Better ASCII / Binary handling

[Almost user]

This may have been posted before.

I picked up this app half a year ago, and though it's a great app, I threw it out. (now I am about to test version 1.4).

The reason is that I miss a very easy method of determing if an upload/download should be in ASCII or binary - that is: pr session (marked files).

I am mostly using FTP whn I am working on cgi, and those script tends to create unknown file extension, though the files are all ASCII. For example, 1.news - for latest news post, or archive.2001112 - for all news in november.

What I would like to see is that to be handled the same way as in WS-FTP. That is, mark a file, or a set of files, chose ASCII, Binary or Auto mode button, and then hit transfer. Something like that.

Does anyone have a solution for this, does it exist batches to be used ?

[Fusion]

Are you saying ffxp incorrectly sees .cgi as binary files?

[Almost user]

Not at all.

Scripts typically creates files on the fly when used. It's very common such files has *unknown* extensions, such as the examples above. To CGI these are not really extensions, just parts of the file name. Files are all in ascii anyway.

The problem is that using this otherwise great app it's more work involved when moving complete saits or large folders, because every folder containg ascii files with unknown extensions has to be moved manually to avoid being moved as binary files.

Another solution is to add unknown extensions to the filter as needed, but this require checking folders and subfolders first.

I guess what I want is to just right click a set of files, and then choose Transfer as ASCII or Transfer as Binary.

[Fusion]

Okay, I see your problem. Why can't you just make sure the CGI scripts use "known" extensions for the created items, that way the problem goes away. I realize this isn't an answer perse. but I'm not sure it woould be in such demand that it would be a high priority on the TODO-list.

[Almost user]

Yes, could use .txt when writing scripts of my own.

But usually I am dealing with scripts made by others, - and it's really rare to find scripts that exclusively uses .txt. Guess the reason is Unix doesn't depend on extensions the way dos/windows do.

Using ffxp I constantly had to opened the preferences window to set the transfer mode.

I am buying beers to the one making a patch to fix this :-)) Should not be that difficult, as the commands transfer + mode already are being sent to the server. Just must be able to set mode pr. session instead of using the value stored in preferences.

I am working with web development, and this is 1 of 3 things a ftp client *must* have (keep alive and a good site manger are the others).

When even WS FTP has it, why shouldn't FlashFXP ??

So, there is the challenge :-)

[bigstar]

This is already possible from the menu, FTP -> Transfer Mode

[Almost user]

OK, your're correct. But when working with web projects this is not ideal.

1. Choosing transfer mode using the menus in the top are to many clicks. A right click solutions would be the way to go.

2. There is nothing in the GUI that tells you what transfer mode is currently chosen.

When at work I have the FTP client open all day, - and when using it, I have to switch mode almost at every session. And I can't take the risk of transfering anything in the wrong mode, having the clients call and "yelling" at me. So I constantly have to check that the correct mode is set.

Believe me, I usually wouldn't have bothered to post, but ffxp is otherwise such a great client and I would really like to see this.

[amkazak]

Yes a button that changes the transfer mode would me nice

[exseven]

what if you(bigstar) could make flashfxp read the first few bytes of a file to determine if its binary or ascii? or would that create too much overhead when transfering

[MxxCon]

that could cause mis-identification.
easiest example i could come up with is mp3 file with ID3v2 tags. unlike ID3v1, which is stored at the end, ID3v2 is stored at the begining. becuase ID3v2 is so "versatile" there is no defined size for such tags...they can have just track info, or lyrics to a song, or even album cover embeded into mp3 file.

if you don't read enough info you could transfer bin file as ascii. but what is enough?

Almost user, untill there is better solution you could transfer everything as bin and then run program that will convert "bad" txt files transfered as bin to correct mode.

[Linkster]

I do agree that it would be nice to have a button to quickly change transfer modes. Another nice idea would be to be able to right click on a file or files in the queue and set their transfer mode before you transfer them.