As a web developer who spends most of his time working from Windows boxes these days, the lack of being able to edit files located on remote servers is the one feature I miss the most in SmartFTP. There may be other, higher priority issues with SmartFTP that need to be addressed that I am far from aware of, but I feel remote editing capability is one of the best assets any developer could have in an ftp program. I've read here some personally recommending we migrate to some text editor or another that they appreciate. I feel this sort of direction misses virtually all of the reasons that remote file editing is so important.
In at least one instance someone stated that anyone who didn't appreciate the simple process of "download, edit and upload" (or something like that) as being part of the basic job of the web work ...was simply lazy. I don't mean offense by this but to me, that comment sounded like something someone who has only worked with relatively simple web sites running on Windows servers and/or was otherwise rather inexperienced in this area would say. I can't imagine anyone who has ever done much with web sites, large or small would say such a thing. From simple template-based sites to enterprise level, megabuck, international web sites and particularly ones running on one of the UNIX variants out there that constitute the majority of what is running the internet, such a statement seems to me, at best, unknowing.
How many in this discussion thread have had a 100 or a perhaps a thousand files that needed some hand-coded mods. These same files may have had thirty or forty important databases that depended upon those items you needed to work on? Then consider that some of the files are html, some php, some css, some xml, some perl, some on multiple servers...oh why bother going on with the list. If you have place/situation similar to the one I'm talking about, my guess is that your first thoughts were that you did not that wish to have to start your work by choosing between making a copy of your own local backup files and reworking those, or downloading and saving all those files needing rework off the remote server to your hard drive to some new directory, modify them all, then upload the new versions back to the server.
Firstly not just because all of those options are time-consuming, prone to error creation and just downright stupid, but secondly, if the changes needed affect various files system wide then you know mostly likely have to replicate in part if not the entire directory structure of the site (choosing between one of several ways) just to buy yourself a bit more insurance that your work will be executed and work properly. Now to the situation we are already considering, let's imagine that the entire workload hat to be assigned to not one, but ten people in order to assure that all the tasks involved would be completed by a stated deadline.
Then thirdly, once you (or all of you) have finished your downloading, organizing, editing and uploading, you are practically home-free because all you have left to do is spend a considerable amount of time checking the site and your work inside/out and from top to bottom to insure you can catch and repair whatever file permissions or other functionalities your newly edited and uploaded Windows files broke on your revised site! This is the norm, not the exception.
Remote editing eliminates the need for nearly all of this additional work and tedium. It also tremendously reduces the incidences of several kinds of errors which can/will occur and will need to be handled a fashion that in itself will require the time of a fair number of people, most of whom had nothing to do the problem that was created. One of the best benefits of remote file editing is that you won't get that feeling that is similar to what you would have if every time you needed a little fire, you knew were going to have to go find a couple sticks to rub together.
I'll share something else with you. It doesn't matter to me if it is a dinky little prefab one-page site; it is always nicer to be able to make your coding changes remotely. The most simple but wonderful reason for this is that if I make a change to a file via remote editing and something on the site breaks, then 99.99% of the time I am going to know it is going to be because I screwed up somewhere. All I have to do is figure out what I I did wrong and fix it... why should I be ranting on this though ...mostly preaching to a choir that already understands what I'm saying. Right!
Hmmm, probably not. Probably wrong huh? See, I'm willing to stick my neck out there now and again that may result in me cutting my own throat one day. ...But I'll be damned if I'm willing to let some faceless corporation, POS software, 4x4 boss or anything/body else do it. I prefer to live and die by my own hand. So that tends to give a low BS tolerance level for stupid things that I didn't ask for or give anyone permission to administer to me, but will hurt me.
To me, having to transfer files from a remote machine to mine in order to work on them is inefficient at best. Doing it with an OS like Windows that doesn't play or work well with others very often changes to category of the initiative from being work, to merely being in the realm of the ridiculous.
What blows me away is remote editing is not some newly undiscovered frontier. This editing capability has been available ...available hell, it has been standard in UNIX and Macintosh ftp apps for over a decade. The only PC/Windows ftp app I've used so far that offers this feature is CuteFTP Pro which costs $60 US and has what has seems to me the lousiest ftp transfer engine in the business.
I guess I've tried out and/or worked with pc ftp apps out that are considered at least half decent including all the fancy commercial ones like WS ftp, ftpVoyager, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. For the most part they all seemed aimed at creating kinder, more gentle and less "user-hostile" ftp apps for folks who practically neither know or care anything about ftp and just this want this ftp thing virtually 100% of the time so they can download all the stuff they find on the net that they want that requires or works better with an ftp app. I guess that is where the big money is in ftp software dev. The solution companies sure don't seem to be spending much time directing their energies toward what would be great tools for developers. Maybe somehow I missed the killer Windows dev ftp app out there. If so, please someone let me know about this.
In at least as much of what I've read in this discussion thread so far, there are a number of folks here who may not have a lot of experience with remote server work, or who belong to the remnant of victims who were sold "the universe revolves around Microsoft" myth and so simply don't understand why the issue of remote file editing being talked about here could be so important. I feel the same would hold certain whether it is in regard to ftp, telnet or some other protocol.
For myself, I feel compared to other the other ftp apps I've worked with, if SmartFTP had a remote text editor, there wouldn't be another program in this pc market segment that could hold a candle to it ...that is to say, at least until the others start pouring bucks into copying your new thing since a lot of developers would be dumping their stuff for yours. It is a lot of fun being the golden goose isn't it.
I hope I've not come across as rude to anyone in this post. That certainly hasn't been my attention. In long-winded fashion, I've simply put in my vote for the next big, important feature I would like to see in this program. Otherwise, I have said all I care to spend time saying about all this subject and would now prefer to be left alone. So, instead of buggin' me, show your support for this fine SmartFTP development effort. I feel this is one of those fairly rare pc projects that you can see the energy, creativity and power of motion gathering around like a corona. It reminds me of the work I do with do with some darn good open source projects out there. So whatever future development choices you folks doing all this work choose ...more power to you.
Time is important around here.
Would there be a way to have multiple files opened for edit?