I was wondering, and I’ve looked around on and off for a while, if there was an action for Freeway much like the upload stuff action that could upload a folder instead of just individual files. I need it, for example, to upload a folder of images to the HTML or Resources folder to have my slideshow work on a client site.
I suppose I could just upload them via FTP, but an action like upload stuff is close and I don’t know how hard it would be to make it upload folders instead of individual files. What would be even better would be if it did both.
Although it would be possible to create an action that uploads a folder of files, it would have these limitations:
There would be some limit on the number of files, as the action coder must actually make a file slot for each uploaded file. This could be some huge number, but there would still be some limit.
The files would be uploaded to the same position as the other Resources (there are other positions, like keepWithHTML, but they are all within the upload folder). Actions cannot create folders.
The filenames could not be absolutely preserved. Any file automatically uploaded by FW could (and likely will) have its name changed so as to not conflict with any other file that FW may generate and better conform to basic server limits for filename syntax. There is no way around this limitation that I know.
I have not been able to even hypothesize a circumstance where one of these limitations does not come into play.
I know it adds a bit of manual burden, but, the FTP route would be the best/safest option for you to get the exact files you need in the location you want. If you are manually uploading the files, I suggest that they be uploaded in a location outside FW upload folder. Or, at the very least, not in the ‘Resource’ folder. This will give these files the best chance of not being accidentally overwritten by FW.
A possible solution would be a completely script driven Action that mimics the upload of files, but really uses Transmit or Fetch to upload the files in the background. Again, I know of no solution that does this presently.
A possible solution would be a completely script driven Action that
mimics the upload of files, but really uses Transmit or Fetch to
upload the files in the background. Again, I know of no solution
that does this presently.
Or maybe AppleScript + Terminal, if you wanted to remove an
application dependency. Now as to how you actually implement that, I
have absolutely no idea.
In the long run I’d need it to upload at max like 15 files (in one folder) at any given time. They usually don’t get a whole lot larger than that and those files usually get used several times across other pages.
What I ended up doing was using Automator to create a script or plug-in that uses Transmit to upload this folder when I press play. It works for now.
Thanks for your suggestions and insight Weaver and waltd.