BlueConic CSV Connections
BlueConic offers several connections that support bi-directional data transfer to and from other systems via CSV files. We support a range of authentication steps that depend on the system you're connecting to. For details on setting up and running these connections, see their individual Knowledge Base articles:
This article offers a deeper technical understanding of how the authentication process works for these CSV connections, and provides helpful tips and background information to help you resolve errors in the setup process.
If your CSV-based connection has authentication errors
When you enter your authentication details in a connection's Setup page, BlueConic tries to test the authentication.
If you see an authentication error here, follow these steps to resolve the error.
User permissions errors
Check that your authentication details have been entered correctly.
Check whether you have sufficient user permissions on the other system to make the connection. Your user account on the other system must have access to the data you're sending to BlueConic.
Check your user settings in the other platform or ask your IT team to ensure you have the correct access permissions.
File system / access issues
Check whether your file server is accessible to BlueConic:
Check to see if you can access the other system from outside of BlueConic, for example using FileZilla.
Check if there are log files on your file server that indicate missing permissions.
Ask your IT team or system administrator for file access to the server that holds the CSV file.
If you try all of these steps and still can't resolve the errors, contact BlueConic Support.
Troubleshooting SFTP Connections
For SFTP Connections, there are several additional items to check.
Make sure the server type is SFTP and not an FTP or FTPS server.
Check whether there are too many open connections running to your SFTP server.
At times, the calculation of handshakes between servers takes too long and times out.
If the server and client cannot agree on which algorithms to use to authenticate and encrypt the connection, review this article to resolve the issue: https://github.com/mscdex/ssh2#client-methods
Tips for setting up PGP encryption
In the authentication section of a CSV-based connection, you can specify whether the files are PGP-encrypted (both for import and export).
In the setup and authentication section, in the Encryption field, enable the Use PGP encryption option. A settings menu opens below for Decryption and/or encryption.
When this is selected, you won’t be able select mapping columns from a pulldown menu in the import goal configuration. You will have to enter the column names manually. This can introduce errors, especially when you have a lot of columns.
To avoid this, you can try disabling the PGP encryption field. Then add a non-PGP dummy file that has the same columns on the file server and use this file to do all the column mappings (with PGP disabled).
Once everything is configured correctly, you can switch to the PGP mode and import the PGP-encrypted files.
Resources
If you have additional questions you can't resolve in authenticating or examining the run history for a CSV connection, contact BlueConic Support at [email protected].