Remote access of files via FTP. XUTL_FTP? Security considerations.
804275Oct 10 2010 — edited Oct 11 2010Hello.
We have a flat file on an FTP server that needs to be loaded into the db on a scheduled basis. Currently an external process on an appserver retrieves the file, inserts rows into a temporary table and calls a procedure to do the reconciliation.
It would be nice if the external process, and scheduling of it, could be brought into the db.
As I understand it there is no out-of-the-box FTP client utilities in 11gR2 (the version we are using). I have seen suggestions to use [XUTL_FTP|http://www.chrispoole.co.uk/apps/xutlftp.htm]. The suggestions I have seen have been made predominantly (perhaps exclusively) by Chris Poole (the author) and the user BluShadow.
Is XUTL_FTP generally considered a good library?
Does it work with 11gR2 (a 10g version looks to be the latest)?
Is it still maintained?
Given that the package body has been obfuscated, has the library been security audited by any trustworthy entity?
XUTL_FTP certainly looks useful, the quasi external table stuff in particular, but there's no way it can go onto a server without source available or a security audit.
Any alternatives?
I guess it would be pretty straight forward to rip the code out of the existing external process (written in Java) and use that but it would be nice to reuse existing code if possible.
Thanks.