You want to build a website, so you start creating web
pages on your computer.
Next, you need to publish them: you need to put those
pages on a web server so that everyone would be able
to view them.
To transfer the files from your computer to that web
server, a special protocol (transfer method) is used:
FTP - the File Transfer Protocol. This protocol was designed
to be able to handle big files; it can for example resume
a transfer if it was interrupted in the middle.
The normal way to connect to your FTP server is to use
an FTP client and to communicate via the FTP protocol.
This is however not always possible:
- you may be behind a corporate firewall at work,
which may block the FTP communications;
- you may be on holiday and connecting to the internet
via a CyberCafe, where you may not be allowed to
install an FTP client.
When you use ftpvweb these problems are solved: you connect
to ftpvweb using a regular web browser, and ftpvweb translates
your requests and takes care of the FTP communication.
ftpvweb also provides additional features, on top of
the regular FTP features: the possibility to edit code
using your web browser, to view the code with syntax
highlighting, to upload-and-unzip archives, and to search
for words on the FTP server.
ftpvweb uses the beautiful icons made by Everaldo for KDE.
Their meaning should be pretty straight-forward, but
just in case, here are the conventions used:
 Cancel
and go back
 Execute
the action
 Save
the file
 Bookmark
the page
 Refresh
the page
 Logout
All icons will also display a tooltip with additional
information if you keep your mouse pointer on the button
for a second, without clicking on it.
Note:
these PNG icons have transparent regions which are
not displayed correctly on Internet Explorer on this
Help page: the transparent regions appear as grey.
This is a bug specific to Internet Explorer; refer
to the Microsoft
website for more details. In ftpvweb itself however,
a fix has been applied which corrects this.
Enter your FTP server, username and password. The FTP
server name can be "ftp.my-domain.com" if you have your
own domain name. If you don't have your own domain name,
then it depends on your web hosting company. It can be
for example "ftp.geocities.com" or "ftp-www.earthlink.net".
If you don't know your FTP server, username or password,
then check out the support pages of your hosting company
or contact their helpdesk.
The first time you log in, you will see the contents
of the root directory "/". To go to a subdirectory, simply
click on the subdirectory's name. To go up to the parent
directory, click on the top row with the label Up.
If you know the name of the subdirectory you want to
go to, you can also enter that name directly in the textbox
on top of the page, and press ENTER.
If you don't know the name exactly, click on  .
A window will pop up, which allows you to browse the
FTP server and choose a directory. Double-click on a
subdirectory to go to that subdirectory. To go up, double-click
on "..". Once you are in the subdirectory you wanted
to find, click on Choose. The subdirectory name will
be copied from the popup to the main window.
It can happen that the FTP server returns the list of
directories and files in an uncommon format. In that
case ftpvweb shows you the lines bottom of the screen,
under the heading "FTP server's output which is not recognized
is shown below".
If you want this fixed please contact the ftpvweb developers.
They will analyse the output of your FTP server and improve
the way ftpvweb scans it.
On the Browse Screen, click on the Upload button to go
to the Upload Screen.
There is one column on the left to upload files, and
there can also be a right column to upload-and-unzip
archives.
Click on the Browse button to specify which file on your
computer you want to upload or upload-and-unzip to the
FTP server.
Once you are ready to start the upload, click on .
The result screen will tell you if the upload was successful
or not.
To upload a file, you need write permissions on that
directory of the FTP server.
The file should also not be too big, as on most web servers
the execution time of a script may be limited to 30 seconds.
On the Browse Screen, click on the Java Upload button.
Click on the Add button to add directories and files
to the upload queue (top left).
When you select a directory, all the files inside will
be transferred, and subdirectories will be created automatically.
Once you are ready to start the upload, click on the
Upload button.
The results of the upload are printed just below the
upload queue (bottom left).
Two upload progress bars are displayed on the right:
one indicating the progress of the current file, and
the other indicating the total progress.
As for the normal upload, the maximum filesize and maximum
execution time is limited; by default this is 2 MB and
30 seconds.
If the total size of the files in the upload queue is
larger than a certain limit, the Java Applet will split
the request in several smaller parts.
To download a file, simply click on its filename.
To zip-and-download files and directories, select them
on the Browse Screen and click on Download.
The directories and their contents will be retrieved
and zipped.
A popup window will ask you where you would like to save
the Zip file on your computer.
Note that if the files inside are too big, the script
will timeout and you won't be able to download anything.
If this happens, try again with less directories and
omit those which contain big files.
You can also zip files and email them in attachment,
or save them on the FTP server.
On the Browse Screen, select the directories and files
and click on Zip.
On the Browse Screen, click on the View link on the same
line as the filename.
On the Browse Screen, click on the Edit link on the same
line as the filename.
Edit the text and press to
save the changes (you'll need write permissions for that).
To edit HTML using the What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get form
developed by Interactivetools,
you will need Internet Explorer version 5.5 or higher.
If you do use IE5.5+ then a link will appear on the top
right of the screen, where you can choose which text
area you would like to use: a plain textarea or the WYSIWYG
one. Mind that changing the text area type will save
the latest changes made to the text.
Select some files or directories and click on the Copy,
Move or Delete button.
If you copy or move, then choose the target directory.
This can be different for each directory or file that
you selected. To set all target directories to the same
value, enter the target directory in the top textbox
and click on the button "Set all targetdirectories".
If you don't know the exact name of the target directory,
click on .
A window will pop up, which allows you to browse the
FTP server and choose a directory. Double-click on a
subdirectory to go to that subdirectory. To go up, double-click
on "..". Once you are in the subdirectory you wanted
to find, click on Choose. The subdirectory name will
be copied from the popup to the main window.
To copy or move files to a second FTP server, enter the
FTP server name, username and password on top.
You need write permissions to be able to copy or move
files to a directory.
Once you are ready, click on .
The result screen will tell you if the action was successful
or not. If the files were too big, the script will run
until the timeout is reached. On most web servers the
execution time of a script is limited to 30 seconds.
Select directories or files and click on Rename on the
Browse Screen.
The next screen will ask for the new names.
Fill these in and click on .
Select directories or files and click on Chmod on the
Browse Screen.
The next screen show the current permissions; select
or unselect the checkboxes which represent a permission.
Click on .
Note that for the moment directories are not chmodded
recursively -- subdirectories and files will remain unaffected.
In the future, recursive chmodding will be added to ftpvweb.
This function is still in development, use it at your
own risk. It can be activated or deactivated by the administrator
in settings.inc.php.
The purpose of this function is to merge a new version
of a text file with an older version stored on the FTP
server.
On the Browse Screen, click on Update link on the same
line as the filename.
- First, upload the new file.
- ftpvweb will compare the old file stored on the
FTP server with the new file that was uploaded, and
a the code will be printed the changes highlighted
in red and green. There are only 2 kinds of changes:
a line can be deleted or added -- more complex changes
such as move or edit are not foreseen, they're handled
as a delete + an add.
Select the changes and indicate if you accept or reject
them. By default all changes are marked as accepted.
- Once you're done, submit the page, and the merged
text will be shown in the Edit Screen.
At this point, nothing is saved yet, the original file
is not yet overwritten. Once you've reviewed the changes,
save them.
Since version 0.81, most actions can be executed with
the keyboard.
On Windows, use ALT + a letter. On Apple computers, use
CTRL + a letter.
On Internet Explorer, ALT + a letter will only focus
on the page element; press ENTER to execute the action.
Which letter can be used is shown in the tooltip.
For example: to go back, the tooltip is "Back (accesskey
b)".
To display a tooltip, leave your mouse cursor for a few
seconds over an icon or link without clicking it.
Internet Explorer, Netscape and Mozilla browsers support
Access Keys, but Opera doesn't.
Since version 0.81, the Administrator can choose to restrict
each user's daily data transfer volume and script execution
time.
By default the data transfer volume is set to 50 MB per
day and the script execution time to 2500 seconds per
day - but this may be changed by the Administrator.
Both figures are logged per IP address, and per FTP server.
Once the daily consumption limit is reached, you will
still be able to browse FTP servers, but the transfer
of data to/from the server will be blocked.
If you need unrestricted access to ftpvweb, contact the
ftpvweb Administrator or
install ftpvweb on your own web server.
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