Hi guys,

Need to find a way to automatically download a FTP file daily and save it to a specified directory. Any ideas? It would be good if I could also synchronize a folder on my server to reflect an FTP folder.

This is needed to upload an Excel file and display the information contained within that file on a site.

Thanks in advance.

if on a unix/linux server you need to set a 'cron' job to run daily and execute a script. The script could be written in php if you have a cgi version or if not could use lynx or something similar to call a php script from the webserver or you could do it in perl.

If you are on a windows server it can be done, but I don't no how.

For instructions on setting a cron job try 'cron job' in a search engine and I'm sure there will be directions.

Yes, I knew that it was possible on Linux, however in this case I have to use Win 2K and code the application in ASP. ASP is necessary for a couple of components that the company already owns and want to use on the site.

There are third party software applications that will automate FTP downloads, however I would prefer to do this step entirely without the need to rely on third party components. Anyone got any ideas?

You can try using fopen() commands to save it to a directory on your site, and use a password protected folder to access it!

what is this fopen() you speak of?

Is it within ASP? There is a way to do FTP within ASP, isn't there? ****, need to do some more research on that code. Could you give an example and i will try to find out more as well.

Ok guys, me think me found something:

This will FTP file from a remote server to a local directory, however i am sure that it can be tweaked to go the other way. I will give it a try and if i can't get it to work you will see another post, otherwise it works.


Dim objFSO, objTextFile, oScript, oScriptNet, oFileSys, oFile, strCMD, strTempFile, strCommandResult
Dim ftp_address, ftp_username, ftp_password, ftp_physical_path, ftp_files_to_put

' Edit these variables to match your specifications
ftp_address = "ftp.server.com"
ftp_username = "username"
ftp_password = "password"
ftp_remote_directory = "subdirectory" ' Leave blank if uploading to root directory
ftp_files_to_put = "file.txt"

On Error Resume Next
Set oScript = Server.CreateObject("WSCRIPT.SHELL")
Set oFileSys = Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
' Build our ftp-commands file
Set objTextFile = objFSO.CreateTextFile(Server.MapPath("test.ftp"))
objTextFile.WriteLine "lcd " & Server.MapPath(".")
objTextFile.WriteLine "open " & ftp_address
objTextFile.WriteLine ftp_username
objTextFile.WriteLine ftp_password

' Check to see if we need to issue a 'cd' command
If ftp_remote_directory <> "" Then
objTextFile.WriteLine "cd " & ftp_remote_directory
End If

objTextFile.WriteLine "prompt"

' If the file(s) is/are binary (i.e. .jpg, .mdb, etc..), uncomment the following line' objTextFile.WriteLine "binary"
' If there are multiple files to put, we need to use the command 'mput', instead of 'put'
If Instr(1, ftp_files_to_put, "*",1) Then
objTextFile.WriteLine "mput " & ftp_files_to_put
Else
objTextFile.WriteLine "put " & ftp_files_to_put
End If
objTextFile.WriteLine "bye"
objTextFile.Close
Set objTextFile = Nothing
' Use cmd.exe to run ftp.exe, parsing our newly created command file
strCMD = "ftp.exe -s:" & Server.MapPath("test.ftp")
strTempFile = "C:\" & oFileSys.GetTempName( )
' Pipe output from cmd.exe to a temporary file (Not :| Steve)
Call oScript.Run ("cmd.exe /c " & strCMD & " > " & strTempFile, 0, True)
Set oFile = oFileSys.OpenTextFile (strTempFile, 1, False, 0)

On Error Resume Next
' Grab output from temporary file
strCommandResult = Server.HTMLEncode( oFile.ReadAll )
oFile.Close
' Delete the temporary & ftp-command files
Call oFileSys.DeleteFile( strTempFile, True )
Call objFSO.DeleteFile( Server.MapPath("test.ftp"), True )
Set oFileSys = Nothing
Set objFSO = Nothing
' Print result of FTP session to screen
Response.Write( Replace( strCommandResult, vbCrLf, "<br>", 1, -1, 1) )
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