Using the SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) site to create/update/delete user data saves you the task of logging in to Jostle to upload and allows you to automate/schedule a task in your server to run the imports/deletions into your Jostle platform.
NOTES
- The first half of this article covers the SFTP setup for Windows.
- The second half covers the setup for macOS.
- Jostle can support more than one key, but they can only be OpenSSH formatted RSA keys.
SFTP setup (Windows)
For the purposes of this article we're going to use the WinSCP client*, as it also contains PuTTYgen, which can be used to create the public and private keys. However, there are a number of similar tools that can provide these functions as well, so you are encouraged to research WinSCP along with some other tools before deciding which one to use.
1. Generate and send a key
1. Download and install WinSCP
2. Open WinSCP, click Tools and select “Run PuTTYgen”
3. On the PuTTY Key Generator, ensure the Parameters are set to RSA and 2048, then click Generate and follow the prompts to generate the public key.
4. Once it is generated, copy the public key and save it in Notepad or similar text file.
5. Create and confirm a passphrase (password) and then click Save private key. This will save the private key on your hard drive (as a .ppk file).
6. Next, send an email to support@jostle.me requesting an SFTP account. Indicate you will send the public key via File Transfer (do NOT send the public key via email or support ticket).
7. To do the File Transfer, fill out the form here and click Continue. Then select Recipient: support and upload the public key file you saved earlier in Notepad.
8. Jostle will then set up your SFTP account and folders and place a dummy of the setup.txt file in the config folder. When it's ready you'll receive a confirmation email along with a Username (this will most likely be the customer name, but all in lower case).
2. Complete setup
1. After receiving your confirmation email and Username, open WinSCP, and on the Login screen, verify the following settings: File protocol: SFTP and Port number:22.
2. In the Host name field enter: sftp.jostle.us. Then enter your Username and the password you created when you saved the private key. Then click “Advanced”.
3. Select "Authentication" from the category tree on the left, then go to the Private key file field and use the browse button to locate and add the private key file (.ppk) you saved earlier. Click OK.
4. Return to the Login screen and click the Login button to connect to your account on the SFTP server. Update the contents of the setup.txt file (in the config folder) and then begin testing.
Continue here for the SFTP server setup.
Continue here to learn about the SFTP server files and folder structure.
SFTP setup (macOS)
1. Generate a key
To access the SFTP folders you will need to generate an SSH key, which will contain two files: a public key (which you will share with Jostle) and a private key.
To do this you will need to use Terminal , the terminal emulator which provides a text-based command line interface to the Unix shell of macOS.
To open the macOS Terminal:
- Navigate to the folder where you want to store your Public and Private Keys
- In Finder, go to the Applications folder and select Utilities.
- In the Utilities list, locate and open Terminal.
The Terminal window will open with the command line prompt displaying the name of your machine and your username.
To generate an SSH key in macOS:
1. Enter the following command in the Terminal window.
This starts the key generation process. After you execute this command, the ssh-keygen utility prompts you to indicate where to store the key (you will also be able to name your files).
2. Press the ENTER key to accept the default location. The ssh-keygen utility prompts you for a passphrase.
3. Type in a passphrase. Make sure you save it somewhere for future use.
NOTE—You will need to enter the passphrase a second time to continue.
4. After you confirm the passphrase, the system generates the key pair and you’ll see a screen similar to the below image.
The files will be <given_file_name> and <given_file_name>.pub. The file with the “.pub” extension is the public key file that you will share with Jostle. Save it to your clipboard by running this:
5. Next, send an email to support@jostle.me requesting an SFTP account. Indicate you will send the public key via File Transfer (do NOT send the public key via email or support ticket).
6. To do the File Transfer, fill out the form here and click Continue. Then select Recipient: support and upload the public key file you saved earlier.
7. Jostle will then set up your SFTP account and folders and place a dummy of the setup.txt file in the config folder. When it's ready you'll receive a confirmation email along with a Username (this will most likely be the customer name, but all in lower case).
2. Complete setup
For the next portion you will need to use an FTP client. For the purposes of this article, Filezilla was used for the workflow and screenshots.
1. Open Filezilla and click on the Site Manager icon in the top left corner.
2. On the left side of the Site Manager screen, select the New Site button.
3. On the right side of the screen, go to the Protocol field, click the arrows and select SFTP - SSH File Transfer Protocol
4. In the Host field, type: sftp.jostle.us
5. For Logon Type, click the arrows and select Key file.
6. Click Browse to locate and select your private key file (the file without the ".pub" extension). A prompt will appear asking you to convert the file. Select Yes.
7. For the next prompt, enter your password/passphrase (that you previously created above) and then click OK.
8. On the next screen, name your converted file and click Save.
9. Return to the Site Manager screen and click Connect to connect to your account on the SFTP server.
Now you can update the contents of the setup.txt file (in the config folder) and then begin testing.
Continue here for the SFTP server setup.
Continue here to learn about the SFTP server files and folder structure.
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