FTP: UPLOADING YOUR SITE TO THE SERVER

TIME TO "FTP" YOUR STUFF TO THE HOST SERVER

You should remember from week 1 what "FTP" means. It means "File Transfer Protocol", which is a protocol, or way of doing something, that computers use to transfer files back and forth from server computers to client computers. Our PCs are loaded with the FTP client software "WS_FTP", shareware that works well. When you open it:

For Two-Window FTP Clients
• You see two windows.
• In left window are files and folder on your local machine.
• A dialogue box opens which awaits your FTP information.
• When you enter the correct information, the files and folders on your server appear in the right window.
• You can "drag and drop" files from one to the other.

Macs may have Transmit, which works in a similar way. Otherwise, you must use either Fetch, which uses a one-window system and requires special instruction, or Dreamweaver FTP which needs a lot of special instruction.

WHAT WILL THE FTP CLIENT ASK YOU FOR?

Remember that "client" refers to any software that connects to a "server". Client/Server, right? Both the software you use to FTP and your Web browser are "client software".

Before the server will trust you, it will want to know that you're the person who has permission to fiddle with the site. The server will ask you, through the FTP client software, where you're going, who you are, and for proof that you're who you are. WS_FTP will ask via its dialogue box for your:

• Host server (i.e., ftp.yoursite.com)
• User name. (i.e., bob339)
• Password. (i.e., ••••••••)

Your Web host should have sent you information that included these three things (anything else the dialogue box ask, set to automatic). Without these three bits of information, you're toast. Usually, they choose your user name and give you a temporary password. If you have a low-cost host, usually you'll get check-in and password info for a "control panel"; this control panel will allow you to set your own user name and password, and to set up your own mailboxes for the site.

FOR FLASH SITE DEVELOPERS ONLY:

LOADING MP3 FILES INTO A FLASH SITE

Put all the mp3's you hope to load into your site in the same folder or in a folder inside it. For each mp3 sound file you have, make a clickable entry (a button in essense). Make a place on the timeline that selecting the entry will travel to. When the playhead gets there, buttons will be enabled that will play and stop the sound.

This code goes on the first frame in the ACTIONS layer:

music = new sound (_root);

Remember that words turn blue in Flash if they are known code. This code creates an instance called "music" in your Flash movie when it starts up, an instance into which an mp3 can load from the outside. The command loads it in the main timeline, or "_root." Now, this code goes on the "go" button:

on (release) {
music.loadSound("breakstuff.mp3",true);
}

This finds the instance called "music" and loads a sound file, "breakstuff.mp3", into it; the "true" is the answer to the question "is this a streaming sound?" Finally, this code goes on the "stop" button:

on (release) {
music.stop();
}