Watch files (FTP)

How To
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Hi All,

I think I am confused with the function for FTP (and it is the case for others as well) where you can use the “watch files” function. In my oppinion this should mean files are watched in a specific folder and as soon as there is a change (new file or file update/changed) this triggers the scenario.

Unfortunately this only means the files in the folder are watched and when the scenario runs it checks for changes since the last run.

This does not make sense. The “Watch Files” Function in combination with the “on-demand” scenario trigger should be the trick. As soon as there is a change, run the scenario.

is this somehow possible?

thanks

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Because of the way FTP works, you would have to do something on the FTP server side that triggers a make scenario when a file changes. You may be able to add a script that is watching for file changes in the FTP directory and triggers a webhook in Make when anything changes. Whether this is possible or not, or how hard it is to do, depends on your server’s capabilities and infrastructure.

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thanks for your fast reply. While this might be a solution to get the results but there are other tools out there (e.g. zapier) which are capable of doing things as written above.

There might be the possibility to capture this in a future version of make (hopefully).

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Welcome to the Make community!

This is because the module is a POLLING trigger, and not an INSTANT (Webhook) trigger.

There are two main types of triggers, Polling (scheduled), and Instant (webhooks). Polling triggers can only run on a schedule. Instant triggers can be run as soon as data is received by the webhook.

Polling means Make checks external service for changes (pull changes to Make).
Webhook (instant) triggers means external service calls Make when there are new changes (push changes to Make).

The module you are using does not push changes — it’s basically a API request that Make has to occasionally “call” to fetch the latest changes/items.

To find out more on the different types of Trigger modules, see refer to Types of Modules and Webhooks sections of the Make help center.

See if your app has an “Instant” or “Webhook” trigger in Make. If not, check if the third-party service has a feature that can send out a webhooks when content is created/updated - and then you can point it to a “Custom Webhook” trigger in your scenario.

samliew – request private consultation

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