IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Authoring services in Integration Designer > Services and service-related functions > Access external services with adapters > Configure and using adapters > IBM WebSphere Adapters > FTP

Plan for adapter implementation

To implement the IBM WebSphere Adapter for FTP, you must plan for inbound and outbound processing and consider security and performance requirements.

• Before you begin
  Before you begin to set up and use WebSphere Adapter for FTP, you must possess a thorough understanding of business integration concepts, the capabilities, and requirements of the integration development tools and runtime environment you use.
• Prerequisites and Best Practices for using WebSphere Adapter for FTP
  
• Firewall setting while using FTP server
  The FTP server connection mode is set based on the firewall settings for the FTP server and the adapter.
• Security
  To protect the integrity of information between the FTP server and the adapter, you can configure the adapter with the following secure settings:
• Support for confidential logging and tracing
  

  You can configure the adapter to prevent sensitive or confidential data, in the log and trace files, from being viewed by users without authorization.

• User authentication
  The adapter supports several methods for supplying the user name and password that are needed to connect to the FTP server. By understanding the features and limitations of each method, you can pick a method that provides the appropriate level of security and convenience for your application.
• Deployment options
  There are two ways to deploy the adapter. You can either embed it as part of the deployed application, or you can deploy it as a stand-alone RAR file. The requirements of your environment affect the type of deployment option you choose.
• WebSphere Adapters in clustered environments
  

  You can improve adapter performance and availability by deploying a module on a clustered server environment. Clusters are groups of servers that are managed together to balance workloads and to provide high availability and scalability.

• Adapter customization with Custom Parser Class
  The WebSphere Adapter for FTP uses Apache Commons Net API v2.0 to connect to the FTP server. The adapter works with the servers that provide standard listing format such as most UNIX or Linux built-in servers do. If the FTP server ls -l output is different from the standard format, use the CustomParserClassname property and set an appropriate class name to parse the output. The CustomParserClassName property, which is in the activation specification and in the managed connection factory, must contain the complete path of the class.
• Migrating to version 7.5.0.3 of WebSphere Adapter for FTP
  By migrating to version 7.5.0.3 of WebSphere Adapter for FTP, you automatically upgrade from the previous version of the adapter. Additionally, you can migrate your applications that embed an earlier version of the adapter, so that the applications can use features and capabilities present in version 7.5.0.3.
• Migrating WebSphere Business Integration applications
  

  You need to migrate the WebSphere Business Integration applications so that they become compatible with Version 7.5.0.3 of your adapter.

WebSphere Adapter for FTP documentation

Next topic: Configure the module for deployment