Is it in any way possible to Have the Public FTP folder display an HTML Page on a shared web server? I'm getting different responses from the technical staff on my webhost. One says you can't because it defies the protocol. The other says it's possible quote"This would have to be setup in the apache conf to resolve as a page". This is alien language to me. So i'm asking this forum if it's possible and if so is it within the realm of the webhost to make it happen or would I have to go with 3rd party support?

Reason For This...

I am trying to set up private ftp accounts and make them simple for people with not much technical skill to log into. When they go to the public ftp so that they can log on through their internet explorer to their private accounts I would like them to see a welcome page instead of a public ftp folder with its contents- which might be confusing to some.

If There is an easier way for people to share files im also up for suggestions.

Thanks

Http and ftp are two entirely different protocols. You can't "display" and HTML page through FTP. But, I can see how people might come to different conclusions based upon the way you are describing what you want. I will give you an example of something that *might* work for you.

Create an HTML page with something like:
To log intot he public account click <u>here</u>

or enter your username and password to log into your personal account: (then include two textboxes for entry).

Have that page hosted on a web server for your users to log into the FTP server.

Michael J

You might also consider making whatever directory the FTP server is hosting also available via HTTP. You can use a default listing, or one of your own. Once you add authentication, it's not much different, at least for downloading, and you can add SSL very easily.

Thanks for your responses, these sound like good ideas that I would like to follow up on in both scenarios.

1st Michael J wrote:

"enter your username and password to log into your personal account: (then include two textboxes for entry)" Intriguing, I was going to display instructions (in HTML)telling them that they could log on via "File" "Login As" in Internet Explorer. But if the Text Boxes for login are imbeded in the HTML page as I think your implying that would be better (one less step). Is there anyway you could expand on how I could do that? If im creating the Private FTP accounts in CPANEL on the webserver and assigning the passwords there, how would I link (dont know proper terminology here)the login text box that I embeb into my html file with that information so it knows what to do. Do you know what I mean? If I just insert a text box in the page (and trust me i'll just copy and paste one in microsoft frontpage) it wont just work automatically right?

Dr. Nick wrote:

"You might also consider making whatever directory the FTP server is hosting also available via HTTP." How do I do this? Are you implying putting a link on the html page to the ftp address?"or do you mean somthing else? What is a listing? Would this be the directory I create for the html document file that would reflect in the http address? Please clarify

Sincerely,
Greg

"But if the Text Boxes for login are imbeded in the HTML page as I think your implying that would be better (one less step). Is there anyway you could expand on how I could do that?"

Create a form on the HTML page with a text field for the username and a password field for the password. Then I'd create a button field - NOT a submit field. I would give the button field an onClick event referencing a javascript function (let's say "ftpLogin". You can log into an FTP site through the browser using the following as a URL: ftp://user:password@ftpserver/url-path (you may not need the URL path depending on your setup).

So the javascript function should just open that link in the current page. Example:

(assuming form name is 'ftpForm', usename field is 'uname', and password field is 'pword')

function ftpLogin () {

var uname = document.ftpForm.uname;
var pword = document.ftpForm.pword;

if (uname && pword) {
window.location = 'ftp://'+uname+':'+pword'+'servername';
} else {
alert ('You must enter Username & Password');
return false;
}
}

Michael J

Listing an index of the files in a folder via HTTP (a web page) is easy enough. Web servers have this ability by default, though you may have to adjust a few security settings to allow directory browsing. An example of what it looks like can be found here (found that by Googling "index of images").

The issues here is that it will take more to get users into a specific spot after logging in and keeping them there. It can be done, and you could probably find some HTTP-based file managers in PHP, but that's more work.

If you can get away with basic FTP I'd probably suggest doing that. It has a lot of the functionality built into the protocol and IE client already. I really don't know what trouble you'd have as the IE interface looks just like a normal computer folder, so if these "non-technical" people can use Windows at all they should be fine with FTP. Basic how-to instructions and a little training usually cover most issues that arise in my experience.

You can only make it so easy. Sooner or later the users will have to start thinking at least a little :) [although that can be scary too...]

I understand the concepts but not the implimentation. I do not understand html or coding, I only work from a GUI. But now I know that it would be possible to access ftp from html, I will have to find someone that can implement this for me (suggestions welcome), and check with the web host if anything needs to be done on their end.
Thanks for the replies, they were very helpfull.

I found this password script on the internet...

http://www.a1javascripts.com/essential_scripts/password/password.html

I'm going to try to find out how to implement it. When I copied and pasted the file into Frontpage it displayed just like it shows on the site. Now I just need to tie it into my accounts on the web host-

Ok a couple of issue came up concerning the above suggestions.

Dr. Nick - It is easy enough to see a listing of my ftp via http but I can not drag & drop to the webserver, I need that functionality.

Michael J.- I was able to figure out how to imbed a login text box into my html browser ( it was a matter of finding & inputting the correct settings on the form & form field properties in Front Page) to access my private ftp accounts but when I access the ftp account via this method I do not have a window that lets me drag and drop files to & from the web server. It appears that the ftp login built into internet explorer is not just for loging in but also gives you a window that lets you drag & drop files from the webserver. So I figured out how to create a login from an http page but how do I get the drag & drop functionality?

Dr. Nick - It is easy enough to see a listing of my ftp via http but I can not drag & drop to the webserver, I need that functionality.

If that's the case, then I'd suggest going with straight FTP, maybe with an HTTP front end for asking for username and password.

You should be able to drag-and-drop using IE's FTP abilities by opening a web page: ftp://username@password:yourdomain.com