Enhancement for Secure Transport plugin: option to receive no error if there are no files to pull

Imagine the following scenario:

We need to regularly check, every X minutes throughout the day, if a file is available on an external partner's SFTP. When a file is available, we must download it immediately, with a maximum delay of 5 minutes.

To achieve this, we use a TWS (Tivoli Workload Scheduler) job with the Secure Transport (ST) plugin to handle communication with our external partner.

However, the file is only created a few times a day.

In the current situation, where the plugin generates an error if there are no files to pull, the majority of jobs would go in error.

From my perspective, it seems problematic that the job generates an error when there is simply no file to pull.

Instead, the joblog should include a message indicating that no file is available to pull, without marking the job as failed.

If generating an error in this case is unavoidable, the error message should at least be accurate and specific. For example, a dedicated return code could be used to indicate that no file was found, rather than providing a misleading error message such as "destination directory doesn't exist," which is unrelated to the actual problem.

Ideally, the plugin should offer an option to configure this behavior. Perhaps something like:

ABEND if no files = YES/NO

This would allow the user to choose whether an error should be generated when no file is available. While there are cases where raising an alert is appropriate, there are many situations (such as the one described here) where it would be best to quietly check every X minutes and only act when a file is found.

In my opinion, adding the option to enable or disable errors when no file is found would be a significant improvement to the plugin. If the default setting is "YES," existing users wouldn’t be affected, but those who wish to avoid unnecessary errors could do so by setting this option to "NO."