Send orders by FTP, FTPS or SFTP

You need a supplier, the server details your supplier gives you, and a sample of the order file your supplier expects.

Connect to your supplier's server

1. On the supplier's page, click Add action and choose FTP Upload.

2. Choose the protocol your supplier uses: FTP, FTPS (implicit SSL) or SFTP.

3. Enter your supplier's server details and save.

4. In the FTP Upload settings, test the connection. Dropday writes a test file to the server.

5. If your supplier's server only accepts known addresses, give your supplier the IP addresses Dropday shows there.

Have Dropday set up the order file

A Dropday employee sets up the file's content, file type, file name and character encoding for you; you don't change them in your settings.

1. In the FTP Upload settings, click Choose file under Upload sample file and upload a sample of the order file your supplier expects. It must be an .xml, .csv, .txt or .json file. Dropday takes the file type from its extension, and Dropday support is notified.

   Make sure the sample contains everything your files need, such as the layout and your supplier's fixed values: Dropday builds the template from it.

2. Before you send orders to this supplier, check that the settings say the file is approved by a Dropday employee. Until then, they say it's waiting for approval.

The file can be XML, CSV, TXT or JSON, in the character encoding your supplier needs. It can follow almost any layout a supplier prescribes, such as a pipe- or tab-delimited file with many fixed fields and a header or trailer line with totals.

Check the file before going live

FTP Upload doesn't send test orders, and Dropday creates no order file for a test order, so your supplier receives the first file with a real order.

To see a file first, ask Dropday for an example. To receive a real file yourself, add a separate test supplier with the same file template and your own FTP server, and place a real order for it: the file then arrives on your server, not at the real supplier.

What a test can and can't show for FTP is explained in A test order did not arrive by FTP or API.

What your supplier receives

When an order comes in with order lines a rule assigns to this supplier, this connection puts one file on the server with that order's lines for this supplier. If you turned on Hold order for review for the supplier, the file is sent once you approve the order.

Each order is sent separately as it arrives: Dropday doesn't collect orders into batches or send them at a fixed time.

By default the file is named after the order number. If a file with the same name is already on the server, Dropday replaces it.

If your supplier has special file requirements

• Two files per order (for example a header file and a lines file): add two FTP Upload actions to the same supplier. The two files share no sequence number, and one can arrive while the other doesn't.

• A sequence number in the file name: a consecutive sequence number isn't available. The file name can use the order number, which is unique but not consecutive per supplier, or the date and time.

• EDIFACT: to send orders as EDIFACT ORDERS messages, follow Send EDIFACT order files, which also covers ANSI X12 850.

• A CSV file attached to an email: you set that up yourself as an order file, where you choose the columns.

Files from your supplier

FTP Upload only sends files to your supplier. Dropday doesn't read or collect files from your supplier's server.

Next, create a rule that assigns order lines to this supplier.