In the<locations> node you define the locations where the media files shall be imported from and the way you want to import those media files (local filesystem, FTP/FTPS or SFTP/SCP).
The locations node is only required
<locations>
<location id="local" type="filesystem">
<path>/path/to/_import</path>
</location>
<location id="ftp" type="ftp">
<path><a>ftps://username:password@ftp.server.com:21/path/to/_import</a></path>
<passive>true</passive>
</location>
<location id="ftps" type="ftp">
<path><a>ftps://username:password@ftp.server.com:21/path/to/_import</a></path>
<passive>true</passive>
</location>
<location id="ssh_sftp" type="ssh">
<path><a>sftp://username:password@ssh.server.com:22/path/to/_import</a></path>
</location>
<location id="ssh_scp1" type="ssh">
<path><a>ssh://username:password@ssh.server.com:22/path/to/_import</a></path>
</location>
<location id="ssh_scp2" type="ssh">
<path><a>scp://username:password@ssh.server.com:22/path/to/_import</a></path>
</location>
</locations>
<location id="local" type="filesystem">
<path>/path/to/_import/</path>
</location>
<location id="ftp" type="ftp">
<path><a>ftps://username:password@ftp.server.com:21/path/to/_import</a></path>
<passive>true</passive>
</location>
<location id="ftps" type="ftp">
<path><a>ftps://username:password@ftp.server.com:21/path/to/_import</a></path>
<passive>true</passive>
</location>
The attribute type="ftp" of the location node defines to use FTP or FTPS.FTP or FTPS is defined by the protocol of the path node (ftp:// or ftps://).
<location id="ssh_sftp" type="ssh">
<path><a>sftp://username:password@ssh.server.com:22/path/to/_import</a></path>
</location>
<location id="ssh_scp1" type="ssh">
<path><a>ssh://username:password@ssh.server.com:22/path/to/_import</a></path>
</location>
<location id="ssh_scp2" type="ssh">
<path><a>scp://username:password@ssh.server.com:22/path/to/_import</a></path>
</location>