Important Concepts

These are some of the mandatory steps and concepts you need to be aware of before you begin batch processing.

Inbound and Outbound directories

The SFTP account contains two subdirectories:

  • Inbound directory: You upload files for processing to the inbound directory. The data files to be processed need to be accompanied by a trigger file.
    Note: When the processing gets triggered, Precisely deletes the files from the inbound directory.
  • Outbound directory: The processed files are automatically uploaded to the outbound directory. You need to manually delete files from the outbound directory. However, Precisely reserves the right to delete any files from the inbound and outbound directory that are older than 30 days.

Trigger file

Upload a trigger file for each file uploaded to the inbound subdirectory. This file triggers the automated batch process and needs to be added after completing the data file upload.

  • The trigger file needs to have the same name as the data file you are uploading with (.trg ) suffixed. For example, if the data file is customer_records.txt, the trigger file name needs to be customer_records.trg.
  • The trigger file need not contain any data.
  • When the processing completes, the data file is uploaded to the SFTP outbound directory, followed by the trigger file. Once you finish uploading the trigger file, an email is sent to the provided contacts notifying you that the process is complete, and the output data file is ready for you to download.