I see security has been mentioned a couple times but I hope that sinks in - FTP is not a secure protocol. Your EDI headers and detail are open for viewing. Seeing that you're in the trucking business someone might find it worth their time to watch your packets or maybe even make modifications in order to redirect or intercept shipments. No, not paranoia, it happens.
In your case where you could be sending data from the client or the server, I'd recommend using cURL, which has consistent cross-OS syntax (unlike Windows FTP and *nix FTP which are different) as well as security via OpenSSL. I've used FTP from AccuTerm and I use AccuTerm for a lot of other purposes, but there are limits to what we can do from the client, especially in a dynamic environment. Also, FTP itself is not a guaranteed protocol. Any code you have written around it should be able to recognize and handle faults. As one simple example, FTP may be blocked at any time by updates to Windows Firewall or other firewall/anti-virus software or hardware. A new PC may not be able to FTP out. Someone doing work from home may have completely different network conditions. Unless you capture the results of connections and return them to the server, you may not know when errors happen. In the trucking business you need to ensure that your transactions are received and acknowledged. This is why EDI has traditionally moved through Value-Add Networks. They are expensive but they do manage transactions effectively. If you don't use a VAN then be sure to code for faults, and record successful transactions yourself to answer those "we didn't get it" issues. HTH Tony Gravagno Nebula Research and Development TG@ removethisNebula-RnD.com ------- u2-users mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/
