Using tsNet for sftp directory file listing

Richard Gaskin ambassador at fourthworld.com
Fri Oct 28 18:00:34 EDT 2016


PS: Among the many the reasons I've switched to HTTP-based APIs for most 
things with servers is that FTP is notoriously inconsistently 
implemented in terms of the info you'll get back from a directory listing.

Sometimes it'll include the date, sometimes only the time.  The cutoff 
determining that varies.  Sometimes the date may include the year, 
sometimes not.  The cutoff for that also varies.  There are others - the 
RFP is an overflowing clown car of "sometimes" rules, all fully 
permissible in the name of flexibility.

It's not all that bad if we remember why FTP was invented, for ad hoc 
access to file repositories, rather than for providing services APIs.

For the latter, HTTP has proven itself time and again.  If it's feasible 
to use LiveCode Server or some other CGI, getting lists of directory 
contents is easy and can be made consistent, with exactly the format 
your client needs.  Probably much faster too.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com




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