Zip Task Configuration

Configure the following properties for the Zip file operation task:

Field Description
Task name Type a unique name for the task.
File filter Type the name of the file if you want to filter files with specific names. By default, IBM webMethods Managed File Transfer considers all files. If you want to use a regular expression, specify a valid regular expression in the File filter and select the Use regular expression option.
Note: Use wildcard characters to filter the file names. For example, type *.zip to trigger the action only when ZIP files are uploaded or downloaded. To trigger an action based on a name string in the ZIP files, use the name string in the File filter box, preceded and followed by wildcard characters. For example, type *invoice*.zip to trigger the action based on the file URLs, when ZIP files containing the character string invoice in their file names are uploaded or downloaded. If you define a File filter for a task, the task acts only on files that are filtered out.
A few examples of regular expressions are:
  • ^(?!.*purchaseorder).*$: Excludes files with the file URL containing purchaseorder.
  • */out/.*: Include files with the file URL containing the folder out.
  • ^abc(.*)123$: Includes anything that starts with abc and ends with 123. Matches abc123, abcxyz123, but not abcxyz123def.
  • NEW-((*.doc)⏐(*_backup_*)): Includes anything starting with NEW- that either ends in .doc, or is followed by the string _backup_.
Destination location Select one of the following options to configure the location where the file will be zipped:
  • Remote path. If the destination location is on a remote server, select a protocol (transport mechanism) from the list, and type or browse to the file path location. For example, protocol://<host\>:<port\>/DestinationFolder/.
    • Type the User name and Password for the remote system.
    • Click Test Connection to check the connection to the remote server.
      Tip: If you want to connect to a remote server using a secure protocol (FTPES, FTPS, HTTPS, or SFTP) and want to configure authentication using secure key exchange, create a folder for the remote server and configure the certificate alias parameters. Use the folder that you configured in the Virtual folder option of the Source location in the task.
  • Virtual folder. To specify a virtual folder, type or browse to the location of the folder. If you want to point to a subfolder within the folder, append the URL in the box with the details of the subfolder.
    Note: The virtual folder that you select should be configured on the same instance on which the action is configured.
Create directory Select this option to create the destination folder if the folder specified in the Destination location is not present.
ZIP file name Type a name for the ZIP file. Alternatively, provide a variable name such as {stem}.zip as the ZIP file name. {stem}.zip is the default file name.
Assign partner Select this option if you want to assign a partner for the action and do one of the following:
  • Select the partner to assign from the list of configured partners in IBM webMethods Managed File Transfer.
  • Type a parameterized value for the partner in the following format: [partner_name], where [partner_name] is a server variable or an action parameter that contains the actual partner name during the execution of an action.
Note: For virtual folders, use this option only if you want to override the partners configured for the folders.

The zip task compresses a specified file or a set of files and copies the compressed file to the location specified in Destination location. After the successful execution of the zip task, the source files and the target zip file are available for the subsequent task. If the input path is that of a folder, IBM webMethods Managed File Transfer does not compress the files/contents of the specified folder.

In single-thread, sequential processing, each action results in a single zip file. However, if the zip task occurs after parallel processing starts, each thread results in a separate zip file.