58 Chapter 4 – A Beginner’s Guide to the ServerUploading Documents (FTP)
Web Design in a Nutshell, eMatter EditionWYSIWYG HTML editors, such as GoLive Cyberstudio, Claris HomePage, and
Dreamweaver, among others. On the Mac, dedicated programs that allow “drag-
and-drop” file transfer such as Fetch and Anarchie are quite popular. On the PC,
there are numerous simple FTP programs, such as WS_FTP and AceFTP. These
(and many others) are available for download at http://www.shareware.com/
(search for “ftp”).
The Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer browsers also function as simple
FTP clients, offering the ability to both download and upload files with a drag-
and-drop interface.The FTP Process
Regardless of the tool you use, the basic principles and processes are the same.
Before you begin, you must have an account with permission to upload files to
the server. Check with the server administrator to be sure this is set up. (Note: you
don’t necessarily need an account to upload and download files if the server is set
up as an anonymous ftp site.)
1.Launch the FTP programof your choice and open a connection with your
server. You’ll need to enter the exact name of the server, your account name,
and password.
2.Locate the appropriate directoryinto which you want to copy your files. You
may also choose to create a new directory or delete existing files and directo-
ries on the remote server using the controls in your FTP program.
3.Specify the transfer mode. The most important decision to make during
uploading is specifying whether the data should be transferred inbinaryor
ASCII mode.
ASCII files are comprised of alphanumeric characters. Some FTP programs
refer to ASCII files as “Text” files. HTML documents should be transferred as
ASCII or text.
Binary files are made up of compiled data (ones and zeros), such as execut-
able programs, graphic images, movies, etc. Some programs refer to the
binary mode as “raw data” or “Image.” All graphics (.gif,.jpeg) and multi-
media files should be transferred as “binary” or “Raw Data.” Table 4-3
includes a listing of the transfer mode for a number of popular file types.
In Fetch (Mac), you may see aMacBinaryoption, which transfers the file with
its resource fork (the bit of the file containing desktop icons and other Mac-
specific data) intact. It should only be used when transferring from one Mac
to another. This resource fork is appropriately stripped out of Mac-generated
media files when transferred under the standard raw data mode.
Some FTP programs also provide an Autooption, which enables you to
transfer whole directories containing files of both types. The program exam-
ines each file and determines whether it should be transferred as text or
binary information. This function is not 100% reliable on all programs, so use
it with caution until you are positive you are getting good results.
4.Upload your files to the server. Standard FTP uses the terminology “put”
(uploading files from your computer to the server) and “get” (downloading