Forum Discussion

karolis_devyzis's avatar
karolis_devyzis
Regular Visitor
9 years ago

connection with ftp

Hello,   I know that Power BI should connect to FTP, but I tried several URLs (ftp://ftp.mirror.nl/ ftp://ftp.2600.com) and it does not work. I get the message "Details: "Web.Contents failed to get...
SimenJ's avatar
SimenJ
Frequent Visitor
9 years ago

I have succeeded in using FTP as a  source. I have a .txt file being refreshed several times a day from a third party and I just connect using the csv/txt connector and then input the URL of the file as location (ftp://<server>/<folder>/<filename.txt>).

 

Only problem is that the data gateway does not support refreshing from a ftp.

 

So the workaround was to dump ftp as a direct source in Power BI. Instead, I have used MS Flow to copy the file to a folder on a fileshare whenever there is a new file coming in to the FTP location. Then I can use the .txt file in that folder in my model and set up scheduled refresh of my model from the folder location.

SQLMonger's avatar
SQLMonger
Advocate II
8 years ago

In doing research for a project I came across your post, and later a solution that may work for you as well.

 

The trick is to use Microsoft Flow to copy any new files from the FTP/SFTP server to a OneDrive for Business folder where Power Query can iterate over the contents and load them all to your model.

 

Here are some links that should prove useful:

 

https://us.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/galleries/public/templates/5caa8fc029b511e6b7009f7c26ddd4e2/ftp-server-to-onedrive-for-business/

 

https://us.flow.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/shared_sftp/sftp/

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4dCLtQ53pA 

 

Cheers,

 

SQLMonger