Uploading files from your Mac to a server can be a pain, a waiting game, a trial with hidden “gotchas”.
So it is with FTP tools for the Mac. Me? I want speed, speed, speed, and no problems. I want Yummy FTP.
The story is a rather simple one—it’s the plumber’s house that has the leaky faucet, the drain that won’t go down, or plumbing that’s backed up.
We, meaning Ron and I, have a side business developing content for various and sundry web sites. But we don’t have a site of our own to highlight what we do for other sites.
Yes, I’ve been meaning to design something attractive, and I started on the project, oh, about a dozen times. But never got it finished. Sound familiar?
Under threats about disowning me and my Scottish heritage, Ron suggested I take a simple approach, and either use iWeb ‘08, or RapidWeaver, or Sandvox, or something, and make a web site that would be our shingle for all the world to see.
Uh oh. I see a problem. Ron made it worse by giving me a deadline to accomplish the aforementioned design. My SO, Wil, suggested there would be no more dining out until the deed was done. I think men collaborate more than they should.
So, here’s what I did (by now you’re probably wondering what this has to do with Yummy FTP, right? Bear with me. The other half of me is Puerto Rican, so I’ll get there). I tried to set up a simple business site using iWeb, RapidWeaver, and Sandvox.
RapidWeaver won. iWeb is a bit too cumbersome for a business site. It doesn’t do nested folders and pages.
Sandvox didn’t have as many nice looking pre-built templates from which to choose. RapidWeaver did.
What I wanted was an attractive but not too gaudy site that looked like business, not too creative, eight or 10 pages to describe who we are and what we do and why, a contact page, and an easy way to update the site, and add content over time.
That brings up two problems. The first is easy updating. The second is uploaded the easy updates to the web server. A dynamic site like Mac360 uses a database to hold content and the site’s design.
A static web site tool builds pages the old fashioned way—page by page, which means they have to be uploaded after each change in content to the page. No fun.
iWeb makes that easy if you’re using a .Mac account for your web site. Ron put up a nice family web site over the weekend that’s attractive, easily updated with a single click. Nice, huh?
Once I had a web site theme chosen for RapidWeaver, I started entering content. I’m not done yet, but will be soon. Remember, this is a sideline business. I still have a day job that actually brings in sufficient money to pay rent and eat out.
Once a site is laid out and most of the content is ready, my urge to upload increased beyond my ability to control. In the past, I’ve used Panic’s Transmit as my favorite FTP tool—the tool of choice for uploading files to a server.
Nothing improves without change. This time I decided to try a few other FTP packages. Why? Transmit isn’t as fast, and updating a site requires patience, of which I have less of that than I may need.
I tried Captain FTP, Interachy, Fetch, and others, but finally settled on Yummy FTP. It was a good opportunity to try something new, and Yummy specializes in the one thing I really wanted out of a new FTP tool—speed.
My nearly completed site was uploaded first via Transmit, a truly Mac-like experience, elegant GUI, with just the right amount of features. The whole site was uploaded in about four minutes using Transmit.
Then I tried the same thing (after deleting all the old files on the server) with the other FTP tools on my list, including Yummy. Yummy won. Two minutes. Nothing else was close.
Yes, I understand that there are many components to fast uploads—internet connection, file types, application, and so on.
The server at the other end is a Mac Xserve. I’m using my desktop PowerMac G5, soon to be replaced by a new iMac sporting OS X Leopard.
Important in any upload of a web site is the ability to “synchronize” files from the Mac to the server. Both Transmit and Yummy have a sync feature, and both worked well. In the end, Yummy won because files were uploaded faster, and Yummy didn’t quit during the sync or forget to upload some changed files. Transmit did.
Most of the Mac FTP tools have an extensive feature list, and Yummy FTP is no exception. My favorite is the FTP Watcher. Set up a “watched” local folder on your Mac, make a change to a file in that folder, and it’s automatically uploaded to the server of choice. That’s handy.
There’s synchronization and scheduling, the standard DualBrowse feature which lets you see your Mac’s files and the server’s files side by side.
AutoRouting is another handy way of uploading files by a simple drag and drop function to the Dock. The standard connections are also included in Yummy—FPT, FTPS, SFTP, and so on. Bookmarks, too.
I don’t have a need for it, but Ron says it’s come in handy for him—Yummy’s Server to Server feature. Login to one server and move/copy files from there to another server, instead of to your Mac.
All the features are nice, of course, including the customizable toolbar. What really got me excited about Yummy was the speed of the upload. I don’t know what they do differently, other than managing multiple FTP connections better, but file uploads in my tests were twice as fast as with Transmit or Interachy, especially when uploading a lot of files.
This is the way I like to work. Setup and let the tool do the heavy lifting. So, I’m almost done with the site design and I’m filling in the content now. Uploads are a breeze with Yummy and fully automated, just like iWeb uploads and syncs sites to .Mac accounts. That’s the way God intended FTP to be.
Your mileage may vary. FTP tools are a bit like browsers and email applications—it’s religion for some. So, evangelize a bit and let Mac360 readers know why you like your favorite FTP tool. Use the Comments section below.
About Kate MacKenzie
