Key Capabilities
- Cloud storage integration with both Access Key and SAS Token authentication
- Container-based file organization with upload/download capabilities
- File filtering and masking for selective operations
- Overwrite protection and deletion management for uploaded files
- Optional caching to ensure only new or updated files are downloaded
- Exposure of the uploaded blob’s remote path to the After Send event and as a message header
Overview
Each Azure Blob connector connects to a specified Microsoft Azure storage account. Within the remote storage, you set a single container as the upload target, and a list of containers as the download target. Files that reach the Azure Blob connector in the Arc flow are uploaded to the upload target container, and files found in the download target container are downloaded and entered into the Arc flow. The connector supports upload and download filters to send and receive only specific file names and/or file extensions.Connector Configuration
This section contains all of the configurable connector properties.Settings Tab
Authorization
Settings related to the Azure account used to access the Azure Blob service.Send
Settings related to uploading to the remote storage.Receive
Settings related to downloading from the remote storage.Caching
Settings related to caching and comparing files between multiple downloads.Arc automatically cleans up the resource cache. This process runs in the background during every receive cycle and removes stale cache entries for files that are no longer present on the remote server. This keeps the cache size manageable without requiring any manual action.
By default, files are retained for 30 days, but you can use the ResourceCacheRetentionDays setting in the Other Settings field on the Advanced tab to adjust it to fit your environment. For example, ResourceCacheRetentionDays=15 retains files for 15 days before removing them.
TEST.TXT and test.txt.Advanced Tab
Advanced Settings
Settings not included in the previous categories.Proxy Settings
These are a collection of settings that identify and authenticate to the proxy through which the connection should be routed. By default, this section uses the global settings on the Proxy Settings portion of the Security Settings page. Clear the checkbox to supply settings specific to your connector.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Proxy Type | The protocol used by a proxy-based firewall. |
| Proxy Host | The name or IP address of a proxy-based firewall. |
| Proxy Port | The TCP port for a proxy-based firewall. |
| Proxy User | The user name to use to authenticate with a proxy-based firewall. |
| Proxy Password | A password used to authenticate to a proxy-based firewall. |
| Authentication Scheme | Leave the default None or choose from one of the following authentication schemes: Basic, Digest, Proprietary, or NTLM. |
Logging
Settings that govern the creation and storage of logs.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Log Level | The verbosity of logs generated by the connector. When you request support, set this to Debug. |
| Log Subfolder Scheme | Instructs the connector to group files in the Logs folder according to the selected interval. The Weekly option (which is the default) instructs the connector to create a new subfolder each week and store all logs for the week in that folder. Leaving this setting blank tells the connector to save all logs directly in the Logs folder. For connectors that process many transactions, using subfolders helps keep logs organized and improves performance. |
| Log Messages | Check this to have the log entry for a processed file include a copy of the file itself. If you disable this, you might not be able to download a copy of the file from the Transactions tab. |
Miscellaneous Settings
Miscellaneous settings are for specific use cases.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Other Settings | Enables you to configure hidden connector settings in a semicolon-separated list (for example, setting1=value1;setting2=value2). Normal connector use cases and functionality should not require the use of these settings. |
Automation Tab
Automation Settings
Settings related to the automatic processing of files by the connector.Automation Status
Performance
Settings related to the allocation of resources to the connector.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Max Workers | The maximum number of worker threads consumed from the threadpool to process files on this connector. If set, this overrides the default setting on the Performance Settings portion of the Advanced Settings page. |
| Max Files | The maximum number of files sent by each thread assigned to the connector. If set, this overrides the default setting on the Performance Settings portion of the Advanced Settings page. |
Alerts Tab
SLAs Tab
Establishing a Connection
Establishing a connection to the Azure Blob service requires Azure account credentials:- Account
- AccessKey
Uploading and Downloading
Upload
To upload files, set the Container Name in the Send portion of the Settings page to the container where files should be uploaded. Each Azure Blob connector uploads to a single container. Use the Overwrite remote files option to indicate whether files that already exist in the container should be overwritten or skipped. After configuration is complete, files placed in the connector Transactions tab are uploaded to the remote storage. If Send Automation is enabled, the upload happens automatically; otherwise, you can send individual files from the Transactions tab.After Send Event
After a successful upload, the connector provides the location of the uploaded blob to the After Send event as the following input:
The value is the container name followed by the blob name, for example
/mycontainer/folder/example.xml. The path always begins with a single forward slash and uses forward slashes as separators. Any leading or trailing slashes in Container Name are removed, and macros in Container Name are resolved. The path is not URL-encoded, so characters such as spaces and parentheses appear as they do in the file name.
RemotePath is available only in the After Send event. It does not exist in the Before Send event, because the upload has not happened yet.
This script writes the remote path of each uploaded blob to the Application log:
RemotePath Header
After a successful upload, the connector also adds aRemotePath header to the output message. The header contains the same value that the After Send event receives, and you can view it under Other Headers in the message details.
Because the header is part of the message, a downstream connector attached on the Success Path can read it. To show the Success Path, right-click the Azure Blob connector in the flow and choose Show Success Path. The downstream connector can use the header to log or act on where the blob was stored without reconstructing the path from the connector settings. For example, a Script connector on the Success Path can pass the path to a back-end process that retrieves the file later.
The
RemotePath input and header are set only after a successful upload. They are not set if the upload fails.