# File input to Watcher

**URL:** <https://discuss.elastic.co/t/file-input-to-watcher/229431>\
**Category:** Elasticsearch\
**Tags:** elastic-stack-alerting\
**Created:** [April 23, 2020, 9:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/file-input-to-watcher/229431 "2020-04-23T09:48:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![shubhamshd99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@shubhamshd99](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/shubhamshd99)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 9:48am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/file-input-to-watcher/229431/1 "2020-04-23T09:48:46Z")

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Hi Guys,  
I just wanted to know if there is any way I could take input for watcher, a file hosted somewhere on the server???  
Until now I have found Http input option, which could be used to get results from external web service, but I couldn't find any example on how to implement it in watcher!!!

Is it possible to do what I am planning to do, and if yes, please could you elaborate??

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**Author:** ![Yang\_Wang](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/yang_wang/32/48857_2.png) [@Yang\_Wang](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Yang_Wang)\
**Post date:** [April 23, 2020, 2:03pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/file-input-to-watcher/229431/2 "2020-04-23T14:03:15Z")

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No this is not possible. There is no file input for watchers. Also the elasticsearch process is forbidden to read files from arbitrary locations for security.

Alternatively, you could index those files into elasticsearch and retrieve them in your watcher.

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**Author:** ![shubhamshd99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@shubhamshd99](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/shubhamshd99)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 9:16am UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/file-input-to-watcher/229431/3 "2020-04-24T09:16:51Z")

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Then what's the Http\_input used for ??  
as per my understanding, we can use it to request data from external web services, right??  
If yes, then is there any way to store this file data somehow on that server and use web service to respond to requests!!!

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**Author:** ![Yang\_Wang](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/user_avatar/discuss.elastic.co/yang_wang/32/48857_2.png) [@Yang\_Wang](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/Yang_Wang)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2020, 12:49pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/file-input-to-watcher/229431/4 "2020-04-24T12:49:44Z")

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One option is to index what is retrieved by http\_input using watcher's [index action](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/actions-index.html) so it can be acessed through elasticsearch.

Other actions are also [documented](https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/actions.html).

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**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/elastic/original/3X/1/a/1ac57faf039f6b580b3f104ef42a2a89e41014de.png) [@system](https://discuss.elastic.co/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 12:50pm UTC](https://discuss.elastic.co/t/file-input-to-watcher/229431/5 "2020-05-22T12:50:03Z")

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