FTP: There Has To Be A Better Way
Posted on April 2nd, 2008 in Coding
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If you’re a webmaster or coder like Nickycakes, you rely quite heavily on transferring files back and forth from your hard drive to your webhosting server. With the most rudimentary of ftp programs, the process goes something like this: 1) write code 2) upload it to the server with ftp 3) test it 4) make changes 5) upload to server again, etc. This can be quite annoying, so what Nickycakes first did was set up a webserver on his home machine to test everything first before uploading it to save some time. That works OK, but hosting a test server can be annoying, and you still eventually have to ftp everything to the server, and you run into issues with different versions of files in different places, etc. Short story: BIG HEADACHE.
The next step up from just your basic ftp program in terms of productivity would be a more advanced ftp client like SmartFTP. The main reason Nickycakes likes SmartFTP and programs like it is the ability to right-click and click edit on a file on the remote server, allowing you to edit the file locally and then upload when you’ve finished making the changes. There are, of course, drawbacks to this. The main one being you can’t edit more than one file at a time, which is many times required when you start working on big projects. Again: BIG HEADACHE.
A few weeks ago, a buddy on IRC mentioned a program he uses to map a remote FTP directory to a local drive in windows. It wasn’t until yesterday that Nickycakes had enough with FTP clients and look into this solution. The Cakes tried two different programs for this, which do pretty much the exact same thing: Webdrive and SFTPDrive.
They were pretty much identical in functionality, but had a few small….availability issues. Webdrive is produced by a company in Nickycakes’ home town of Annapolis, MD, however, has a much shorter free trial period and is less…available…on *ahem* piratebay… So the winner ended up being SFTPDrive, even though they’re both about the same.
Just since yesterday this has done a few things to the way Nickycakes operates when designing and fixing his stuff online. First off, things are much faster. Creating and launching new php code has had a few major steps removed from the process which is awesome. But the biggest improvement has been the ability to seamlessly switch from computer to computer to do coding work. Before, Nicky had to set up shared folders on the main local computer with all the files he was working on if he wanted to switch to a different pc to do some work (for example going out to a cafe with the laptop). Now, it’s as easy as installing PSPad (cakes’ editor of choice) and this SFTPDrive and let the fun begin.
That’s about it. Hope this saves you a ton of time. Keep it real.
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Ill check out your smartftp, but i doubt its better than flashfxp… at least not for my warez
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:31 am
i dunno what’s better for that, but for webmaster stuff smartftp seems better. sftpdrive, however, blows them all away.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:40 am
Ever tried NetDrive?
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:46 am
Another option is to use version control.
Have a working copy on your local box. Make some changes. Commit those changes to your version control server.
Then with a script, login to your production server, grab the latest from version control, re-wire your directories so your web server points to the recent stuff.
There’s frameworks out there that make this stuff much easier. Depends on how vital backups are for you I guess…
April 3rd, 2008 at 2:14 am
i use kde and fish, no install required.
April 3rd, 2008 at 3:53 am
If you code in php just use the Zend IDE. It does all of the above in one interface.
No switching, etc. All your projects can be worked on/saved remotely.
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:55 am
WinSCP
both FTP and SSH, edit on server etc etc.
Give it a go Cakes!
April 3rd, 2008 at 6:18 am
I use ExpanDrive by the makes of SftpDrive on my Macs. I love it to pieces.
Youc an get it here, http://www.magnetk.com/expandrive , if you are fortunate enough to work on a Mac
April 3rd, 2008 at 7:41 am
Why not putty in and edit the files with vim? Handy
April 3rd, 2008 at 8:09 am
i am a fan of cute ftp pro.
granted its a bit oldschool - but you can edit on server multiple files & also different servers…
so if i wanna compare code from ftp 1 to code in ftp 2 its no issue.
it has all the sftp and all that other who-ha…
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:00 am
@georgie:
Sorry but vi just doesn’t compare to something like PSPad. If it did, I’d just use linux at home for development. Also, for those folks with shared hosting, ssh is often not an option.
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:18 am
I’m surprised you cannot afford to pay $39 - $59 for a program to speed up your business….
In any case, a related time saver, for bulk FTPing to multiple domains, is http://www.domain-dashboard.com
They are coming out with a new version (finally) in April supposedly, with enhancements.
People here might find it helpful.
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:19 am
Doesn’t help much with the comparing aspect, but I use Rightload to upload stuff to a FTP via a right click menu:
http://rightload.org/
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:40 am
I think I mentioned to you if you’re coding in the Zend IDE ( which is LOVE ) you can right click in the file browser on the left side and say add http://ftp. Then setup your sFTP and it adds it just like another drive. I’ve been working like this for a few years. It’s really nice because you work right on the server rather then locally and having to transfer. Also if you’re interested in all the debugging capabilities of Zend you can debug right on the server this way as well.
April 3rd, 2008 at 10:43 am
@freddy nobody said anything about affording it. i can afford to pay for an xp license..but…
April 3rd, 2008 at 11:51 am
I like just using dreamweaver and their built in http://ftp. It’s great for editing, however, I still haven’t figured out if it has the ability to straight upload pictures and other content through cyberduck (osx). Dreamweaver is also pretty “available”.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:08 pm
[...] sFTP/FTP Drive Mapping What got me started on writing this post is I was at nickycakes blog today and he was talking about drive mapping. I’m sure if you’re just starting or when [...]
April 4th, 2008 at 3:04 am
clean ur comp dude.. the piratebay one probably had a virus
http://www.virustotal.com/analisis/61dcdff8f989c538da1aec233b41a24b
April 4th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Most of the popular IDE’s (Dreamweaver, NuSphere) allow you to edit/save directly on the server. No manual transferring required. Hit me up on aim (adscapeinc) if you want help setting it up.
April 7th, 2008 at 11:11 am
I’ve messed around with webdrive and similar things. My biggest problem with all those is when you’re network is shaky or something weird happens behind the scenes - you can get some weird problems, files being in one place or not the other.
I prefer to remove the “middle man” and just code on the server in vim. There’s a learning curve involved, but once you get it down, it’s well worth the time!
May 27th, 2008 at 9:21 am
I used to “hack” on the server, but I do all my testing on a local server then put the files under configuration control using Perforce (http://www.perforce.com/), a SCM tool.
Then I go to the live site and sync the files to the configuration on my local server. An exact image of the files are copied onto the live site.
If I need to make a changes, I do it on the local server the resync from the live site and only the changes get updated.
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:28 am
Learn Expect. http://expect.nist.gov/