Web Services → Support → How To Put Files on the Web with FTP
How To Put Files on the Web with FTP
If your site is in the Tron Web publishing system, please refer to Tron training documents on our site.
Using FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
To move files from their personal computers to the web server, webmasters use an FTP client such as SmartFTP, WS_FTP, or Fetch. Webmasters must have a login and password to use FTP to access the MCPS web servers. To get a login and password, an administrator of your school or office must fill out a Webmaster Account Request Form. This applies to all school and office webmasters.
Once web pages have been created, updated and tested to your satisfaction, the webmaster must move the newly updated files from the local machine "up" to the MCPS web servers in order to make the changes "live" on the web site.
Dreamweaver
Begining with TechMod09, Dreamweaver is the sole program that will be available for editing sites that are not in the Tron web publishing system. Therefore, webmasters can use Dreamweaver as their FTP client instead of using SmartFTP.
SmartFTP
Schools updated prior to TechMod09 have SmartFTP installed on all workstations. Home users supporting the MCPS web site may download SmartFTP, at a cost.
How do I connect to (log in) the MCPS web server?
When you first launch the SmartFTP program, you need to enter the server information. This information is contained in your webmaster account email.
1. Enter the Server Information on the Address Bar:
- Address: Enter your hostname or the full URL (without http:// )
- www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org for web pages
OR if you're updating the school site for Beall ES, you could also use www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/schools/bealles
OR if you're updating the office site for budget, you could also use www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/budget
- multimedia.montgomeryschoolsmd.org for streaming media files
- Login: enter your assigned logid e.g. internet\smithjan
- Password: enter your assigned password
2. Next, open your local browser window.
To do this, on the menu bar pull down the menu under FTP to the first option, Local Browser.
3. Navigate through the folders until you can see your local web folder and files.
These will be with your documents on your building fileserver (or on your hard drive if you're working at home).
It will likely be in My Documents OR in the H: drive which you can see in the above illustration within My Computer. Open folders until you locate your web folder. If I am working with /departments/budget my local browser window would now look like the illustration below. When you highlight a folder showing in the left pane, the right pane shows those folders and files that exist within the selected folder.
4. You are now ready to connect to the FTP server.
On the menu bar pull down the menu under FTP to the second option, Connect. Optionally, you can use the first icon under the menu bar to connect.
If you've correctly entered your host server, ID and password, a new window will open showing the files on the MCPS server at the address specified as the Host (or remote server). Note that the Host name will appear in the blue title bar of this new window.
5. Let's arrange the two open windows to make it easier to work.
One window shows the folder and files in the Local Browser and the other window shows the files on the MCPS server. To arrange the windows in a way that makes viewing them both easier, go to Window on the menu bar and select Tile Horizontally. There is also a Tile Horizonal icon for on the icon bar.
The result will look something like this:
6. If the connection is unsuccessful, error messages will be displayed at the bottom of the Host window in the area called Log View.
How do I get files from the MCPS server to my local machine?
Transferring files from the MCPS server to your local computer or file server is also known as "downloading." You can use "Drag and Drop" for files or folders to bring down files from the MCPS server.
- First you must be sure to have open the correct folders in both the server and local browser windows.
- You can only move files from the right panel on the www.mcps.k12.md.us server window to the right panel of the Local Browser window.
- If you need to save a previous version of a file, rename is with a new name BEFORE bringing down a copy of the file from the server.
- Keep local files organized in folders in the same structure as on the server so your links will continue to function properly after updating your web pages.
- There is no un-do for overwriting files. If you have a problem, you will have to use your local backup copy to replace overwritten files.
- When you are certain you are properly prepared, highlight the file (or folder) in the remote window (click and hold the mouse button), drag the selection and drop (release the mouse button) the file (or folder) into the right panel of the Local browser window.
- If this is a new file, it should show up in the list immediately. If it is replacing an existing file, the date modified should be updated to today's date and time.
How do I transfer files to the MCPS server?
Transferring files from your local folder (on your machine or local file server) to the MCPS server is commonly call "uploading." This is just the opposite of getting files from the MCPS server and is sometimes called a "put." We can also use "Drag and Drop" for files (or folders) to move files from our local machine "up" to the MCPS server. Take great care in this process. There is no un-do. Once you overwrite a file on the server, you will not be able to retrieve the old page from the server.
- As for when you are downloading, it is important to have both the local browser and server windows open to your site and have the same folders in view in both windows before moving any files.
- Make sure you have saved your changes to the page before uploading files. Only saved changes will function in the uploaded file.
- Select (click and hold the mouse button) the item(s) (files and/or folder) in the right pane of the Local Browser window.
- Drag and drop the item(s) selected into the right pane of the server or remote window.
- You only have permissions to upload files into your assigned school or office directory. You will get an error message in the log if you attempt to move a file into someone else's directory.
- Normally, you will upload only those files that have been changed locally to the MCPS server.
- Note: You will have to refresh the browser window to see the latest version of the file(s) newly uploaded to the server. If your file has been uploaded into the wrong folder, your changes will not show up. This will happen when the index page is uploaded into the graphics folder instead of into the root of your folder replacing the old index page.
Setting SmartFTP preferences to not save my login and password on exit.
SmartFTP will remember the address, login and password unless you change the preferences. This means anyone using the computer after you would be able to upload and download from the MCPS server using your account information. To remedy this situation, the following settings should be changed on any shared computer. You only have to do this once on each workstation where you use SmartFTP.
- In Smart FTP, go to Tools --> Settings --> Under General highlight History.
- In the right window, uncheck the Save History and Save Passwords boxes
- Click on Empty button. History Entries should now be 0.
- Change Max History Entries to 0 (default is 50).
- Re-check box for Save History only.
- Click on OK to close Settings dialog box.
Are there other ways to do FTP?
Yes. However, the FTP function of Dreamweaver is the only other one we support. Most HTML editor programs have some means of FTPing built into their code. Because there are so many variations, the Web Services Team is not able to provide support for these internal FTP clients.
How can I get help if I have a problem or question?
Contact Web Services Team at webmaster@mcpsmd.org