Website Help (part 1)

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

I need to upload a pdf file to a website I own.  I have a FTP client software.  I just can't make the two talk to each other.  What do I do?  And I need a step-by-step procedure.  Treat me like someone who knows absolutely nothing about websites and html.  'cause I don't.  Any and all help will be most appreciated :)

Peace,

-Troy

[Josh Roby]

You will need your ftp access address, which your provider would have given to you, probably in some sort of introductory "welcome to our hosting services" email.  You select Open a Connection or New Connection or something similar, put that address (something like ftp.mysite.com) into the address slot, then your username and password into the usual places, and hit Go/Enter/SignIn.

You should be looking at a listing of what files and folders are over on the server hosting your site.  (You may not be looking at the contents of your site yet, but a lower directory, in which case your URL may be one of the directories you can see -- open that one if this is the case.)  Then, depending on the interface of your client, you can drag-and-drop your file into what you're looking at, or select an Upload menu item or something similar.

If you're on OSX, download Transmit and I can give you much clearer instructions.

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

Thanks Josh!  That got me where I wanted to go.  Now, heh, I want to upload a pdf file so other people can download it.  How do I do that?

I think I uploaded it once and it put the file on the server, but I couldn't access it through my browser.  So I obviously didn't do it right.  So what's the right procedure for this?

Peace,

-Troy

[Lance D. Allen]

Something that might help, Troy, is if you tell us the URL that you expect it to be at.

Incidentally, mostly for my own curiosity, what ftp client do you use? I imagine the interfaces are generally similar across the board, in any event.

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

The URL is: http://divine-games.org/cuthroat30.pdf

The FTP software I'm using is called SmartFTP Client.  It's uploading the file, I think, but not making it downloadable.  Hope this info helps :)

Peace,

-Troy

[Eero Tuovinen]

When I go to the URL the server delivers something, but that something's not a pdf file proper. I get a similar error message with corrupted pdf files. Difficult to say whether it's about server settings or what.

Possible solutions:
1) Check the filesize on the server through the ftp program to see if you really uploaded the whole file. Vagaries of the net might have truncated the file on transfer.
2) Ensure that you made the transfer in binary or automatic mode.
3) Check the access settings of the file; I don't quite recollect how to do that with SmartFTP, but probably right-clicking the file on the server and choosing "File Attributes" or similar. Set the file publicly readable (644 for the numeric attribute, for example).

... actually, I just now went to your root directory (which is publicly readable, so the file is probably as well), and it claims that your file is 1kb in size. So I'd say the problem is in 1), above. Reload the file to the server in full.

[Lance D. Allen]

Eero beat me to it. Unless it's a very tiny .pdf, it's likely that the file didn't properly upload.

If you can get it so that the filesize of the source file and the file on the site match, and it still doesn't work, you'll definitely want to check your access settings, though it would be somewhat strange if it were uploading it as not publicly readable. Unfortunately I'm also not familiar with SmartFTP, but it shouldn't be too difficult to check and edit your accessibility settings on the file.

[Lance D. Allen]

Hm. Also something that I noticed (it's probably a non-issue, but it might be, depending on how your FTP client works) is that the file name is spelled 'cuthroat' rather than 'cutthroat'. If your source file name doesn't match the one on the site, that could possibly be an issue as well; It could be that your client is trying to upload a nonexistant file.

This is unlikely, unless your FTP client actually requires you to type in the file name, but I figured I'd point it out.

[Troy_Costisick]

Heya,

You guys were right.  It was a problem with the file itself.  Thanks for all your help!!! :)

Peace,

-Troy