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Chapter 5: Understanding and Using FTP

FTP stands for file transfer protocol and that name says it all--it is a widely used and accepted standard for transferring files from one computer to another over the Internet. When you transfer a file from one computer to antother it is either Uploading or Downloading. If you move the file from your computer to the other one, that's uploading. If you copy the file from the other computer to yours, that's called downloading. FTP is the most common technique for uploading a Website. FTP capability is built into many Web design tools such as the CoffeeCup HTML editor. If
you're using a basic text editor to create your Web pages, you can use a stand-alone FTP program such as CoffeeCup Direct FTP.

Publishing Your Website with Direct FTP

When you first install and start Direct FTP it will not have any servers setup. You must setup your Web server before you can upload your pages, as follows:

Start Direct FTP.
Click the Servers button on the toolbar. You'll see the My Sites dialog box which lists any servers that are setup. If you are just getting started this list will be empty. Click the Add button.
The next several dialog boxes ask you for the following information about your server. Fill in each dialog box and click Next to continue.
- Profile Name: Assign a nickname to this profile, such as "My Website."
- Username and password: fill in the username and password that were provided to you by your Web Hosting company.
- Hostname: fill in the name of your Web server as provided by your Web host; for example, www.mysite.com. Note: check the information provided by your Web host as you may need to specify ftp.mysite.com or something similar instead.
- Default folder: enter the default folder that was provided by your Web host. If there is no default folder leave this blank.
- The next dialog asks if you use a proxy server. Most people should click No. If you do use a proxy server, click Yes and fill in the proxy server details.
Finally, click Finish to complete the server setup.

Once you have setup your Web server with Direct FTP you are ready to upload. Start by clicking the Servers button on the toolbar to display the My Sites dialog box. Then, in the My Sites list, click the site you want to upload to and then click the Connect button. Your screen will look something like Figure 5.2.

CoffeeCup Direct FTP
Figure 5.2. The Direct FTP screen after connecting to your site.

The panel on the left side of the screen displays files on your local computer. Use the drop-down list at the top to change to a different folder. The list below displays the files in the current folder. The panel on the right side of the screen displays the files on the remote server. Use the
drop-down list at the top of the panel to change to a different folder on the server. Here are some of the actions you can take:

To upload a file, drag it from the left panel to the right panel. Or, you can click the file and then click the Upload button on the toolbar.
To delete a file from the server, right-click its name in the right panel and then select Delete from the popup menu.
To rename a file on the server, right-click its name in the right panel and then select rename from the popup menu. Type in the new name and press Enter.
To create a new folder on the server, click the Create a New Folder button just above the server folder drop-down list.
To move up to the parent folder, click the Go Up One Folder button.
To move down to a subfolder, double-click the folder name in the file list.

Remember that file names are case sensitive on many Web servers and spaces in the file names are bad news. If you have been told that your default page should be named index.html then a name of Index.html will not work.

Uploading Your Website with the HTML Editor

Before you can upload your Web pages to your Web server, you have to tell the CoffeeCup HTML Editor about your server. You'll need the URL of the server as well as your user name and password--all this information will have been sent to you when you by your Web hosting company. Then, in the editor, select File|Upload File To Server|Add or Edit Servers. You'll see the Server Configuration dialog box which lists any servers you already have listed; since you are just getting started this list will be empty. Click the Add button to add a new server. You'll see the dialog box shown in Figure 5.3.

Figure 5.3. You use this dialog box to enter information about your Web server.

In this dialog box, make entries as follows:

Nickname of the Server Profile: A name such as "My Website" that will be used for this profile.
Username: The username provided by your Web host.
Password: The password provided by your Web host. Note that passwords are case-sensitive on most servers.
Port: Leave this at the default of 21 unless you have been instructed to change it.
Web Server Address: The URL of your Website.
Remote Directories: For each folder or directory on the remote server that you will be publishing to, enter the name here and click Add.

Once all the information has been entered, click the Cool button. You'll be returned to the Server Configuration dialog box (Figure 5.4) which will now have an icon for the Website you just entered. If you need to modify a configuration, click its icon then click the Edit button. Otherwise, click the Close button to return to the editor.

Figure 5.4. The Server Configurations dialog box lists your Web server entries.

Once you have defined your Web server and folders you are ready to publish files from the HTML editor. It's really quite simple:

To upload the page you are currently editing, right-click in the editing pane. To upload another file, right-click it in the file list in the file list pane.
Select Upload File to Server from the popup menu.
Select the desired server from the next menu.
Select the desired destination folder from the next menu.

The file will be uploaded to the specified folder on the server.

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