Cross download - upload warning

MrVon · 07-08-2011, 07:41 PM

If you want to edit e.g. html page on ftp and you at some point drag file about.html for download or double click or whatever in this case it will be queued for download and when you click transfer it will download.

In some cases you dont know this file is been queued.

Now when you made changes to the file you drag it to ftp and it queues file to upload but its already in queue to download meaning first it will be overwritten by old version from ftp and only then uploaded, i think its good to have warning.

When file path for upload matches with same file in queue there should be warning.

MxxCon · 07-08-2011, 08:50 PM

There is already a warning in File Transfer Rules. Make sure you configure those rules to ask you what you want to do.

Also if you want to edit a remote file, you don't have to transfer it 1st. You can start editing remotely and FlashFXP will automatically download it and re-upload once you are done editing.

bigstar · 07-09-2011, 03:21 PM

FlashFXP provides two ways to edit files, If you want to edit the file remotely you can right-click and select edit, this will launch the windows default editor for the file type (Default editors can be customized via Options > File Associations)

If you want to edit the file locally and then upload it this can be done via right-click Advanced Transfers > Edit & Upload.

By default after you're done editing the file and click save in your editor the file will be automatically uploaded to the server. This can be configured to prompt or manual upload via Options > Preferences > View and Edit File > Default action on save.

These are the preferred method of editing files in FlashFXP.

If you prefer to edit the file some other way and then manually upload it and if you have the file accidentally queued for download with your file transfer rules set to overwrite this could cause a major headache. I understand that this is human error and we all make mistakes but I'm not entirely sure there is a viable way to prevent or warn the user in such a situation. All of the methods that come to mind would add significant overhead and be quite inefficient.

MrVon · 08-04-2011, 03:50 PM

Professional web designers dont edit files on ftp. We create local project and upload it from local computer.

When editing file from ftp directly it might not upload properly if you have connection problem or the ftp has problem and sometimes it uploads blank and all contents are lost.
E.g you open file from ftp for editing in editor them saved and it uploaded to ftp, now you open it for next edit and old file in editor resets with new file which is blank and there is no way to undo...

bigstar · 08-05-2011, 12:13 PM

How would you propose we to test and display such a warning?

Would the warning be triggered when you add the file to the queue for upload, or when the queue is started, or when the file is about to be transferred?

MrVon · 08-05-2011, 05:04 PM

I think right after you click transfer button it should check and warn with box (about to overwrite, cancel or okay).

If not all need this kind of feature you perhaps could make it off by default and put check box somewhere in options to enable it.

Test itself is i guess you can
1. pull list of files from queue
2. check if there any downloads at all if not skip test
3. if download is after upload in queue then ignore
4. if downloads are before upload in queue check for each file if download destination matches any upload destination of file that goes after it
5. warn

MrVon · 09-30-2011, 11:37 AM

One more thing that i think is important is option to disable shortcut CTRL+T for server side window.
Or even make one ftp for upload only and no download from it until option changed that would be the best

And make this site overwrite only on upload i mean not all just one site

MrVon · 01-17-2012, 05:24 PM

Great work you did on flashfxp 4.1 its totally solves problem for me, at first i was not using this feature but now i set in Options > File associations, "Preform the following actions on save" for every file (*.*) to "Prompt" and it works great. It prompt to upload file every time you save it and you still can "undo" (it still erase history if you click edit file on ftp again, but there is no need to click edit more than once anymore.).

It even speeds up programming process for me as i edit many files step by step e.g. first step in \index.php and secon step in \includes\classes\user\class.user.php and third step back in \index.php before i had to jump folders on ftp to edit each file now i can just open it for edit once and it prompt to upload it every time i save even if i am in entirely different folder on ftp!

Good stuff.

EDIT: Only prob i found - sometimes if you click edit file, change it and save too fast (under 5 seconds from moment you opened it) it does NOT prompt to upload it.

MrVon · 01-27-2012, 07:23 PM

One thing i found that i don't like about "prompt" method and i did not tested it, but i think "upload" method too is that if i connect to another ftp and then save file it uploads it to the ftp i connected even if its not ftp where i edited file.

e.g. i have live ftp and development ftp which exact same structure and its confusing to know where it uploads when i save file. I think it should check and upload only to ftp where i originally opened file from.

p.s. i think i messed up my servers... because live was not ready to accept class file from live and dev cannot accept file from live because of changes made...

bigstar · 01-27-2012, 10:54 PM

I spent quite some time evaluating and testing all the different possibilities and here is what I've come up with.

1. Connecting to different FTP server will automatically clear the current active edit list and any remote edits in progress will not trigger a prompt on save. (Now a Edit and upload on the other hand might, see #3).

2. If you save a file while connected to Site A, the upload prompt is shown, if you move the prompt aside, disconnect from Site A and connect to Site B and then switch back to the upload prompt and click Yes to upload the file.. FlashFXP then attempts to read an invalid edit record and the results are somewhat unpredictable. In most cases nothing happens, however in one case I managed to crash FlashFXP. I am working on a fix that will be included in the next update.

3. If you use the "Edit and upload" feature within the local browser where you're editing a local file directly (and not a temporary copy of a remote file) there is a possibility of confusion and a chance to upload the file to the wrong server, but only if all of the following are true. 1. the file must exist in the active edits history of the current server. 2. you save the file while connected to the current server triggering the upload prompt. 3. you click yes to upload the file. .i.e you use Edit and upload to edit a file on site A, disconnect site A, connect to site B, forget your on site B and save the file you were previously editing. If this file is in the active edit history it will prompt you to upload the file.

Depending on how you are using the active edit feature a simple solution could be to turn off the remote edit history. Options > Preferences > View and Edit File > Remote Edit > [ ] Remember edit history.

I am still investigating the issue with a fast save within 5 seconds not triggering a prompt.

Update: It looks like the write time of a file has a 2 second resolution, and the write time isn't updated until the file handle is closed. This is not fast enough when the time it takes FlashFXP to close the file handle and launch the text editor can be just a few milliseconds. I have a solution though. When doing a remote edit we do not preserve the file date/time when downloading to the temporary file, so my plan is to use this to our advantage by changing the modified date/time of the temporary file to a slightly earlier time. In all my tests this seems to solve the issue of the prompt not being triggered.