DreamWeaver-like FTP client

September 7, 2005 5:56 PM

Does anyone know of an (S)FTP client that works in the same way that DreamWeaver's built-in FTP works? I'd like to have a local directory that mirrors my server's directory, and transfer files without having to browse to the proper locations both locally and remotely every time I want to transfer a file.

I have a development environment where I edit files and use CVS on my local machine, but must test the (PHP) files on a remote server. The directory structure is deep, and thus I'm trying to streamline my workflow. DreamWeaver's FTP client works really well for this, but I don't want all the bloat of DreamWeaver as I'm not using the editing features at all.

Most FTP clients require that you browse both a "local" and "remote" directory structure when transfering files. I'd like to skip this step by establishing a "root" directory for my project, and then let the client figure out where to transfer things.

I'm not looking for something that lets you edit "remote" files. I need to have a local copy of the files for checking in/out of CVS, global searches, etc. Also not looking for something that synchronizes large directories, I need to chose files individually.

I'm looking for both Mac & Windows suggestions! Thanks.

posted by sfluke20 to computers & internet (14 comments total)

Sounds like WinSCP might do it. I use it for SCP but they say that it'll do SFTP as well, and it does linked browsing (Ctrl-Alt-B to start that).
posted by Dipsomaniac at 5:58 PM on September 7, 2005

And I I read the whole post I would have remembered to say that it's Windows.
posted by Dipsomaniac at 5:59 PM on September 7, 2005

Panic's Transmit has a feature called DockSend that does this. You drop your file on the Transmit icon in the Dock, and it puts it in the corresponding file from your web site.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:20 PM on September 7, 2005

The OS X FTP client Transmit has a feature where you can "link" your local and remote directories in the way you're looking for.
posted by bcwinters at 6:21 PM on September 7, 2005

Oh, and Transmit supports SFTP. And it rocks.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:22 PM on September 7, 2005

Filezilla is great.
posted by trbrts at 6:35 PM on September 7, 2005

seconding Filezilla. I use it exclusively
posted by cosmicbandito at 6:35 PM on September 7, 2005

rsync can be used to efficiently maintain a mirror between two locations. You can synchronize in either direction, and it only transfers the parts that have changed, so if you change one line in a file in a directory of 1000 files, it will only have to actually transfer that one change. It can be used recursively on whole trees, it can preserve modification dates/times, and it can be used over ssh (so if you can currently ssh to the remote location you don't have to install any kind server.)

If you're on windows you can use the rsync port included in Cygwin, but I am sure there are native ports if you don't like Cygwin. There are probably GUI front ends for it too.
posted by Rhomboid at 7:10 PM on September 7, 2005

I <3 a href="http://zabkat.com/">xplorer2! It's a windows explorer replacement, that has a ton of functions (including ftp) and also supports mirrored browsing (it's for windows).

If I had to choose only 1 utility to be able to install on a vanilla windows box, this would be it.

There's a lite version (I'm not sure what functionality it supports), but the full functional shareware is cheap ($26) and worth every cent. Just being able to go to an ancestor directory by clicking on it's name in the address bar has saved me enough time to pay for it.

Yep, I've laid the hyperbole on thick, but I really do love xplorer2 this much.
posted by freshgroundpepper at 11:36 PM on September 7, 2005

doh! that link looked good in preview! It's here (xplorer2)
posted by freshgroundpepper at 11:37 PM on September 7, 2005

Filezilla has been my friend for a long time now. Plus, if you run it using XML files rather than the registry, it's USB-friendly and thus ortable to wherever you happen to be working that day.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:13 AM on September 8, 2005

Oh - forgot to mention - in addition to plain vanilla FTP, Filezilla can handle FTP using SSL, TLS, both, or SFTP using SSH2.
posted by caution live frogs at 6:16 AM on September 8, 2005

I never thought I'd pay for anything as basic as an (S)FTP client before Transmit. It supports "remote editing" for BBEdit (which also has "Open via (S)FTP" built in, TextWrangler, and SubEthaEdit.
posted by mkultra at 6:49 AM on September 8, 2005

WebDrive sounds close to what you are looking for. It mounts (S)FTP and WebDAV connections as Windows "shares", so the remote filesystem becomes a drive on the machine. It tries to be smart about caching and mirroring, etc.

Unlike the built-in "Web Folders" functionality, it gives you a drive letter, so *any* Windows/DOS/Cygwin app can access the remote FS. If I have a fast connection to the server (say in the client's LAN), then most operations are transparent (editing, grepping, diffing, even recursive).

Just a happy customer.
posted by costas at 7:25 AM on September 8, 2005