What Mac text editor can do HTML-Kit style FTP?

March 28, 2006 6:25 PM

Are there any text editors for Mac that can do FTP the way HTML-Kit (for Windows) does?

Here is a screenshot of my setup.

The right pane is a list of local and FTP folders. Via this list, I can open, edit and save files locally and remotely. I find the productivity value to be dramatic. Is there a text editor for Mac that does this same thing in this same way? If not, what are my best options? As far as I can tell, BBEdit and TextMate do this basic thing, but not with the always-visible list.

posted by shaneflyer to computers & internet (18 comments total)

JEdit allows you to access FTP servers, provided that you install the plugin after you install JEdit itself (which is easy, it's got a very simple, integrated plugin manager).

As for the always-up pane, I haven't tried it myself, but the editor is very flexible, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was easy to set it as always visible.
posted by odinsdream at 6:42 PM on March 28, 2006

Have you tried accessing the ftp server through the finder?
posted by rschroed at 6:50 PM on March 28, 2006

Transmit ftp client integrates very nicely with your favourite text editor.
posted by cwhitfcd at 6:57 PM on March 28, 2006

Dreamweaver will do what you want with a remote directory tree and editor open at once.

I use Transmit and BBEdit.
posted by nonmyopicdave at 7:09 PM on March 28, 2006

Text Wrangler. Most of the features of BBEdit, but free.
posted by al_fresco at 8:03 PM on March 28, 2006

Just to clarify, Text Wrangler has an "Open from FTP server…" menu item. Works great, and your files are remembered in the Recent Files menu.

Now, all you have to do is remember to back up your file to your local drive, in case your server eats it…
posted by al_fresco at 8:06 PM on March 28, 2006

I've used TextWrangler. What bothers me about it is that to open a file (remote or local), you have to invoke the open dialog, open the connection (if remote), browse to the folder, open the file... and then do it all again for the next file. Too many steps! (Compared to what I'm used to.)
posted by shaneflyer at 8:06 PM on March 28, 2006

you have to invoke the open dialog, open the connection (if remote), browse to the folder, open the file... and then do it all again for the next file. Too many steps!

See above. Check out the voluminous preferences available in TW. You should be able to set things up in a satisfactory way. Another option is to use an FTP client like CyberDuck, which allows you to make clickable droplets that will open to the file or folder you want and then edit with your favorite editor. Again, you can set this up how you want it. For super-control-freakness, use a utility like Butler to make keyboard shortcuts to your favorite files/locations.
posted by al_fresco at 8:17 PM on March 28, 2006

Cyberduck also has a nifty widget (see above link) if you have Tiger installed. Set up a screen corner to activate Dashboard, then just drag a file to that corner and drop it on the Cyberduck widget. This, in combination with the droplets, makes CyberDuck a great option.

IANACD- I just like it a lot.
posted by al_fresco at 8:24 PM on March 28, 2006

I use BBEdit and Interarchy. Find the file in Interarchy, hit Apple-J and you're transparently editing and saving in BBEdit.

I'm realising now this question's been asked that I would probably prefer it if BBEdit's built-in FTP client could be opened in a window or pallette, not just work from the File menu. I never use it because, like shaneflyer, I think there are too many steps and it only works as a modal dialog.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 8:51 PM on March 28, 2006

I would probably prefer it if BBEdit's built-in FTP client could be opened in a window or pallette, not just work from the File menu

File > New > FTP/SFTP Browser

?
posted by influx at 11:13 PM on March 28, 2006

Wow. I have been using BBEdit for about ten years now ... and that's been hidden in the submenus? I'm officially an idiot.

So the answer to the original question is BBEdit then.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 1:14 AM on March 29, 2006

I've been using BBEdit for years too, and I'm constantly finding stuff. I discovered bbdiff the other day, and I don't know how I managed to miss it for so long, or how I got by without it.
posted by influx at 1:20 AM on March 29, 2006

Transmit has this wicked feature where you can edit any remote file. So you can like edit a photograph in Photoshop, or a textfile in TextMate. It's all pretty seamless.
posted by chunking express at 6:47 AM on March 29, 2006

Same with YummyFTP. Hook it up with your preferred text and graphic editors and it works just like a window in your OS.
posted by macinchik at 10:31 AM on March 29, 2006

Yeah, pretty much any FTP client will do this -- I think Interarchy was the first to offer "Edit in BBEdit" but now it's supported by most FTP clients and many editors. The built-in FTP browser is not bad but you really ought to have a stand-alone FTP client anyway. Personally I continue to like Interarchy because it can maintain an automatically-updated "FTP disk" in which your local copy of a site is automatically synchronized with the remote server whenever you change anything (add a file, delete a file, edit a file with ANY app, etc.). It also has a number of excellent network diagnostics tools including a traffic monitor and supports WebDAV (iDisk) as well as FTP/SFTP etc.. They just released a new version of it too.
posted by kindall at 11:17 AM on March 29, 2006

it can maintain an automatically-updated "FTP disk"

I tried that but it seemed to run on its own schedule -- it wasn't a tool for someone in a hurry.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 11:55 AM on March 29, 2006

It typically takes a few seconds for it to notice you've changed something, yeah. That's so if you change a bunch of stuff all at once it can bundle it up for one sync operation.
posted by kindall at 5:15 PM on March 29, 2006