Email files to your destination with the Email connector.
Features
| Feature Name | Supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Capture deletes | ||
| History mode | ||
| Custom data | ||
| Data blocking | ||
| Column hashing | ||
| Re-sync | ||
| Row filtering | ||
| API configurable | API configuration | |
| Priority-first sync | ||
| Fivetran data models | ||
| Private networking | ||
| Authorization via API |
Supported deployment models
We support the SaaS Deployment model for the connector.
Setup guide
Follow our step-by-step Email connector setup guide to connect your Email account with your destination using Fivetran connectors.
Sync overview
The Email connector is designed for scheduled email reports. It extracts one or more attachments from the email, parses the attachment data, and uploads it into your destination. In addition to email attachments, the connector also supports syncing files from URLs embedded in the email body. Emails are deleted once the attachments are extracted from them. Attachments are permanently backed up in an internal S3 bucket in case of a re-sync. You may delete these attachments by deleting your Email connection or contacting privacy@fivetran.com or our customer support team.
Syncing spreadsheets
To sync Excel files, you must select xls/xlsx/xlsm as the file type in the connection setup form and specify the cell reference during connection configuration. We use the cell reference to sync contiguous data to the right of the cell and below it in the Excel worksheet.
Example:
Let's assume there are 4 excel worksheets in a workbook:
- Data1
- Data2
- Data3
- Data4
If you want to sync your data from cell C3 of the “Data2” worksheet, then your cell reference will be “Data2”!C3. So, the connection syncs data from the "Data2" worksheet starting at cell C3.
- We sync the data from the sheet and cell reference you selected. If you want to sync data from multiple sheets, you must set up multiple connections.
- We do not support finding data ranges if the rows contain merged cells. We do not consider the rows with merged cells and skip them while finding data ranges.
(Applicable for append_file option) Primary keys
Fivetran adds the following columns as composite primary keys for a table:
| COLUMN | DATA TYPE | NOTES |
|---|---|---|
| _file 🔑 | TEXT | The file name received through the email |
| _line 🔑 | INT | The line number in the file that was read |
| _modified 🔑 | TIMESTAMP | The timestamp when we received an email containing files |
| _directory 🔑 | TEXT | The folder path where the file is stored in internal S3 bucket. It follows the pattern groupId/schema/table/attachment/folder_created_to_store_file |
Unstructured file replication Beta
The Email connector supports unstructured file replication. You can sync documents, images, compressed files, or plain text files to your destination’s object storage.
Limitation
Fetching files linked in the email body
When your file source is URL in email body, we fetch only URLs that appear in the email body and meet all these conditions. If a URL doesn't meet them, we skip it and don't sync a file.
- The URL does not match the URL link pattern configured for the table. Fivetran does not generate a warning because filtering URLs based on this pattern is expected behavior.
- The URL does not use the
https://scheme. For example, Fivetran does not fetch files fromhttp://URLs. - The URL is malformed, cannot be parsed, or specifies a port, such as
https://example.com:8443/file.csv. - The host is a raw IP address,
localhost, a subdomain oflocalhost, or a hostname ending in.internalor.local. - The host’s IP address cannot be resolved using DNS.
- The host resolves to a private, loopback, link-local, reserved, or otherwise non-public IP address.
- The URL returns an HTTP 3xx redirect response. Fivetran does not follow redirects, even when the destination URL is otherwise accessible.
- The request returns a non-2xx response, such as a
404or500error. - Fivetran cannot determine a safe filename from the downloaded content or file properties.