FTP Editing online Files (Improvement)

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Balderstrom
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FTP Editing online Files (Improvement)

Post by *Balderstrom »

I've recently begun to use FTP and Edit more recently, and have found the process to be cumbersome.
  • Select file in Panel, choose "Edit" (it opens in our Text Editor of choice).
  • Make changes in said file & Save.
  • Switch back to TC, close the Edit-dialog box.
  • Confirm the next pop-up that you'd like to Upload the changes.
  • Another dialog, asking if you really want to upload the changes [Overwrite].
Switch to your WebBrowser, refresh a page in question, realize you need to edit further -- that the changes didn't have the desired effect.

Start the whole process over.
=================================================================

The initial dialog could watch for changes in the file you are editting; and with a checkbox, [x] Auto Upload when file changes. Also optionally, TC could make 2 copies of said file, one that you are editting, and another Original in case you need to restore.

If not then possibly an [Apply] changes button. So you can keep the local copy open once, and not have to repeatedly re-edit/and open the file. And click through 3 TC Dialogs every time you want to make a change.

If I made a manual copy of the file, editted it locally and saved, I could manually drag & drop it to the FTP panel, and only have to deal with one overwrite dialog.
With TC taking care of the local copy in the temp folder the whole process should be more streamlined not more complicated.
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ghisler(Author)
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Post by *ghisler(Author) »

[x] Auto Upload when file changes
That could be done quite easily, but when should the local copy be deleted then?
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Balderstrom
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Post by *Balderstrom »

TC could clean up it's Temp files upon Shutdown (ini file setting to do so, or not**), and/or have a callable command to clear up Temp files.

** When files are not automatically deleted:
They could be kept in the same path (locally) as online, e.g.
%TC_TEMP_ROOT%\foobar.com\www\css\override.css
For further purusing of the files offline, or for manual syncing later.
*BLINK* TC9 Added WM_COPYDATA and WM_USER queries for scripting.
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ghisler(Author)
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Post by *ghisler(Author) »

TC could clean up it's Temp files upon Shutdown
But the editor could still remain open even when you close TC...
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Balderstrom
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Post by *Balderstrom »

I suppose, but that's still the case now: EmEdit remains open after closing the dialogs in TC.

In my mind it would be more useful to simplify the process of actual updating the remote file, and leave the deletion of possibly unneeded files to the end-user.

Also if I'm not mistaken you can query if a File has any open handles on it (even if it isn't locked).

A more simple approach, if Automatic Updating is enabled: the very first dialog could have 3 buttons:
[Delete] [Revert] [Exit]

Delete: Delete file and close dialog.
Revert: Revert Remote file back to original (TC has 2 copies)
Exit: Close dialog, file remains.
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eyolf
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Post by *eyolf »

Any news on this?
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Post by *ghisler(Author) »

No, unfortunately not. The removal of the temp file when it's no longer needed is still not solved.
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Post by *Balderstrom »

eyolf wrote:Any news on this?
ghisler(Author) wrote:No, unfortunately not. The removal of the temp file when it's no longer needed is still not solved.
The removal of a Temp file is a completely non-issue.



Anyways, the solution is to not use Total Commander for FTP.
FTP Drive 3.5 (214KB) , install and run.
  • Add your FTP servers in the "Sites List Editor".
  • FTP Drive will create a mounted drive (defaults to Z) under My Computer.
  1. Content is browseable like a regular folder structure.
  2. You can use normal edit commands, normal context-menu's any Buttons on TC's buttonBar, etc. etc.
  3. You can drag files into folders, or Copy and them Paste from the context menu.
  4. Copy/Paste from a local Harddrive into the Z:\MyWebSite.
  5. Use TC's Comment descript.ion's for files.
  6. When you are editing a file, and save it. It is saved. Done.
    Quirk: If the file doesn't exist (creating a copy from an editor) You need to save it twice.
    You will get an errorMsg the first time, it will work the second time.
If you've added a site, such as: "MyWebsite"
When you browse to Z:\MyWebsite\www\css\ --- you can actually tell you are on the "MyWebsite" server as opposed to TC's FTP addressbar of:
0:\www\css, or 1:\www\css, (etc)

Red --> TC FTP cannot do.
Green-> TC FTP can do.

Unfortunately, "FTP Drive 3.5" saves the FTP-site's passwords as plain-text in a text-file in FTP Drive's dir. So a little work is required for a portable "USB" solution. That aspect is not quite secure. The master-password option of TC and other Password managers would be much preferred.
-- Has an option for a NetView client/server to get the list of Sites (I am not sure what that is). And it does save the password for the NetView Client in the registry (as plain text).

Could write a script to unpack a password-protected zip (or Rar) file containing the passwords/host data prior to running FTPDrive, but that aspect would be a bit klunky at best, as you'd want to remove the file afterwards, and you might need/want to add more sites while it is running.
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Post by *cos »

Yes, i would like to see a FTPDRIVE functionality under total commander too !!

I am not sure, but i thik one of these, ftpdrive, or netdrive are also opensource, shoudl not be a problem to check it out and improve TC.

I bitch on a daily basis current workflow for editing files online, being a webdeveloper i do it a lot.
It became so frustrating, i now installed a ftp synch tool and i work locally, while it silently uploads the changes, yet too many times i need to do the changes online directly.

Anyway christian, it think this FTP thing/issue, is huge for all people who actually use TC AND the FTP a lot.
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Post by *Sune »

Balderstrom wrote:Anyways, the solution is to not use Total Commander for FTP.
FTP Drive 3.5 (214KB), install and run.
  • FTP Drive will create a mounted drive (defaults to Z) under My Computer.
I tried the FTPdrive and I like it.
BUT I got problems while copying files, with FTPdrive activated, in Totalcommander, on Win7.

Problem: When trying overwriting a file the process is stopped, and I have to kill Totalcmd, exit FTPdrive, and start again.

I am quiet sure the problem is that an "invisble" window is waiting for me to confirm how I want the overwrite do be done.
I am aware, that I may have to set the default overwrite mode in TotalCmd to "No Asking", but this is a very useful thing (when not copying to/from FTP, where "only newer" don't work anyway).

I don't know whether this can be fixed by FTP-advanced settings?
Or with TotalCmd-settings?

Any ideas...?

Of course The Best would be if TotalCMD could do everything, or at least to copy/move direct inside the FTP-drive :-)
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Balderstrom
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Post by *Balderstrom »

It's possible that it has issues with Win7. I did a little searching around, and found NetDrive --- although like most "modernized" software, it's huge: 8MB. Or consider contacting the author of FTPDrive. I may need to do so myself when I get Win7 up and going --- will have to see what options I have with our new VPS, if I can do scp or ssh natively in TC or if I'm stuck with ftp in TC.
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Post by *Sune »

Nice with NetDrive, thanx :-)
Though... NetDrive does not support the single drive-letter for plenty FTP-sites (that I do manage). I did propose this feature to NetDrive...
I may do same to FTP-drive: propose win7/x64 support :-)
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Post by *Pruna »

The file could be deleted as it is now, I suppose when the connection is closed. What difference does it make if it gets uploaded each time it's saved locally?
You just have to monitor for file writes and get rid of that dialogue asking to upload the file. The rest should be the same.
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