FTP to shave minutes from my day
October 9, 2008 12:00 PM Subscribe
Free FTP software with 'watch folder' support...
One of the things I do at work requires that files be FTPd to a remote location once they've been through a compression program. The files are created by Sorensen Squeeze which has a watch folder, once they are done they are put by Squeeze into another folder, then I have to FTP them manually.
Work's unlikely to pay for a program, I don't want to, but I figure there must be some little open-source or free app to do the job.
One of the things I do at work requires that files be FTPd to a remote location once they've been through a compression program. The files are created by Sorensen Squeeze which has a watch folder, once they are done they are put by Squeeze into another folder, then I have to FTP them manually.
Work's unlikely to pay for a program, I don't want to, but I figure there must be some little open-source or free app to do the job.
Response by poster: Yeah, good point I suppose. Windows (XP if we're being specific). Sorry about that.
posted by sycophant at 1:04 PM on October 9, 2008
posted by sycophant at 1:04 PM on October 9, 2008
If you're using Windows one option is to write a batch program that will ftp all files in the folder which Squeeze outputs too and then move those files to another folder after they are transferred so they don't get transferred again. You will need to setup a scheduled task so that the batch program runs every 10 minutes, hour, 2 hours, 24 hours, etc. The time between each transfer attempt is up to you.
Here's a how to guide for scheduling a task every hour if you need help setting that up. You'll want to setup the task schedular to run ftp.bat, shown below.
I'm at work now and can't get my computer's FTP to work to test this, but from what I understand you can tell Window's FTP to read from a script. Sorry I can't test it for you.
Notes to make this work on your system. Save ftp.bat and login.txt in the same directory. Change SqueezeOutputFolder to the path where Squeeze puts the compressed files when they are finished. Change Squeeze-Ext to the extension of the compressed files, or if there are multiple extensions use *.* Change temp_folder to a folder you have previously created where the files that have been transferred via the script can be stored for safe keeping. Change XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX to the IP or hostname of your destination server.
ftp.bat:
@echo off
ftp -s:login.txt XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
move c:\SqueezeOutputFolder\*.Squeeze-Ext c:\temp_folder
The text file login.txt tells Window's FTP what to do. Change username and password to your data, and then change SqueezeOutputFolder and Squeeze-Ext as about. Also, if you don't need to change the destination directory once you FTP to your work's server then the line cd /Destination/Dir may be omitted.
login.txt:
username
password
cd /Destination/Dir
bin
prompt
mput c:\SqueezeOutputFolder\*.Squeeze-Ext
bye
posted by trueluk at 1:29 PM on October 9, 2008
Here's a how to guide for scheduling a task every hour if you need help setting that up. You'll want to setup the task schedular to run ftp.bat, shown below.
I'm at work now and can't get my computer's FTP to work to test this, but from what I understand you can tell Window's FTP to read from a script. Sorry I can't test it for you.
Notes to make this work on your system. Save ftp.bat and login.txt in the same directory. Change SqueezeOutputFolder to the path where Squeeze puts the compressed files when they are finished. Change Squeeze-Ext to the extension of the compressed files, or if there are multiple extensions use *.* Change temp_folder to a folder you have previously created where the files that have been transferred via the script can be stored for safe keeping. Change XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX to the IP or hostname of your destination server.
ftp.bat:
@echo off
ftp -s:login.txt XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX
move c:\SqueezeOutputFolder\*.Squeeze-Ext c:\temp_folder
The text file login.txt tells Window's FTP what to do. Change username and password to your data, and then change SqueezeOutputFolder and Squeeze-Ext as about. Also, if you don't need to change the destination directory once you FTP to your work's server then the line cd /Destination/Dir may be omitted.
login.txt:
username
password
cd /Destination/Dir
bin
prompt
mput c:\SqueezeOutputFolder\*.Squeeze-Ext
bye
posted by trueluk at 1:29 PM on October 9, 2008
Does Squeeze put them in the destination folder once they're finished converting, or are they processed and written progressively to that directory? If the former, then what trueluk said. Otherwise, you have to be very careful not to FTP partially encoded files.
Alternatively, for a small amount of $, there's FolderFTP.
posted by scruss at 1:38 PM on October 9, 2008
Alternatively, for a small amount of $, there's FolderFTP.
posted by scruss at 1:38 PM on October 9, 2008
Response by poster: Yeah, Squeeze is making two files while it compresses, one with the target filename that is empty while it works, and the other called NotFlattened####.mov which it has open for writing it seems.
Once it completes it seems that it deletes the placeholder file and renames the NotFlattened workfile to it's finished name...
So I suppose if I can look for files that aren't called NotFlattened and have a size of more than 0KB then I'd have completed conversions.
Not too sure how to do that in a batch script. I could do it in Linux with find, but that's not really available to me - and in fact my options for installing applications are somewhat limited anyway.
posted by sycophant at 2:34 PM on October 9, 2008
Once it completes it seems that it deletes the placeholder file and renames the NotFlattened workfile to it's finished name...
So I suppose if I can look for files that aren't called NotFlattened and have a size of more than 0KB then I'd have completed conversions.
Not too sure how to do that in a batch script. I could do it in Linux with find, but that's not really available to me - and in fact my options for installing applications are somewhat limited anyway.
posted by sycophant at 2:34 PM on October 9, 2008
WinSCP has a 'synchronize' function which, when running, is essentially watching folders for changes. As a bonus, its one of the better (S)FTP clients for windows. As another bonus, its free. As in beer.
posted by Smoosh Faced Lion at 1:23 AM on October 10, 2008
posted by Smoosh Faced Lion at 1:23 AM on October 10, 2008
SyncBack Freeware can upload a folder to ftp and can be run on a daily schedule. When you start the program and create a profile click expert to get to the FTP settings. You can also filter by filename + more.
posted by sando at 3:39 AM on October 10, 2008
posted by sando at 3:39 AM on October 10, 2008
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posted by AaRdVarK at 12:24 PM on October 9, 2008