Automatic file upload

Question

Is there any way, any free software capable of automatically downloading files? Let's say I'm editing php code on my local computer using my favorite IDE. I will not change my IDE, that's great. I want something that detects that the file has been modified in my project directory and uploads it from FTP / SFTP to the remote server. That it is just that simple.

What I already tried:

FTPDrive + FileSync Eclipse Plugin - it is rather slow, it often downloads ALL files, it works under error in Vista and Windows 7.

WinSCP automatic synchronization - errors again, refuses to download files randomly. It would be better if it worked correctly.

SFTP Support for Eclipse - FREE! You cannot use PDT projects with this feature. PDT without projects is not better than Notepad ++.

Aptana FTP function. This is worse than leadership! Gawd, that sucks!

Running my own PHP / MySQL server under windows. Firstly, it took me ages to set it up, then it didn’t work EXACTLY like my production environment — I couldn’t verify my code correctly.

How should this work? I change the file here and it loads there. It would be better if he sat quietly in the tray and bothered me only if a loading error occurred.

Well, if it's not free, maybe there is something cheap?

If there is nothing like this, is there something like FTPDrive?

Answer 1

rsync does exactly what you ask.

Well, almost: it does not look at your file system and automatically downloads files - you will need to configure a task to run it every minute or something else. But it only loads changes efficiently. If you are on Linux, lsyncd acts as an observer and rsync drives to make the efficient part of the boot.

Answer 2

In the world of rails, we typically use a version control system and a deployment tool such as vlad or capistrano. This is a bit safer and more consistent than FTP. This is a guide to using svn and php http://www.simplisticcomplexity.com/2006/08/16/automated-php-deployment-with-capistrano/ .

You really need to try to run the development server on your personal machine. This is a much better way, and it is worth the initial pain, trying to get it to work. There are good tutorials there.

Answer 3

You can use WebDrive or ExpanDrive , set the complete remote directory as a local drive and directly edit your files on the server. However, it depends a lot on your connection and how your tools are written. Another approach might be to use one of these tools, and use another tool to synchronize all changes asynchronously.