06. FTP Refresher (Cyberduck, FileZilla, etc)

Introduction

This is a simple refresher on how to use an FTP program if you have not before (i.e. transfer student, somehow skipped a class where this may have happened), or do not remember how. This will be using Cyberduck, but FileZilla should be mostly similar.

What is FTP?

FTP is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol it is just a way, as the name implies, to transfer files between different computers. This is simply another computer (the school's public webserver that you have a space on), and not a cloud service with an interface like Google Drive, OneDrive, or similar. The program we use allows us to (relatively intuitively) transfer the files to this public website.

Why is FTP?

You'll need this to upload the final version of your site for the Remapping Project.

How is FTP?

First, you'll need a program.

Once you have one of those downloaded, you'll need to actually connect to your Purchase College, SUNY web page. You'll need:

  • Your username https://chocolatey.org/installThe same one that you use for email, MyHeliotrope, etc.
  • Your password → Again, should be the same one.
  • The right type of connection → In Cyberduck there is a dropdown that says FTP (File Transfer Protocol), click it and make sure you select FTP-SSL (Explicit AUTH TLS) In FileZilla, you should be able to select FTP and then in a separate dropdown select TLS/SSL as the encryption
  • Server name → students.purchase.edu
  • Port → 21

You should be able to login with this information (in Cyberduck there is a button that says Open Connection that looks like a globe). Once you do, it should save for next time.

Once you are logged in you should see some kind of an index file (it may be index.php). You should be able to see the results at "students.purchase.edu/[your first name].[your last name]" If there is some issue with how your name is registered in the system you may have to contact CTS to know what your URL would be.

You can either put your work into a specific folder ("DMD2_Remapping"), or just make your index page show the project, up to you.

If you really wanna get high tech

If you want to use ftp via the terminal you can install a program called "lftp"

  • on Windows → which does not have a default package manager, it is slightly more annoying as you need to install something called chocolatey and then install lftp from there.
  • on a Mac → you can type (in the vscode terminal) "brew install lftp" and then it will make it happen.

Once installed you log in via:

lftp [yourfirstname].[yourlastname]@students.purchase.edu

and then type:

put [name of file you want to put]

Troubleshooting

I, and potentially people in class, can offer some limited troubleshooting, but if there is an issue logging in, that may just be a CTS issue. You can submit a work order via this link (you need to be logged in)