QUICK FTP TUTORIAL
FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. As you might guess from the name, FTP
allows you to download and upload files from one computer to another across a network.
The easiest way to FTP files is through an FTP application, usually called an
FTP client. Many FTP clients are free and provide an intuitive graphic user
interface. The most common client for the Mac is Fugu, which can be downloaded for free at http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/15693 . There are several different free FTP clients for Windows, including SmartFTP. Most FTP clients work the same way.
Once you've downloaded and installed a client, open a connection to the course server. Doing so is very easy in Fugu. Once you open the application, you should see the following window:
In the "Connect to:" field enter "users.design.ucla.edu". This is the name of the server that holds the course website. In the "Username" field, enter your DMA username (the same one you use to log in to the computers in the classrooms). The application should look like this:
Enter your DMA password (the same one you use to log in to the computers in the classrooms) and hit the "Authenticate" button. If you entered the correct password, you should now see your the root (bottom-level) directory for your account on the DMA server. It should look something like this:
The left pane of the window lists your local files or files existing on the computer you are working on. The right pane that just opened up lists your account files on the DMA server, as indicated by the text below each pane. Each one of these panes is a browsing window, similar to the Finder on a Mac. You use these browser windows to find the files on one machine and drag them into a folder on another.
The folders that you see in your DMA account (right pane) do different things. For example, the "public_html" folder links to your personal DMA webpage. You can drag files here if you want anyone to be able to view them using a web browser. For example, if I drag a file into my folder, I should be able to see it online at http://users.design.ucla.edu/~caseyalt .
We'll be working with the "myClasses" folder. If you double-click on it, you should see a directory that lists all the classes you've taken in DMA:
Our class files are located in the “F07-154A” directory. Double-click the directory, and you should see this screen:
This directory contains several folders. You will not be allowed to view the "admin" folder since it is access to it is restricted to professors and TAs. The "drop" folder is a special folder that allows students to upload files to one folder but not see what others have uploaded. It's often used to turn in assignments for a class.
The “public” folder is a shared folder that every can upload and download from. If you look in the "public" folder, you should see the Kozel resource files I originally posted for people to download before I made them available for download directly through the course website.
The folder that we're interested in is the "web" folder since that where you'll need to upload your files to link to from within your posts. Double-click the "web" folder, and you should see the following screen:
These are all the files that run the course website. All of the files and folders should be locked to you except the "images" folder. This is where you'll upload your files. Double-clicking the "images" folder will bring up the following screen:
As you can see, the "images" folder contains sub-folders for each student in the class, as well as a few other folders and files that are locked to you since they're used to control other parts of the course website. If you double-click your folder, it should bring up the contents of your folder. If you're doing this for the first time, your folder will probably be empty. I’ve created a test account on the system for “Joe Bruin” and uploaded a few files to it. Double-clicking the “joe_bruin” folder will show me the following contents:
You can upload files to your folder by first browsing to the file you want to upload in the left pane (your local files on the computer in front of you) then dragging and dropping the file icon from the left pane to the right pane (your file folder on the DMA course server). This will tell Fugu that you want to create a copy of that file in the current directory you’re viewing on the DMA server. When you do so, Fugu will show you the status of your upload. When the upload is complete, you should see the file listed in your server folder. Now that you’ve uploaded your file, you can load it into your web post by creating a link to it. The easiest way to do so is to type the following pattern into the “Content” field of your post at the location where you want the file to appear:
where the “
firstname_lastname
” part corresponds to the name of your upload folder in the course webspace and “file
” corresponds to the name of the file you want to load.For example, if I wanted to link to the image file I just uploaded to Joe Bruin’s account, I’d type the following statement somewhere in my posting:
!/images/joe_bruin/test.jpg!
The exclamation points at the beginning and end of the link tell the courseware program that you are setting a file link, and everything in between the exclamation points (
/images/joe_bruin/test.jpg
) is the directory path to that file so that the system knows where to find it. You’ve already seen how that path system works since you just browsed it view your FTP client.When I hit the “Create Entry” button and look at my post, the file should appear directly below the sentence I wrote:
That’s it. You should be able to do the same thing with Flash files and Quicktime movies.
Once you’ve finished uploading files to your FTP space, click the “Disconnect” button in the Fugu menu and close the application. This will close your connection to the DMA server.
