File Format Group

Create a File Format Group datastore to connect to a flat file.

File Format Group datastores support a number of specific configurable options. The options defined in a file format group are inherited by all the individual file formats that it contains. Configure the file format group to match the data in the flat files that you want the software to access while it executes tasks.

Option	Possible values	Description
Name	Alphanumeric characters and underscores	The name of the object. This name appears in the datastores tab and in tasks that use the file format group.
Description	Any text	The description of the file format group.
Agent	The list of agents that have been defined in the agents tab	Specifies the agent that should be used to access this data source.
Location	At Agent (default) and any defined file location objects	At Agent is on the local machine. Any FTP or SFTP file location objects that you set up using the File Locations datastore are also listed here. Note Test connection is always enabled for the file format group datastore, but it is useful only when Location is At Agent.
Root directory	Path name on the SAP Data Services Agent host system	The directory where the source or target files are located. Note The SAP Data Services Agent must also be configured to have access to the directory that contains the source or target files. For more information, see the Agent Guide.
Adaptable Schema	Yes No	Indicates whether the schema of the file formats are adaptable or fixed. Yes indicates that the schema is adaptable. The actual file can contain fewer or more columns than indicated by the file format. If a row contains fewer columns than expected, the software loads null values into the columns missing data. If a row contains more columns than expected, the software ignores the additional data. No indicates that the schema is fixed. The software requires the number of columns in each row to match the number of columns specified in the file format. The default is No. If you select Yes, you must ensure that the selected column delimiter and newline characters do not appear inside the actual data.
Parallel process threads	Integer	Specifies the number of threads for parallel processing, which can improve performance by maximizing CPU usage on the SAP Data Services Agent host system.
Escape Character	Any character sequence or empty	A special character sequence that causes the software to ignore the normal column delimiter. Characters following the escape character sequence are never used as column delimiters. For example, suppose you specify a forward slash as the escape character and a comma as the column delimiter. Then, you must have a forward slash to have a comma appear inside a field.
Null indicator	<Null> or any other character sequence	Special character sequence that the software interprets as NULL data.
Date Format	yyyy.mm.dd or other combinations	The date format for reading or writing date values to and from the file.
Time Format	hh24:mi:ss or other combinations	The time format for reading or writing time values to and from the file.
Date-time Format	yyyy.mm.dd hh24:mi:ss or other combinations	The date-time format for reading or writing date-time values to and from the file.
Language	SAP-supported ISO three-letter language codes or <default>	Select the language from the possible values in the drop-down list. The <default> option sets the language to the system language of the SAP Data Services Agent host system.
Code page	-	Specify the character encoding of character data in the datastore.

SFTP options

Note

If you want to connect to a datastore using SFTP, it is recommended that you do so using the File Location datastore's SFTP option instead of File Format Group's SFTP option. The File Format Group SFTP option may be deprecated in the future. See File Location.

File format group datastores can also be configured to connect to a server using the SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP). When you use SFTP, the SAP Data Services Agent reads or writes the data file through an SSH connection to the host defined in the SFTP options.

Note

When a file is transferred to an external server using SFTP, a copy of the file remains in the Agent root directory.

Option	Possible values	Description
Enable SFTP	Yes No	Enables or disables SFTP connectivity for the file format group.
SFTP host	Alphanumeric characters and periods	The fully-qualified hostname of the SFTP server.
SFTP port	Integer	The port the SAP Data Services Agent uses to connect to the SFTP host.
Use proxy	Yes No	Specifies whether or not to use a proxy configuration when connecting to the SFTP host. The proxy configuration is defined in the SAP Data Services Agent. For more information, see the Agent Guide.
Verify SFTP host	Yes No	Specifies whether to verify the identity of the SFTP server host.
Verification method	Host public key fingerprint Known hosts file	The method to use to verify the identity of the SFTP host. Note When you use known hosts file verification, the SFTP host is verified against the known hosts file configured on the SAP Data Services Agent host machine.
Host public key fingerprint	MD5 checksum	The 128-bit MD5 checksum of the SFTP host's public key.
User name	Alphanumeric characters	The user name used to connect to the SFTP host.
Authentication method	Password Public key	The authentication method used to connect to the SFTP host.
Password	Alphanumeric characters	The password used to connect to the SFTP host. Required only when using the password authentication method.
Private key file name	Folder path and file name	The full folder path and file name of the private key file located on the SAP Data Services Agent host system. We recommend you to keep the keys inside the folder path `<DS_COMMON_DIR>`/conf/keys/sftp. If you do so, map the folder inside your Agent Configuration > Configure Directories as instructed in Managing Allowlisted Directories. Required only when using the public key authentication method. Note SAP Cloud Integration for data services supports key files generated only in the OpenSSH format. Tools such as ssh-keygen can create key files in this format. Other tools, such as PuTTY, may not use the OpenSSH format, and the generated key files will be incompatible.
Decryption passphrase	Alphanumeric characters	The passphrase used to decrypt the private key file. Required only when using the public key authentication method.
Public key file name	Folder path and file name	The full folder path and file name of the private key file located on the SAP Data Services Agent host system. We recommend you to keep the keys inside the folder path `<DS_COMMON_DIR>`/conf/keys/sftp. If you do so, map the folder inside your Agent Configuration > Configure Directories as instructed in Managing Allowlisted Directories. Required only when using the public key authentication method. Note SAP Cloud Integration for data services supports key files generated only in the OpenSSH format. Tools such as ssh-keygen can create key files in this format. Other tools, such as PuTTY, may not use the OpenSSH format, and the generated key files will be incompatible.