Uploading on the road - What is required?

If one is on the road and has only the shelter of local cyber cafes, what does it take to upload stuff to one's website? Of course a laptop, word processor, acrobat distiller for making pdf files..... How to upload though? Does one have to install an ftp program on the pc in one's local cyber cafe (if they dont have it installed already)? Can one only upload to the ftp program one uses at home? Etc. Tips please for an upcoming pilgrim!

It should be possible to use Internet Explorer as a FTP-client. It isn't the ideal solution, but then again if you can't hook up your laptop anywhere, that's what you'd have to do. You can reach the FTP of your site as follows:

ftp://username:password@servername.com

Oh yes, I remember you told me that last year when I was in Navadvip. Somehow that didnt work out. Cant remember why not. It was somehow the fault of the cyber cafe. Is that possible? In which scenarios could this not work please?

I can't remember beginning with which version of IE there's FTP included. It may be that there was a firewall blocking the connection, too. If the firewall is the issue, then there's little you can do about it. However if it's just the IE that bugs you, you can keep a FTP program with you on a floppy or a CD that you can install if necessary. I wouldn't start downloading FTP programs in those cybercafes...

And of course the most tech-savvy people can just open up command prompt and type in "ftp", using the built-in FTP client of Windows. However it doesn't have a graphical user interface, so using it may be a bit cumbersome for those not accustomed to command line operations. For reference, basic FTP commands.

Here's a sample session where I connect to ragadesign.com, fill in a username and password when prompted, browse to the correct directory, upload an image, download a file, and delete the image I just uploaded, then closing the session. Whatever you see written after ftp> is my input.

[codebox]D:Temp>ftp
ftp> open ragadesign.com
Connected to ragadesign.com.
220 ProFTPD FTP Server ready.
User (ragadesign.com:(none)): user#ragadesign.com
331 Password required for user#ragadesign.com.
Password:
230 User siteroot#ragadesign.com logged in.
ftp> cd /var/www/html
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> put updateimage.gif
200 PORT command successful
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for updateimage.gif
226 Transfer complete.
ftp: 3832 bytes sent in 0,01Seconds 383,20Kbytes/sec.
ftp> get index.php
200 PORT command successful
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for index.php (974 bytes)
226 Transfer complete.
ftp: 1039 bytes received in 0,02Seconds 51,95Kbytes/sec.
ftp> delete updateimage.gif
250 DELE command successful.
ftp> quit
221 Goodbye.

D:Temp>[/codebox]

It is far from ideal, because you leave your password visible to everyone on the web-address list of the local computer, so that everyone else in the cyber cafe can read it or not?

That isn't cached. It'll only be visible you type it in, and will disappear as you hit return. Of course, you should also be able to just type in the address starting with ftp:// and then type in the username and password once prompted. However I recall having some problems with that on some servers. That may or may not work.

A friend suggested using a PHP-script at the server, which would help you upload from your browser through a HTML-form. Unfortunately, if memory serves, I don't think your server supports PHP, Advaita?

To test whether this has changed, open Notepad, enter the following, and save as info.php, and upload to your server. Ensure that the extension is .php, not .txt. (Otherwise, just download the attached file and use that.)


If all you get is that piece of text, then PHP isn't available. If you get output with various system specs, then let me know and you'll have an easy solution for this.

Not last time you checked it for me, which is a while ago.



What does that mean? Just copy and paste into my ftp address?



What is that?

Grab that file and upload it like any other file to your server. Then see what the output looks like when you browse to it with your browser. If it just gives you the code, then PHP isn't supported. Otherwise you'll see something like this.

Hmmm. The outcome seems clear to me. Thanks anyway

Now why do you open that up in DreamWeaver? Or does it get automatically downloaded?

Would the outcome be different otherwise? If so then explain how. I just downloaded the link you gave earlier.

Download the info.php file, "Save As". Save it as a file. Then upload that info.php file by FTP to your website. Then browse with your browser to that file and see what it says.

Just curious:
Are you uploading to your webpage because you need a place to stick stuff, or are you uploading so that others can browse to it on your site?

I'm trying to get at if you just need a place to store files, or if you want the files to be on your website.. in a pinch I could probably give you a place to upload to inside of a web browser (much like attaching photos here...)

Save it as a file? What kind of file? Where do I go from here?

Yes, right. Like that. Just save in the regular way. Then upload that file by FTP to your website.

That is aimed at me or at Madhava?

Exactly the same result...

I could also not open it anymore after downloading it.

you...

I am using my webspace for both purposes indeed but my provider only gives 25 mb free webspace as part of a special ADSL offer I signed up to. So I can only use a small part of this webspace for storage. What type of space are you thinking of offering me? Is it free and is it private?

Free: Yes
Private: (except for me) Yes

Figure I've got a few gigs free that you could use as temporary storage... again, there would be no 'website' per se, but a place where you could dump files via a web interface for the short to mid term... interested?

My provider was so kind to give me the tip to just type ftp://username@servername.com
In this way the password does not appear on the addressbar but is discretely asked for after hitting enter. This works. Next question: Unless one has a friend on the road who runs Dreamweaver or a similar html-pagemaking program, how does one make html pages or changes in existing html pages? I heard that this is also possible in MS Word. Is that true? Anyone knows?

MS Word makes a horrible mess out of pages, it adds huge amounts of clutter, varieties of unnecessary formating. I remember vividly cleaning up a 150KB HTML page made with Word, ending up with some 50 KB of necessary content to produce the same layout. And that included all the text on the page!

Simple changes can even be made with Notepad or any other plain text editor. Just open up the HTML-page with Notepad and change whatever little you need to change. The tags there aren't that hard to figure out. (Feel free to ask.) Of course if one needs to do some more complex formating, such as tables and so forth, it takes a bit more expertise in coding them in. Personally I never use any editors, I code my pages with a plain text editor and use the W3C-recommendations for reference whenever there is an attribute I'm forgetting.

Tags means lines like

That shouldnt be too hard to learn. Now when I made changes in Notepad, how do I save the changes? Under 'Save as type' I should select 'All files' and after the file name after 'File Name' I just type in .html?

QUOTE

If you want a Notepad like tool, that is made for web pages, try:

www.evrsoft.com/1stpage/

If memory serves, the Evrsoft piece produces some horribly old code. It isn't even HTML 4 compliant, what to speak of XHTML! Personally I use Crimson Editor, which is a pretty basic text editor with all the stuff you need for coding, which for me is basically syntax highlighting and line numbers.

Re DreamWeaver, I don't know which version you've been testing, but it's not really just a fancy text editor, it has basically three modes: plain text, wysiwyg and split screen between the two. Granted, it's among the better of the lot in the wysiwyg world, but I in principle stay clear of wysiwyg, as I want to know every single character that goes into what I produce, I hate these intelligent automatic features which guess wrong half of the time.

Why does the content matter and how? What is the difference what's in the file for it to be displayed by clicking on a link?



Thanx 4 that too, but remember I am looking here for the simplest possible solutions and I do expect people to have Notepad in Indian village cyber joints.
So the unequivocal answer to the question: 'Can one not only edit but also create html files in Notepad?' is YES?

If so, then after creating them we should save them under Save As by typing in the file name and the .html extension?

There is no real difference between the two, you just need to know which one it is, and be consistent. I you call for .htm, the server won't find the .html, and vice versa.

Yes, it is totally possible to use Notepad for new html-pages on the road. To make your life a bit easier, you may want to create a template (basically just a html page with the layout of your site, but with no text) you keep with you on a floppy, and into which you insert whatever you want to upload. You can open that up from the floppy, and save as a new file with .html extension with your new content written inside.

How about just opening up an existing html file in Notepad and reconstructing it into a new one by deleting and inserting stuff? Any new html file I will compose wont be that radically different from the existing ones I made (unless and until I learn more tricks).

Thanx DC. However, I just found out that my own server is offering such a free facility also, its called Webdisk here. Thanx again anyway.

Yes, that's basically the same thing as using a template. Sure that is possible.

Right please note.. linux only for 4+ years...
I only go to Windows when I have to

Linux has the excellent options of Quanta (http://quanta.sourceforge.net/) & bluefish (http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/) both excellent Open Source html editors...