FTP Software

[Phil Rolf]

Can anyone recommend any FTP software that I can attach to a button on a form to upload the tables to the server?

[Al Buchholz]

RE: FTP Software

Philip

Have you looked at the FTP commands available within Alpha?

[davej]

RE: FTP Software

Philip,

I have been using both CuteFTP from Globalscape and WS_FTP LE from Ipswitch for a number of years and have had no problem with either of them. WS_FTP LE is still (I believe) free while CuteFTP has a nominal cost.

Dave

[Phil Rolf]

RE: FTP Software

Al,

I did a search prior to posting this message and in every case Alpha states that you are unable to do the transfer using V6. However, it is a feature for future revisions. The intent of my message is to see what the latest and greatest external package may be.

Thanks

[Lenny Forziati]

RE: FTP Software

Philip, do you want to upload from Alpha Five to a remote FTP server or are you trying to add a FTP server to your computer to accept uploads? Al, Dave and myself all assumed you were trying to use Alpha to upload to a remote server

[JerryBrightbill]

RE: FTP Software

I use Core FTP Lite from http://www.coreftp.com, which is still free and works very well.

Jerry

[Phil Rolf]

RE: FTP Software

I can program the button to run another application. My problem is that the person that I am doing this for is very computer illiterate. What I am trying to do is have a button on a form that will automatically transfer the database files from his computer to the host server when it is clicked on. The transfer needs to be done seamlessly without having him answer any questions. He will not know what to do.

Does this help? I have searched the web but all the programs require manual intervention, which I don't want.

Thanks

[Al Buchholz]

RE: FTP Software

Philip

I think you are looking too far away. You can do it within Alpha 5 v 6.

I just did used Alpha's ftp_put_file_multiple() to put 6 files on my ftp server.

You do need ftp access to the server, but the transfer worked as documented.

[Al Buchholz]

RE: FTP Software

Oops, meant to attached this....

[Phil Rolf]

RE: FTP Software

Al, you are a gentleman and a scholar. That is exactly what I was looking for. Just transferred a table with the associated files and it worked great.

Thank You very much

[Al Buchholz]

RE: FTP Software

Philip

You may want to consider using the zip database/tables function, transfering the zipped file, and unzipping it when you get there. It'll probably transfer much fast.

Those are all functions that are within Alpha.

[CALocklin]

RE: FTP Software

Al,

Do you know of any way to automate the process of unzipping the file once the FTP has completed without forcing the user to log in to the website?

I'd like to create a button on the desktop computer that sends a zipped file (no problem there) then automatically unzips it once it's on the website.

The only thing I can think of is to try executing an a5w page that simply runs a script to unzip. Maybe this is all I need but I thought you or someone else might have a better idea.

Thanks,
Cal Locklin
www.aimsdc.net

[Al Buchholz]

RE: FTP Software

Cal

On my list of things to do is that very process.

I'm going with the idea of a serverside file.watch_create() that processes the file whenever it appears.

I'll let you know what I find. If you get something first, let me know.

[CALocklin]

RE: FTP Software

I've created something that seems to be working. It isn't everything I'd want but it's good enough.

I started by creating a simple web page to unzip the file and tell the user that it's done: (rather basic at the moment)



fullPathName = A5.Get_Path() + "\order_statusw.zip"
IF file.exists( fullPathName )
file.unzip( fullPathName, "*.*", A5.Get_Path() ) %>
Order Status File has been Uploaded and Unzipped

ELSE
%>
Order Status File has NOT been Unzipped %>

END IF %>


Then I added this to the end of my script that updates the Order_Statusw table: (again, not the final script but it works)
Note - "datapath" was previously defined.

'Compress the file for transfer.
file.zip( datapath + "order_statusw.zip", datapath + "order_statusw.dbf" )'Upload the file
ui_msg_box( "ready to upload", "" )
fldr_name = lookupc( "F", 1,"Web_fldrf", "program_options", "" )
ftp_put_file_modal("www.aimsdc.net","MyUserName","MyPswd",datapath+"order_statusw.zip",fldr_name + "/order_statusw.zip")
sys_open( "http://www.aimsdc.net/" + fldr_name + "/Unzip_status.a5w")

The trick seems to be that you have to be very careful about getting the full pathnames correct - both for uploading and for unzipping. (I didn't look at the Help carefully enough at first and assumed the Unzip() would default to unzip in the same folder as the zip file - wrong.)

Let me know if you find something better.

Cal Locklin
www.aimsdc.net

[CALocklin]

RE: FTP Software

Oops, sorry. I forgot that the HTML would show rather than just displaying the source code. I'll try it again:

I've created something that seems to be working. It isn't everything I'd want but it's good enough.

I started by creating a simple web page to unzip the file and tell the user that it's done: (rather basic at the moment)

"body>
"%a5
fullPathName = A5.Get_Path() + "\order_statusw.zip"
IF file.exists( fullPathName )
file.unzip( fullPathName, "*.*", A5.Get_Path() ) %>
"div style="font-size:24;font-family:Verdana;">Order Status File has been Uploaded and Unzipped"/div>
"%a5
ELSE
%>
"div style="font-size:24;font-family:Verdana;">Order Status File has NOT been Unzipped %>"/div>
"%a5
END IF %>
"/body>

Then I added this to the end of my script that updates the Order_Statusw table: (again, not the final script but it works)
Note - "datapath" was previously defined.

'Compress the file for transfer.
file.zip( datapath + "order_statusw.zip", datapath + "order_statusw.dbf" )'Upload the file
ui_msg_box( "ready to upload", "" )
fldr_name = lookupc( "F", 1,"Web_fldrf", "program_options", "" )
ftp_put_file_modal("www.aimsdc.net","MyUserName","MyPswd",datapath+"order_statusw.zip",fldr_name + "/order_statusw.zip")
sys_open( "http://www.aimsdc.net/" + fldr_name + "/Unzip_status.a5w")

The trick seems to be that you have to be very careful about getting the full pathnames correct - both for uploading and for unzipping. (I didn't look at the Help carefully enough at first and assumed the Unzip() would default to unzip in the same folder as the zip file - wrong.)

Let me know if you find something better.

Cal Locklin
www.aimsdc.net