One way to automatically retrieve data from your learning site is to set up nightly data transfers to an SFTP. But how can you use an SFTP, or maybe you're asking what IS an SFTP? In this article, we will define SFTP and understand how and when to use this automation in data transfers.
Use Case Information
In your platform, you have three ways to pull data out of the system using the Thought Industries Notifications feature:
- Email.
- Real time Webhooks.
- Posting nightly to SFTP.
A common use case for setting up Notifications is not only to connect to yourself about certain learner-triggers happening in your system, via the email option, but to connect this information to another piece of software you may already be using, such as your CRM.
Note
For a complete list of learner triggers to receive a notifications about, please refer to this article for more details on this area of the platform.
What is an SFTP?
SFTP is a secure file transfer protocol that uses secure shell encryption to provide a high level of security for sending sensitive data across the web. So in other words, no data is sent in clear text, rather, it's all encrypted. Once you set up SFTP on an SFTP server, you will begin receiving nightly posts of particular events to a secure client FTP, in either CSV or JSON format. You can then pull data from the SFTP to easily integrate with third party programs.
When to use SFTP data transfers
The Thought Industries Notifications feature is actually an Admin Notification feature, used to notify Admins when something happens in the platform. Provided for you in this area of the platform is a large list of triggers that you can use to not only notify your Admins, but to use automated options, such as the SFTP data transfer, to send information to various third party systems you may be already using. There are many clever ways to use SFTP, let's look at one below:
- You have learners that are "inactive" in your platform for 7, 14, or even 31 days. You can receive this trigger that they are inactive via SFTP and then take that information over to your CRM to perhaps email those learners with a coupon incentivizing them to come back to your site and consume content!
Configuring SFTP
To Configure SFTP Data Transfers in your platform:
- From your homepage, select Users > Notifications.
- In the left menu, select Manager Notifications.
- Click Add Notification.
- Choose the trigger to be notified about.
- Once your selection is made, you will be prompted to select your preferred format. Click SFTP.
- Enter the appropriate SFTP address and select a notification format (CSV or JSON).
- You can also choose to be notified about a specific course, but the default setting applies to all courses within your learning site.
- Click Test Event.
- Once you've received your sample, click Save Notification.
Note
SFTP transfers are fired at 2am (based on your instance's time zone) and will contain all events from the previous day. For example, the SFTP transfer sent at 2am on Friday will contain all of Thursday's events.
Tip
You can download a sample CSV or JSON file for any particular event by clicking on that event and then Download Sample CSV or Download Sample JSON. If the sample is empty, you may need to trigger that event within the learning site.