Need To Upload Nvu Files? Try Cyberduck!

Copyright (c) 2009 Riley West

At first, when I was uploading files to my host's server, I did it the hard way...by hand.

I did it that way because it was easy to figure out how to do it and I was intimidated by the sound of File Transfer Protocol (ftp). Uploading files by hand is slow but easy and I did it that way for quite a while.

Then, one day I wanted to upload about 250 files all for one website. Yes, it can get that big!

When you consider graphics, sales pages, content pages, One Time Offers (oto), licenses, documents, disclaimers and privacy policies, it gets complicated.

So I decided to go get Cyberduck and get with it. By the way, it’s free!

I went over to http://cyberduck.ch/ and hit the download link. Just follow the instructions and it is soon an installed app on your computer. Your Mac that is.

If you are suffering along with a regular PC don’t despair. You have options...there is Filezilla - http://filezilla-project.org/

I haven’t used this one but I hear it is easy to use and works on both Macs and PC’s.

For the sake of discussion lets just go with the idea that you have files to upload and some of the files are Nvu files. Nvu is a FREE html webpage editing software that works for both Macs and PC’s.

There's no point in trying to replace Cyberduck's tutorial in this one article. It’s straightforward and will tell you what to do better than I could…but…there are some details that will trip you up that this article can cover.

Here is one of the things that will trip you up first and foremost when you start uploading files and that detail is their names! The files names, that is.

File names can’t contain spaces or capitals. They can contain numbers. Otherwise they just won’t upload.

I need to stop here for a moment and talk to you about storing your files. That is, where you put them. You want to get it right the first time! Otherwise link propagation will drive you nuts.

Here’s that scenario. You name and upload a file. The file is up there on your server for all the world to access via the web. That name you gave it is part of it’s URL, which stands for Uniform Resource Locator but I just think of it as it’s “address”.

Then you'll go out and advertise that URL to the world. You put it in emails. You’ll put it in blog posts. It will be on other web pages. It’ll get around!

Here’s the nugget. If you ever, for some reason, need to change the files URL, there will be a bunch of dead links out there and they are YOUR links! You’ll never find them all.

So, that said, we have one other little thing to do before we can upload Nvu files with Cyberduck. That is that we have to know our website “code” names and insert those into Cyberduck. Otherwise Cyberduck will “fail to make connection” and won’t upload.

I had to call my hosts help staff to find those names but once I did everything was a go and your FTP will remember the codes so you don’t have to! These things are called “FTP Settings” and they usually reside in your Web Hosting Account Details. These details will be “Host” like ftp.my_internet_marketing.com Also included will be your user ID and password.

There’s one other thing that will simplify your life a bit and that is “folders”. They are often referred to as “Subdirectories”. If I am uploading multiple dozens of files that make up an entire website I always upload it as a whole, in a folder. This is easy and it’s crucial. Simply upload the file batch in it’s folder named “trafficity”. (example for this article)

When you add files (new pages - offers, etc.) to this site you will simply upload to that file folder! So, let’s say your file batch that you intend to upload is called “trafficcity”

If your Domain name is “My_Internet_Marketing.com and one of the files in your batch is named “index.html”, your URL for that file would be My_Internet_Marketing.com/trafficcity/index.html.

Remember this…you DON”T want to go back and reorganize your files because, as soon as you rearrange them, they will have different URL’s and madness lies that direction.

To upload the folder to your host’s servers the first time you click on the duck. When the new window opens, look in the upper left corner and spot the "open connection" icon. Click on it and this is where you will enter your FTP settings. Subsequently you will not have to do this again, since Cyberduck will remember them for you. If everything is correct it will open your website and show you every file in a nice, easy to read list format.

But you don’t want to read files, you want to upload a batch of files on your desktop to your server. Right at center top there is a box with what looks like a sprocket and a down arrow and it’s called “action”. Click it and pull down to “upload”.

Now it will show you a directory and you want to click on desktop, at which point, it will list everything on your desktop alphabetically so now you select your file batch, which for this article is called “trafficcity”.

Select it and click the upload button. Sit back and relax for a minute. It’ll be done soon and now you have all those files up on your server (your host’s server) and they’ll be ready to access and use! You are on your way!