[SalesForce] Attaching a file to an email

The FTP source option only works with the Import directory of your Enhanced FTP account, not with any other FTP account.

One solution would be that if your external FTP account was bound to a published web directory (that is, any files in the directory could be publicly available from an HTTP/HTTPS URL), then you could use the HTTP option in the AttachFile() function.

If security was a concern (that these files are accessible from a publicly available URL), then there are a couple of options:

1. Basic access authentication

Password protect access to the publicly available web directory and the containing files (this is a default feature in IIS and Apache) then use basic access authentication in conjunction with an HTTPS endpoint, for example:

https://username:password@www.sample.com/file.pdf

Note that as the connection is over HTTPS, the username and password credentials are secure and can't be compromised in transit.

2. IP Address Restriction

Restrict access to the published web directory (again, a standard feature in most web servers) and only allow ExactTarget IP addresses. The IP addresses will vary depending on which stack you are on, but you can review the complete list here.

Short Answer:

No

Explanation:

The two methods of exporting data from a data extension are :

1. If the file is less than 20 MB it can be downloaded to your pc.
2. Files larger than this will have to be collected from the FTP location.

Reference: Exporting Data Extensions

NB:

For security reasons, your administrator might have set the export to the FTP regardless of size.

Caveat:

As with most things, it is possible to hack this. You would need to create an email and use the Attach Ampscript function to send it yourself.