Uploading To The Org - Via Windows Explorer

[Radical_Yue]

This is something that toothpicvic told Kireblue who then in turned told some of us in chat.

I personally wasn't aware that you could upload to FTP via Windows Explorer and have been using Filezilla for years.
Anyone else familiar with this process or know of any downsides? I included all the steps just in case I decide to leave it around to point to for new members, but yeah.

Thoughts?

--------------------------------------------------------------

After cataloging your entry via Upload A Video you select Upload a Video (both are accessible under the "Editors" drop down), agree to the terms and you will be brought to a new page with a link in the middle of it.

The link is actually FTP information required to upload your video.


Next, open up a Windows Explorer screen. This can be anything like Documents, My Computer, etc.



Copy/Paste the URL that you have been provided into the bar and hit enter.



You will then be connected to the server. Drag and drop your video file in the window and it will begin uploading.


Note: For this I just used a beta I had sitting around on my hard drive.


Once it's done uploading, confirm the video and finish the upload process.

Done!

[TritioAFB]

Really? It's my opposite situation: Before discovering filezilla I used Internet Explorer to upload to the FTP

[BasharOfTheAges]

Really? It's my opposite situation: Before discovering filezilla I used Internet Explorer to upload to the FTP

Yea - I'm with Tritio here on learning to use such things... The benefit an actual stand-alone application has is stuff like accurate ETA and resume-on-error.

[drewaconclusion]

Really? It's my opposite situation: Before discovering filezilla I used Internet Explorer to upload to the FTP

Yea - I'm with Tritio here on learning to use such things...

Same here

[l33tmeatwad]

It won't connect to all ftp servers, often won't let you upload, is unstable, is slower than a standalone client, and as others have mentioned it does not support resume. It was an early feature added into Windows 95 and was never really developed much after that from what I can tell, but I'm sure newer versions of Windows could have made it more stable, however I've seen people comment that the transfer speed is still slower and I suspect opens it up more to the possibly of corruption since the regular widows copy function does little to avoid file corruption on transfer. OSX has better functionality when it comes to connecting and uploading, but I still recommend a standalone client for it as well.

[TritioAFB]

As far as I remember, when I had a slow conection, it always ended the upload before finishing and then start again. When using Fillezilla, it could be slow the conection and the upload continued normally without worrying if it would finish before time

[ngsilver]

As meatwad said, it's been a feature of windows for a while. Originally it was part of IE but has since been moved out of IE and added to explorer instead. It's basic, but often times it will get the job done, just not as well and no where near as verbose as a stand alone client. If you wanted to be even more crazy you could always use the command prompt in windows and the ftp function there as well, but again, I wouldn't recommend that especially for new users who don't understand it. (I'll often use it as a connection test)

For new users it can be much easier to use and understand then a stand alone client. It doesn't have weird errors like pwolftp (I've noticed that app will error out on Win8 systems actually) And every windows user has it available. Without resume it can be troublesome for slow or intermittent connections as you have to get it right on the first go or do it all over again.

I wouldn't be against recommending this for new users, but I'd also add in the caveats (slower uploads, no resume, potential corruption) and recommend a stand alone client.

[Radical_Yue]

Personally, when I learned about Filezilla back when I was 14 I was set for life and never bothered even checking into other FTP options so I didn't know about this.

I'm not personally planning on switching but I am exploring this as an option to promote to new users that don't really get Filezilla.

I agree with both sides though. Filezilla and programs like it do have many, many benefits and are overall the best option for uploading to the Org, but I'm still trying to decide whether or not pitching this to new users would be helpful or just a hindrance in the long run.

Decisions.....HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM............

[Pwolf]

I'll just leave this here...

http://pwolfamv.com/programs/pwolftp_1.0.4.0.zip

[ngsilver]

I'll just leave this here...

http://pwolfamv.com/programs/pwolftp_1.0.4.0.zip

I do agree, that is an extremely easy option and in fact I recommend it for all entrants who use my FTP server for contests. Though recently I've noticed some people getting errors when they attempt to upload. When the app goes into starting transfer mode users are presented with the following error: "there was an error: index was outside the bounds of array."

The only common thing I've found when this presents itself is that these users are using windows 8 and when I ask them to use another client (filezilla) it works just fine.

Not sure if you have the time or drive or ability to look into that error (after all, from what I've heard from my programmer friends, you have to develop win8 apps on win8) but figured I'd send it your way since this thread reminded me about it and I was able to find the referenced error message.