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What is eCourtDate?
eCourtDate is a cloud-native communications platform used by justice systems such as courts and prosecutors. Agencies can automatically send and receive two-way messages via texts (SMS), email, and voice calls.
SFTP Gateway allows system admins to integrate eCourtDate's scheduling and messaging capabilities into their own applications and workflows.
eCourtDate Agency Required
Getting Started
SFTP Gateway is designed to automate flat file transfers to eCourtDate's Uploads feature.
Step 1 - Create a Server
Step 2 - Create an SFTP Profile
From the Console SFTPs page, click on Add SFTP and complete the form.
Configure the SFTP profile based on the desired target agency, upload template, and monitoring settings.
Step 3 - Enable Automatic Uploads
Turn on Auto-Upload Enabled when ready to transfer files automatically.
How to Connect to a Managed Server
Using SSH
The first time connecting, locate the private key, and set the permissions:
chmod 400 {key.pem}
The first time connecting, locate and right-click on the private key:
Select Properties > Security tab and choose Advanced. Enable Disable inheritance. Remove access to all users except for the current user.
In PowerShell or the Command Prompt, use the SSH command to connect to the server.
Connect to the server using the provided username and IP address:
ssh -i {key.pem} {username}@{server_ip}
The first time connecting, you'll see the following response:
The authenticity of host {server_ip} can't be established.
ECDSA key fingerprint is {server_fingerprint}.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)?
Enter yes
Using Transmit
Transmit is a file transfer client program for macOS.
Using PuTTY
Convert the private key using PuTTYgen
PuTTY does not natively support the PEM format for SSH keys. PuTTY provides a tool named PuTTYgen, which converts PEM keys to the required PPK format for PuTTY. You must convert the private key (.pem file) into this format (.ppk file) in order to connect to the server using PuTTY.
- From the Start menu, choose All Programs, PuTTY, PuTTYgen.
- Under Type of key to generate, choose RSA. If your version of PuTTYgen does not include this option, choose SSH-2 RSA.
- Choose Load. By default, PuTTYgen displays only files with the extension .ppk. To locate your .pem file, choose the option to display files of all types.
- Select your .pem file for the key pair that you specified when you launched your instance and choose Open. PuTTYgen displays a notice that the .pem file was successfully imported. Choose OK.
- To save the key in the format that PuTTY can use, choose Save private key. PuTTYgen displays a warning about saving the key without a passphrase. Choose Yes.
- Specify the same name for the key that you used for the key pair and choose Save. PuTTY automatically adds the .ppk file extension.
Your private key is now in the correct format for use with PuTTY. You can now connect to the server using PuTTY's SSH client.
Connect to the server using PuTTY
- Start PuTTY (from the Start menu, choose All Programs, PuTTY, PuTTY).
- In the Category pane, choose Session and complete the following fields:
- Under Connection type, select SSH.
- In the Category pane, expand Connection, expand SSH, and then choose Auth. Complete the following:
- Choose Browse.
- Select the .ppk file that you generated for your key pair and choose Open.
- (Optional) If you plan to start this session again later, you can save the session information for future use. Under Category, choose Session, enter a name for the session in Saved Sessions, and then choose Save.
- Choose Open.
If this is the first time you have connected to the server, PuTTY displays a security alert dialog box that asks whether you trust the host to which you are connecting. Choose Yes. A window opens and you are connected.
WinSCP
WinSCP is a GUI-based file manager for Windows that allows you to upload and transfer files to a remote computer using the SFTP and SCP protocols.
- Start WinSCP. Login dialog will appear. On the dialog:
- Make sure New site node is selected.
- On New site node, make sure SFTP protocol is selected.
- Enter the Server Host, Username, and Port.
- Press Advanced button to open Advanced site settings dialog and go to SSH > Authentication page.
- In Private key file box select the .pem private key file. WinSCP will need to convert the key to its .ppk format.
- Submit Advanced site settings dialog with OK button.
- Save your site settings using the Save button.
- Click on the Login button.
Troubleshooting
SFTP Client Limitations
- For File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and FTPS, only Passive mode is supported.
- File names must be in UTF-8 encoding. Using different encoding can lead to unexpected results.
Server Error Responses
Connection timed out or Connection refused:
Ensure that your client's IP address has been whitelisted on the server.
Permission denied or Authentication failed or Server refused our key:
Ensure that you are using the correct username.
If you are using an SSH private key, ensure that the password and passphrase are blank or disabled. The private key should have user read-only permissions.
Upload Templates
Use Upload Templates to process flat files based on configurable settings and mappable fields.
Processing Method
Processing Order
Choose whether files process based on Ascending or Descending sort order.
Exclude from Processing
Use the Exclude Settings to exclude individual rows from processing.
Configurable Reference Fields
Reference fields are your internal IDs for a given data model.
- Client Reference
- Event Reference
- Payment Reference
- Case Number
Unique Identifiers
The following data models can combine fields to create a unique identifier.
- Clients
- Cases
- Events
The following data models are tracked based on their unique identifier:
- Contacts - the Contact Phone or Contact Email
- Payments - the Payment Reference and Payment Amount
File Formats
We support flat files such as TXT, CSV, and XLSX. We recommend TXT files for maximum compatibility.
Files can be Pipe (|) or Comma (,) delimited.
Date and Time Formats
Dates and times formats can be parsed automatically or use a predefined format.
Resource Linking
The following data models can link to preexisting agency resources:
- Locations - Location Name or Location Reference.
- Flows - Flow Name or Flow Reference.
- Portals - Portal Name or Portal Reference.
- Agencies - Agency Name or Agency Reference.
- Users - User Email.
Example: Instead of including the full location address Municipal Court 123 Address, use the Location Name Municipal Court to link an agency location.
Field Mapping
Map fields based on the column header or numeric position.
By Column Header
Paste the value of your column header into each eCourtDate upload template field. You don't need to change your column header naming convention. Each field mapping should match the exact value of the column header in your file and is case-sensitive. You can map a single file field to multiple eCourtDate fields.
Default Fields
Use the Default Field value if you do not map the field or the field is empty / not found for a given row:
- Client Status
- Client Group
- Event Status
- Payment Status
- Payment Amount
- Location
- Portal
- Flow
File Naming Convention
Files that were previously uploaded to eCourtDate are skipped when syncing. To ensure that each file uses a unique name, we recommend the following naming convention:
[Year]-[Month]-[Day]-[Hour]-[Min]_[Agency]_[UploadTemplate].[ext]
Example {{ currentDate('YYYY') }}-{{ currentDate('MM') }}-{{ currentDate('DD') }}-{{ currentDate('HH')}}-{{ currentDate('MM') }}_AOC_EVENTS.txt
Technical Support
If you have any questions or issues while using eCourtDate's SFTP Gateway, please contact our support team at help@ecourtdate.com. We're here to help.
We appreciate any feedback or suggestions to improve our SFTP Gateway and technical resources.