ScriptFTP 3.4 – development status

As some users in the forum have pointed, during 2010 there were no updates for ScriptFTP. This does not mean in any way that ScriptFTP is not being actively developed. On the contrary, small fixes for the current version have been released and the installation package available in the download section has been replaced quite often.

Long awaited features such as SFTP support (FTPS is already supported) are being developed and will arrive with the new version. But note that as SFTP is a completely different protocol from FTP and FTPS (although the name is almost equal), ScriptFTP must be almost rewritten to support it. We also have decided to build ScriptFTP from ground-up with a totally different design approach and use C# instead C++, and ScriptFTP has thousands of lines of source code.
So be patient! The year that is about to arrive in a few hours will take us new versions and great improvements.

ScriptFTP 3.3 has been released

This new release of ScriptFTP comes with many bug fixes and the update is highly recommended, specially if you run ScriptFTP on Windows Vista/7/Server 2008. The new features are the following:

• [New command] GETFILE2. Downloads a file and sotres it using the specified file name.
• [New command] PUTFILE2. Uploads a file and stores it using the specified file name.
• [New command] SETFILETIME. Sets the file modification time of a local or remote file.
• [New command] ISCONNECTED. Checks if the connection with the FTP server is still alive.
• [New command] SETTIMEOUT. Sets the number of seconds ScriptFTP will wait for a server response before droping an error.
• [New command] STOPLOG.
• [Other] ScriptFTP error codes have been sorted and changed in this version. For further reference, a complete list of them has been written. It is available here.
• [Other] GETDATE has changed its name to GETTIME. For backwards compatibility GETDATE could be still used.

As usual, the setup file is available in the Downloads section.

Feel free to comment anything related to this new release in the forum or contacting the support.

Some updates

The download section have been updated today. You will find there two new links appart from the ScriptFTP installer file. The first one is a PDF version of the scripting guide (update: no longer available, use the web version instead). A printable version of the guide have been a request from a long time ago, even in the early days of ScriptFTP, three years ago. So it’s finally here. The other download is an encryption tool for the script files. This tool is not new, it has been here for a while as some of you have already know reading this topic of the scripting guide. I’ve just placed it in a more visible page. Many users didn’t notice at all that this tool actually existed (they even requested its creation by email when it was already created). But note that the tool is only available for customers who purchased ScriptFTP, sorry! I have no problem to give it for free for the people trying ScriptFTP but I find this way more secure. I hope everyone understand this policy.

If you have been reading the forum you probably have noticed that some minor bugs have been reported and patched recently. This means that a new version of ScriptFTP (3.2) will be released soon, probably this week or the next. If want to try it out the last build (which includes most patches) feel free to try the development version (update: link no longer available). Note that this build aims to be only for testing purposes.

ScriptFTP 3.1 released

This new release fixes some bugs found during the last weeks and adds a couple of new features:

• [New feature] New commands TEXTCUT and TEXTLENGTH to manipulate text velues.
• [New feature] ScriptFTP can now be launched in the system tray or completely hidden as a background process using the optional parameters /TRAY or /HIDE respectively. Further info.
• [Bug fix] Fixed an error that caused scriptftp_console.exe to hang randomly under certain cirumstances when using EXIT.
• [Bug fix] Fixed an error in the check that SYNC does on the FTP server before synchronizing to know if file modification times are supported by the server or not. False positives were found.

ScriptFTP 3.0 released

• Download
• Updates are for free. Request new registration code.
• Updating v2.x scripts
• Updating v1.x scripts

After months of testing by customers and beta testers I’m proud to announce that ScriptFTP version 3.0 has been finally released. This new version supports a more powerful script language and 6 new commands, you can expect also faster file synchronizations. The website has suffered also a major redesign to be as clear as possible. The complete list of changes is as follows:

Script language changes:

• Every variable must start with the $ character.
• Every label (used for GOTO jumps) must start with the : character. See the GOTO examples.
• Support for the arithmetical operators: +,-,*,/,==,!=,<,<=,>,>=
• Support for the logical operators AND and OR.
• Support for the text string operator ‘.’ (dot) used to concatenate text strings easily.
• The commands ADD, ISEQUAL, NOT and CONCAT are deprecated. Use the appropiate operator instead.
• The TIMEDIFF command has been renamed to SETCLOCKDIFF
• The SETSSL command has been renamed to SETPROTOCOL
• The TALKATIVE command has been renamed to VERBOSE
• Text strings can be also delimited with the ‘ character.

New features:

• Much faster file synchronization algorithm.
• Server-client time difference is calculated once per session, not once per SYNC call.
• The ScriptFTP main window position and size is now saved. The next time you open a ScriptFTP it will be shown with the same size and position.
• Script syntax errors are now reported before the script execution, not when the script error is reached.
• New command line parameter /TRAY to start ScriptFTP in the system tray.
• New command line parameter /HIDE to start ScriptFTP in the background. No window is shown.
• New command line parameter /AUTOCLOSE to make ScriptFTP automatically close itself once the script is finished. No window is shown.

New commands:

• VERBOSE: It shows on the ScriptFTP window the raw communication between ScriptFTP and FTP the server. Useful for troubleshooting.
• STOP: It stops the script execution. It does not close the ScriptFTP window.
• SETUPLOADMODE: It changes the way ScriptFTP uploads files.
• FOREACH: Loop used to perform a separate action for each file.
• GETLIST: It gets a file list and stores it in a variable.
• QUOTE: Sends raw commands to the FTP server.

Fixes:

• RENAMEFILE, files with more than one dot are now renamed right.
• Scheduler fixed, had some errors in script list handling.
• The script file are no longer blocked during the execution. You can edit them even while ScriptFTP is running that script file.
• The Quit menu item now always works
• SYNC now deletes the temporary files that creates.

News prior July 2008

• Jun 19 2008

• New build of ScriptFTP 3.0 Release Candidate is available

  This new build addresses some bugs related to the way the vertical scroll bar is handled during the script execution and other internal bugs related to memory handling and the script language compiler.
  It is not expected to add more features, only bug fixing. Depending on the testers feedback this build could be finally released as ScriptFTP 3.0. Any feedback is very appreciated. You can download it here.

• Jun 3 2008
  

  ScriptFTP 3.0 Release Candidate available for download

  The ScriptFTP 3.0 version is almost finished but before releasing it on the main site I would like to make it available for further testing. This release is a step ahead over the ScriptFTP 3.0 Beta, and now is considered stable software. Please, consider sending any feedback to scripftp@scriptftp.com.

• Jan 28 2008
  

  ScriptFTP 3.0 still under development

  Six months have passed since the last update of the news page. I would like to report that the 3.0 Beta version is still being developed. A major redesing of the script parser of ScriptFTP is being done and the release deadline has been moved to the second quarter of 2008.

• May 6 2007
  

  ScriptFTP 3.0 Beta Released (free update for registered users)

  I’m proud of announcing the ScriptFTP 3.0 Beta version. This relase is intended to let the users test it and get some feedback. As soon as the bugs that might appear are fixed it will be released as 3.0.
  Please, feel free to try it and send any comment to scripftp@scriptftp.com.

• May 24 2006
  

  ScriptFTP 2.3 Released

  – SYNC, GETFILE and PUTFILE are now able to automatically recover and resume transfers when the connection times out.
  – Fixed an error that happened in some FTP servers when renaming a temporary file to the definitive filename.

• April 7 2006
  

  ScriptFTP 2.2 Released

  – Now SYNC will only delete files when UPLOAD_DELETE or UPLOAD_DELETE is used. See SYNC.
  – New options added to the GETDATE command for getting only the year, month, day, hour or minute.
  – Fixed a bug in the installer. Registering the DLL now works on Windows 2000.

• March 21 2006
  

  EXEC and Scheduler bugs fixed

  If you have experienced that EXEC produces no output this was related to a programming error. Download the fixed ScriptFTP version from the download section.
  A scheduler error that does not allow some users to add a script to the scheduler have also been solved.

• March 14 2006
  

  ScriptFTP v2.1 has arrived. New features:

  – Script file encoding. Now you can encode script files with sensitive information such as passwords, user names and remote server information. More information here. The old scheme to encrypt passwords in the OPENHOST command has been removed.
  – New command to retrieve your own command line parameters. See GETPARAM.
  – The ScriptFTP window stops scrolling when the user moves the scroll bar.
  – The SETPROTOCOL command now supports FTPS explicit with encrypted data channel.

• February 14 2006
  

  Some bugs fixed

  – Folder/subfolder download may fail in some very specific FTP servers. Fixed.
  – ScriptFTP now tries to reconnect automatically (one time) if the connection is lost during a file transfer.
  – Added support to apply CHMOD on directories. See CHMOD help topic.

• February 2 2006
  

  Added an optional parameter to the SYNC command

  By default, the SYNC command syncronizes all the files found in the specified directories. I’ve just added an optional parameter to tell SYNC to syncronize only a set of files. Take a look at the updated the reference of the SYNC command.
• February 2 2006
  

  Added an optional parameter to the SYNC command

  By default, the SYNC command syncronizes all the files found in the specified directories. I’ve just added an optional parameter to tell SYNC to syncronize only a set of files. Take a look at the updated the reference of the SYNC command.
• March 23 2004 – February 2 2006
  
  News prior 2006 have been removed.

ScriptFTP 3.2 released

This new release contains some bug fixes and three new commands: SETMODEZ, GETFILESIZE and GETFILETIME. As usual, the update is for free. The installation file is available from the download section. The detailed list of changes is the following:

• [New command] SETMODEZ. Use it to enable or disable on the fly compression during file download or upload.
• [New command] GETFILESIZE. Returns the size of a local or remote file in bytes.
• [New command] GETFILETIME. Returns the last mofication time of a local or remote file.
• [Bug fix] Uploading a file that was being used by other program and not available for reading caused SYNC and PUTFILE to abort. Now this error is only a warning and the upload continues.
• [Bug fix] GETFILE and PUTFILE showed two error messages instead of one when connection to the server was lost. Now only a connection lost error message is shown.
• [Bug fix] Wrong syntax errors were reported when RAWCOMMAND was used in the script file. Fixed.
• [Bug fix] PUTFILE was always retrieving remote file listing when most of the times is not necessary. Fixed.
• [Bug fix] Start menu links to the ScriptFTP website pointed to the ScriptFTP 3 Beta website (no longer avilable). Fixed.
• [Bug fix] Adding and substracting dates (as explained here) was resulting in wrong dates. Fixed.
• [Bug fix] GETLIST returned nothing instead of “OK” when no files were found. This is not considered an error condition. Now returns “OK”.
• [Documentation] More firendly SETPROTOCOL help topic.
• [Documentation] Help topic ScriptFTP on the command line updated.

I wish you a happy new year. Hopefully, 2009 will bring us SFTP support to ScriptFTP.