest solution, but if all you want to do is this one function you may be able to do it another way. All though it is just $500.

Windows has a built in FTP command line program (just FTP at a command prompt). I've never used it but I assume it has the ability to login to a server and send a file over.

[ShaunR]

An alternative to the toolkit could be a command line call to FTP the files. I think the toolkit version is the clearest solution, but if all you want to do is this one function you may be able to do it another way. All though it is just $500.

Windows has a built in FTP command line program (just FTP at a command prompt). I've never used it but I assume it has the ability to login to a server and send a file over.

I'd forgotten about that.

You can even give it a script filename with all your commands and upload entire directories with the GLOB command.

[crelf]

Yes, these are all good suggestions, but the real solution is that your IT department should provide you with a network drive that's linked to an external FTP server. You said they're not willing to do that - I'd be interested to hear why...

[asbo]

... but the real solution is ...

In this case, I'd qualify "real" as the most cost effective solution. Unless there are serious infrastructure issues, the development time it would take implement this on the LabVIEW side will be many times more than the 15 - 20 minutes it would take to create FTP credentials and a network share.

[crelf]

In this case, I'd qualify "real" as the most cost effective solution.

More "sensible" than anything else. I'm wondering if this is a case of the IT department getting in the way of the business instead of supporting it. There may well be a legit reason for not opening up a folder internally, but I can't think of one right now. It surely can't be a security issue: the external customer would still access the folder via FTP...

[Jordan Kuehn]

I would also suggest (barring an IT solution that does it automatically) continuing to save locally and creating a separate process that monitors the folder for files and attempts to send them to the remote FTP site, only deleting after a successful transfer. This will help you when the network goes down and/or IT screws something up.

[Phillip Brooks]

I don't have a setup to test this right now, but maybe try using Datasocket FTP functionality to write to the FTP server?

No Internet Toolkit, System Exec or windows security configuration required. The LabVIEW app and customer would use the same server and account.

UPDATE:

Just tried using DataSocket with the NI FTP site and received no LV error; the file name appears on the server, but I can't open it...

ftp://anonymous:pbrooks100%40gmail.com@ftp.ni.com/incoming/lavag.txt[text]

[/CODE]

Note that I had to URL encode the @ in my email address as %40 because the @ is the separator between the user info and server name in RFC-1738

DataSocket FTP Write Example.vi (LV 8.6)

Edited July 26, 2012 by Phillip Brooks

[asbo]

Just tried using DataSocket with the NI FTP site and received no LV error; the file name appears on the server, but I can't open it...

You can't open it because NI allows write-only access to /incoming for anonymous users.

[Swinders]

I needed to use SFTP from LabVIEW but finding a vi for this protocol was difficult. Instead I used 'System Exec.vi' to run a '.bat' file that would transfer the required files. The '.bat' file had been created by LabVIEW. Maybe a similar approach could be used for normal ftp instead of buying the Internet Toolkit. Using 'System Exec.vi' you can take the output as a string to check the transfer completed successfully.

[Grey]

I would also suggest (barring an IT solution that does it automatically) continuing to save locally and creating a separate process that monitors the folder for files and attempts to send them to the remote FTP site, only deleting after a successful transfer. This will help you when the network goes down and/or IT screws something up.

Yea.. This is what i'm trying to do.

thanks for this suggestion.