Mmmmm... This FTP site is not in my control. It is housed by a third party and as far as I know it has no http capabilities. We will not be able to add meta-data or control the directory/file structure in any way. Nor will we know ahead of time what the file structure is or the filenames within any of the directories. All we will be getting is a list of the directories (maybe multiple levels) and a username and password. From this they want to display thumbs of pdf files within these directories and when a thumb (pdf file) is clicked, add the thumb (filename, I would suspect) into a basket built on our end along with the price via the directory the pdf file happened to be in.
_____ From: Robert Shubert [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 8:46 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: Witango-Talk: OT - FTP interactions This doesn't seem too hard. I think I would first try using the FTP site as if it were a database. This may be too slow, however, depending on the amount of content in the FTP server and the load on the site, but I would probably add simple memory caching rather than trying to sync a db. Witango 6 will be able to implement something easily as it directly supports server-side FTP now. The rest is just logic. (@IF foldername=folder1 @ASSIGN price 10) You could even put meta-data files in each directory (or for each file) with descriptions and prices. Doesn't sound altogether unreasonable. Robert From: WebDude [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 9:02 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Witango-Talk: OT - FTP interactions This is way off topic, but I have a client who is asking some questions that I am having a hard time answering. I was hoping some of you with more knowledge then I can give me some direction. I see all sorts of probems with this, but am trying to figure out what to say to him. I believe the files he is talking about are pfd files. I would think, first off, that you would need at least to have the directory structure along with filenames loaded into the DB before you could do anything he is asking me to do. In other words, it sounds like he wants to "crawl" the ftp site and load the information into a db. And then just display the files via thumbs, probably clicking them to add to a basket system, etc. Don't shoot me on this, I am just the messenger, but below is what is being asked for word for word from the client... "I have a couple of key questions, one is how can a database interact with a FTP? Could a DB pull thumbnails from an FTP and display them on the web? Could a DB understand from a folder location on a sever what value to assign to it? For example if the DB searched the server for a file, and file's location was in folder 1, could it assign a price to it, if the DB understood all items in folder 1 have a $10 value?" My head hurts. I think he wants to be able to have the client find these files, add them to a basket system, and download them when done. _____ To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to [email protected] with "unsubscribe witango-talk" in the body. _____ To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to [email protected] with "unsubscribe witango-talk" in the body. ---------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, please send an email to [email protected] with "unsubscribe witango-talk" in the body.
