Tutorial: Using Fetch
Level: Intermediate. Published on 11 April 2001 in Using FTP
How to use the ever-popular Fetch FTP program for the Macintosh.
This tutorial covers the basics of uploading your website using Fetch FTP for Macintosh (there's no PC version). It was written using Fetch 3.01, but the tutorial should also be useful for users of other versions. Fetch is on version 3.3 at the time of writing.
Connecting to your Web server
When you first launch Fetch, you'll get the login screen as shown below. (Once you become well versed in Fetch, you can use its "Bookmarks/Shortcuts" feature to store settings for your different web servers.)
Enter your Web server's name (called HOST by Fetch), your login name (User ID), and your login password (Password). Enter these details as shown above, then press the OK button to connect to your server.
You can get your details for the login process (host, login name and password) from your website hosts.
You may be behind a proxy server or firewall, especially if you're trying this from work. If so, you will need to get your firewall details from your IT support people. You can access the Firewall preferences through Customize > Preferences.
Your home directory
Once logged in, you will be taken to your home directory on your Web server. This directory will contain (amongst other things) your website directory, which is where you need to upload all your files:
Your document root
The top of your website is often called the document root. This is where you will place your first website files. The document root is often called "htdocs" or "public_html", and may be in a folder inside your home directory.
Double-click on your document root folder to browse its contents.
Uploading a Web page
Once you've found your document root, you're now ready to upload your website. Here, we're going to upload a page called index2.html, which is a standard Web page.
To do this in Fetch, we simply drag the file from the folder where it resides on our Mac into the Fetch main window:
Fetch will then upload that file to our web server. You'll probably see Fetch's progress "pie chart" graphic as it uploads. When it is finished you should see a copy of your file in the directory you've got open. Congratulations - you've just uploaded your Web page!
If you now open up a Web browser and go to your web page's URL (in this case it would be www.yoursite.com/index2.html), you should see your Web page on the Internet. Well done! :)
You can upload multiple files simultaneously by selecting several files at once and dragging them all in at the same time. Alternatively, you can use the Put Folders and Files function from within the Remote menu to achieve this, which gives a bit more control.
You can also use the Get File and Put File buttons to download and upload files respectively.
Other stuff
Downloading
If you need to download a Web page from your site again (for example, you lost the original on your Mac), simply drag and drop your page the other way, from the window to a location on your Mac, eg the desktop or a folder. You can also use the Get Directories and Files function from within the Remote menu.
Disconnecting
After you've finished uploading stuff, simply quit Fetch from the file menu or just hit Apple-Q on the keyboard.
Deleting files
To delete a file that you have uploaded to your server, click on the file to highlight it and then use Delete Directory or File from the Remote menu. Alternatively, you can just drag straight to your Mac's Trash icon.
Doing other stuff to files
There are many other things you can do to your files on the server (but not move them around). You can access these functions from the top menu system (mostly under Remote and Directories). Fetch has a great help system under the Help menu.
The end
That's the end of this article. We hope you found it useful. If you're still stuck and would like further help, check out our online Help Forums, where you can get assistance from members of Elated and other webmasters.
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