Here’s the part that I think you missing:
Your user goes to the page:
www.yoursite.com/ftp_cart.taf
ftp_cart.taf in turn logs into the FTP server, reads the root directory and
displays an HTML page of options (files and folders) to the user.
The user then clicks a folder (say folder1) which looks like this:
www.yoursite.com/ftp_cart.taf?browse=/folder1
ftp_cart.taf, now with a path argument, logs into the FTP server and retrieves
the path given and displays it to the user as a nice HTML page.
Now let’s say the user clicks a file to add to his cart:
www.yoursite.com/ftp_cart.taf?add=/folder1/file2.pdf
now, you know “folder1” so you can derive “$10.00”. And you know the full path
and filename so you can download the file and present it to the user with a
Witango script.
Hopefully that gives you some idea of how your Witango application will act as
a “window” to the FTP site and allow you to apply all the necessary logic. This
is similar to building an HTML email client in Witango, or perhaps accessing
information stored in XML files or on remote sites through web services (eg.
RSS). In this case, the remote data source just happens to be an FTP site.
Unfortunately, Witango 5/5.5 doesn’t help you here at all. I’m working hard to
get Witango 6 out soon, and the server-side FTP functions should help you to
develop this functionality easily.
Robert
From: WebDude [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 10:42 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Witango-Talk: OT - FTP interactions
Well, call me dumb, but where could I get information on how to do this. I am
having a hard enough time just trying to display a directory of images thorugh
the http protocol. Are you saying that we could let the customer traverse the
ftp site via the ftp protocol (i.e. ftp://test1/test2/test3/file.pdf
<ftp://test1/test2/test3/file.pdf> ) ? I get that part, but when they click,
how do you capture that filepath and file and insert the info into a db?
or am I missing something here...
By the way... thanks...
_____
From: Robert Shubert [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 9:28 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Witango-Talk: OT - FTP interactions
Well, I’m not sure how you would generate a thumb of a specific PDF. I suppose
your could use a tool that renders PDF to JPEG, but that could get a little
complex.
Other than that, this is straight forward. Simply traverse the FTP structure
through the FTP protocol. Think of it like working with an XML file.
Robert
From: WebDude [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2010 10:11 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Witango-Talk: OT - FTP interactions
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.
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