How to connect to FTP with Tableau Prep

It is common to use FTP as a file transfer mechanism between businesses. Tableau Prep cant connect to FTP out of the box, but we can make it work with a free utility called FTPUSE.

Install the utility and add a FTP folder as local drive by entering the below command in an elevated command prompt.

FTPUSE DRIVE_LETTER: yourserver.domain.com/path password /USER:username

Now the  FTP folder appears as a network drive in our PC. Please note that the drive will be disconnected on reboot. (We will remedy this in our flow schedule BAT file.)

This mapping works like a normal network drive in PREP. Since the mapping is not permanent, it is safer to remap the drive before running the flow . Here is the complete BAT file I used for running the flow.

@echo off
set prep="C:\Program Files\Tableau\Tableau Prep Builder 2019.1\scripts\tableau-prep-cli.bat"
set flow="C:\Automation\FTP_TEST.tfl"
if exist X:\ (
	echo Disconnecting existing mapping....
	ftpuse X: /delete
)
echo Mapping FTP folder to network drive....
ftpuse X: yourserver/path password /USER:username
call  %prep% -t %flow%
PAUSE

Here is a screen grab of the flow run.