[Seaside] implementation request: FTPServer

[Colin Curtin]

Since I've started working on HTTPClient again - someone actually uses
it, which is quite a weird feeling - I'm getting back into the swing
of protocol type things. FTP sounds like a good project before I
tackle HTTPS/SSL/etc for Squeak. It also sounds like a good
first-server project, since everything I've been doing so far is on
the client side. As a side effect, I'll probably beef Squeak's FTP
library up in the process.

Speaking of which, I'll soon be releasing the next version of
HTTPClient in case you wanted to take a look for Monticello purposes:
http://lithp.org/mc/HTTPClient/HTTPClient-cc.28.mcz

One day I may do as you suggested so long ago: refactor into something
that both server and client can use.

I'll work on FTP this weekend. If something/nothing happens, I'll let
you guys know :)

Thanks,
Colin




On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 13:49:51 +0100, Avi Bryant <avi.bryant at gmail.com> wrote:
> This one's been sitting on my TODO list for a while, and I haven't
> shown any signs of getting around to it, so I thought I'd put it out
> there in case someone's eager for something to work on but hasn't
> found the right project yet (I have it on reliable authority that such
> people do, in fact, exist).
> 
> I'd like an implementation of a dynamic FTP server in Squeak.  By
> dynamic I mean that it would be to FTP as Comanche and Swazoo are to
> HTTP: there's no assumption that the filesystem as presented to the
> client has any direct mapping to a filesystem on the server.  Instead,
> I'd like to be able to implement classes in Squeak that handle the FTP
> put, get, list, etc requests in any way they choose.  To put it
> another way, I'd like to be able to selectively expose a filesystem
> view of the Squeak image to an FTP client.
> 
> The main motivation for this is to make it easier to collaborate on
> Seaside applications with web designers and other content providers.
> I'd like them to be able to point BBEdit or other FTP-equipped text
> editors to a running Seaside image and edit CSS and Javascript "files"
> that are living in that image.  In fact, these would be part of a
> Smalltalk code package, which means they can be easily deployed,
> versioned with Monticello, and so on.
> 
> Once we had it, of course, I'm sure we'd find many other interesting
> uses.  For example, wouldn't it be nice to be able to mount a wiki
> (and most operatings systems these days can mount FTP servers pretty
> transparently) as a directory full of text files?
> 
> If anyone does decide to take this on, I recommend working from Dan
> Bernstein's FTP protocol reference: http://cr.yp.to/ftp.html .  It
> seems to be written specifically as a guide for implementors, rather
> than to be a formal specification.
> 
> I expect that someone motivated enough could get this working in a
> weekend or two; it would be useful even if imperfect and unreliable,
> since the primary use I envision is as a development tool rather than
> in production.  Though of course if we had a production-ready
> implementation we'd no doubt find interesting uses for that too.
> 
> Anyone convinced?
> 
> Avi
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