MBA 683 E-Business Technology --

Ref: FTP
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FTP Reference

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and be used to copy files between computers.  For this class we will be using FTP to transfer information between your computer and the server.  

Copying files from your computer to the server is called uploading or publishing.  This makes files available on the Web or to other users who can access the server.
Copying files from the server to your computer is called downloading.  This allows you to view and edit files on your computer.

Please:

Don't FTP Oracle databases or files used by Oracle.
Follow the File Name rules given below to avoid problems.

Certain Web development tools (Dreamweaver, Front Page, Go Live, etc.) will do FTP transfers for you.  You should have FTP software for troubleshooting and monitoring server files, even if you are using a tool that does automatic publishing.

FTP Software

The ws_ftp95 le program is free and will do FTP transfers from Windows machines.  This program is on many machines at USF or can be downloaded from Ipswitch.com.  Absolute FTP from Van Dyke is an inexpensive alternative that is even easier to use. 

File Names

Follow these rules for file names to avoid problems:

Filenames should include letters (lower case only), numbers, hyphens, and one period before the file extension.  Do not use other characters such as space, underscore (_), slash (/ or \), period, colon, tilde (~), etc. as their meaning and effect varies between systems.
Limit filenames to 8 characters plus a 3 character extension.  Although most systems allow longer file names, there are still programs that shorten long filenames.
Use only lower case letters.  In some systems, including Linux or UNIX, names are case sensitive, other systems, like Windows, are not case sensitive.  Some programs will convert the case used in file names.  The safest solution is to use only lower case letters.
HTML files should use the .htm extension, instead of .html.  This also helps avoid compatibility problems between Windows and Linux.

Updating your personal Web site using WS-FTP

Start ws_ftp or click the Connect button and you will get a Session Properties window.  Enter the following values:

Profile name: your choice of name
Host name/address: usf.rho.net
Host type: automatic
User ID: enter the Account id you were given in class
Anonymous: clear the check box
Password: use the password you were given in class (you may be prompted for the password again)
Save Pwd: please clear this check box if you are using a shared computer
Account: leave this field empty

Click OK, and the program should connect to the server (you may be prompted for your password).  Once you have connected, you will see two windows:

  1. Left: your local Windows machine.
  2. Right: your directory on the Server.  The directory name will be /home/usf/your-account.

Each Window has buttons for Change Directory (ChgDir), Make Directory (MkDir), etc. that control the directory used for transfers.

Initially your server directory will be empty except for some system files with names beginning with periods.  Please ignore these files and don't change or erase them.

To upload files to the server, select one or more files in the window on the left and click the right arrow button (-->) to copy the files to the server.

To download files from the server, select one or more files in the window on the right and click the left arrow button (<--) to copy the files to your local system.

File Directories

You now have two server directories for your account:

Apache Server: .htm or .html files only

/home/usf/account

http://usf.rho.net/account

AOL Server: .adp, .htm, .html, or .tcl files

/home/web/usf-acs/www/student/account

http://usf-acs.rho.net/student/account

As well as directories for your project team:

Team Apache server directories are

/home/usf/usf-tNN

http://usf.rho.net/usf-tNN

Team AOL server directories are

/home/web/usf-acs/www/student/usf-tNN

http://usf-acs.rho.net/student/usf-tNN

All .adp pages for database access must be in an AOL server directory.

WS_FTP can access multiple server directories, but only one server directory at a time.  Instead of copying files between directories on the server, copy them to your PC and back to the server.

To access each directory in WS_FTP

Click the Change Directory button (ChgDir) on the right side

For your Apache server directory enter /home/usf/account

For your AOL server directory enter /home/web/usf-acs/www/student/account

WS_FTP will remember directories for you:

Click the Change Directory button (ChgDir) on the right side

Click the Triangle at the right of the form to display a drop down list of recently used directories

Select the directory you want from the list

File Transfer Modes

When publishing files to the server with WS_FTP, be sure to use ASCII mode for transferring text files (.adp, .htm, .html, .tcl, .txt) and Binary mode for all other file types.  Use the check boxes under the file windows to specify the type of transfer.

To have ASCII mode used automatically:

  1. Start WS_FTP and connect to the server

  2. On the main window click the Options button

  3. Select the Extensions Tab

  4. Add .adp, .htm, .html, and .tcl to the list of ASCII file extensions.  

  5. Click OK.

  6. Click the Auto check box on the main window.

Corrupted files may result if you upload a text file in Binary mode and download it using ASCII mode.  This will put extra control characters (Carriage Returns) in the file and cause problems.  To check, open the file in Word, select the option to View Paragraph Marks (Tools, Options, View) and check for two paragraph markers (¶) at the end of each line.  Fix your file using the Word Find and Replace command to find ^p^p and replace with ^p.

 

 

© 2000 by Chuck Ehrlich, all rights reserved.  Comments to webmaster.  Updated on February 29, 2000.