. Articles Newsletter Tutorials and Manuals Special Offers

Articles

1. Understanding How FTP Works 2. Schedule FTP Tasks to Manage Websites 3. Automate FTP File Upload / Download 4. FTP Client : Configure Common FTP Tasks 5. File Filtering and Folder Synchronization 6. Recorded Profiles

Newsletter Subscription

Get the inside track on all the hot news regarding DeskShare products, new releases, special promotions and discounts. Subscribe to our DeskShare News.

Auto FTP Manager v4.18

Use FTP Software to Automate File Upload / Download

Maintaining a website is challenging and time consuming.

File transfer in Auto FTP Manager is not only about uploads and downloads, it's also about executing them in combination with other useful tasks to keep web sites clean. These tasks, which Auto FTP Manager does for you, help in dealing with the dynamics of file transfer procedures.

There are different situations that might arise during a file transfer. The key to proper site maintenance lies in managing these contingencies and dealing with them immediately. This is accomplished using a set of pre-defined rules called 'Action Rules'. Action Rules are simply a set of rules that help define the task to be carried out by Auto FTP Manager in addition to file transfers, for example, deletion of a file after transfer. Action Rules can be specified only for Automated Transfer Profiles.

With Action Rules in place, you're able to act quickly and prevent your site from becoming cluttered with a lot of redundant or unnecessary files in either remote or local folders.

Let's look at a few common scenarios that occur during file transfers, and how Action Rules helps manage them.

1. When local file/folder is not present on the remote folder
   It's a good idea to keep the contents of remote and local folders identical for easy maintenance.
   
   Consider this hypothetical situation:
   
   A web site with tens of pages changes its content daily. New pages are constantly created and saved in the local folder, to be subsequently uploaded to the remote folder. A few, new pages might not be uploaded in time, even though they're ready for transfer. This could severely hamper the efficiency and productivity of the site.
   
   The solution is to use an Action Rule in Auto FTP Manager that states "Transfer file from (Folder 1) to (Folder 2)", to automate the task of transferring the file from your local folder to the remote folder which is the destination. This same step can also be initiated for entire folders.
   
   It is important to note that everywhere in the application, Folder 1 would be the name of your local folder. This could be a PC Folder or Network Drive location. The name of the remote folder or in this case, the FTP Server would appear in place of Folder 2.
   
   If you want to upload the local file and delete it after upload for better space management on the local side, then you can set an Action Rule that states "Delete file from (Folder 1) After Transfer".
   
   
2. File/folder is not present on the local folder
   In certain situations, the file that is present in the remote folder might not exist in the local source folder. In such a case you can check the action rule "Transfer file from (Folder 2) to (Folder 1)", Folder 2 being the remote folder and Folder 1 being your local folder. If you want to delete the file from the remote folder after it has been transferred to the local folder, opt for the Action Rule "Delete file from (Folder 2) after Transfer".
3. Conflict Resolution
   A conflict occurs when a file to be transferred is present in both, the source as well as the destination folder. This can be overcome with the help of conflict resolution options that save you of the trouble of actually comparing both file versions and deciding which file to keep and which one to replace. You have to select a folder. The files from the selected folder will be transferred to other folder incase they are present in both. The 5 conflict resolution options are:
• Overwrite: With this option the file on the other folder will be overwritten with the one present on the folder you have selected.
• Append date and time: Here the file will be transferred from the selected folder to the other folder. It will be renamed in the other folder by appending the current date and time.
• Skip: The file will not be transferred i.e. no action will take place.
• Overwrite with newer: If the newer file (with reference to the date and time of the files) is present in the selected folder, the older file in the other folder will be overwritten with this newer file.
• Overwrite with larger: If the file that is larger in size is present on the selected folder, the smaller one in the other folder will be overwritten by this larger file.
• Filters
  By default, all files are included in the automated transfer process. If you want to include only certain type of files in the transfer process or exclude some file types, you can put a filter on them. Simply select the Include or Exclude option and specify the File Type you want. You have other advanced filtering options like Modification Date and File Size.

Specifying Action Rules

Action Rules can be defined while creating an Automated Transfer Profile. A profile consists of information regarding the connection details, folders to synchronize, files to be included or excluded during transfers and other customizable options.

You can edit Action Rules in the following way:
1. Start Auto FTP Manager.
2. From the profiles list, right-click on the Automated Transfer Profile whose Action Rules you want to edit. Click on Edit Profile.
3. Click on Transfer tab on the Edit Profile Properties dialog.
   
4. Make changes to the Action Rules by selecting the options you want.
5. Click on OK

With well-configured Action Rules in place, you can concentrate on the core business of running the web site instead of getting bogged down by manual maintenance tasks.