Fire Up FTP
As professionals using the computer to earn a wage, every second shaved off a task helps the productivity of the user. FTP is one of those areas which can still be clunky for those who send files backwards and forwards between folders, even if they do exist on a remote server. I'm soliciting some feedback and help from members of the creativebits community about an idea for an FTP application.
What I propose is a very simple FTP application whose sole purpose is to get out of your way and do it's job of transferring selected files to a selected destination. It would require no application launching, no dragging of files, no clicking through subfolders to find the right directory.
t would exist purely as a contextual menu item. When a user clicks on a file or files in the Finder or Desktop, it would display as one menu option "Fire Up to". A subfolder of the menu would show the predefined account destinations. Upon release of the mouse, an ftp connection would be established & the files would be uploaded to the server.
A transparent window overlay would discreetly show file upload progress and disappear when finished. The target market for this app would be those who are constantly uploading to the same locations but do not wish to boot an application and interrupt their workflow.
Here is a quick example of how the application would work. (382kb Quicktime Movie)
Since this exists solely as an idea and quicktime mockup at the moment, there may be issues, some insurmountable, that may make this impractical. If you think there is an area you could help or have some advice, technical, interface or function related, I'd love to hear from you. ([email protected]) We will be posting results in a thread in a few days so thanks in advance.
[Update]Through the use of 10.4's Automator program, this type of contextual FTP is now very easy to implement and does not require a separate app.
[Credit] Robot Icon from Startly Software’s Trans Lucy 2
