A Bookmark contains all the necessary details to connect to a server you have previously connected to, such as the server name or IP address, your username and your password. Additionally, many other server-specific settings such as the server time zone, login directory, server type, and others are stored in the Bookmark.
A Bookmark will allow you to reconnect to a server very easily by simply selecting its name from a list shown in the Bookmarks menu, or double clicking its entry in the Bookmarks Viewer window list. Additionally, since Bookmarks are just files, they may be copied or moved to your Desktop or any other convenient location, and then simply double-clicked when a connection to the Bookmarked server is required.
Many of the features in Yummy FTP rely on a Bookmark being available for the server which is to be used, so it is highly recommended to use them. However, this is not a requirement to use the software and some users may prefer to use the New Connection window or Recent Connections menu.
Creating a Bookmark is easy. Once you have connected to a server successfully, simply select Add Bookmark in the Bookmarks menu, enter a new name for the Bookmark and then press the Save button. The name you entered will appear in the Bookmarks menu and in the Bookmarks Viewer window.
You will also be asked if a Bookmark should be created just before closing an FTP Browser window which does not already have a Bookmark associated with it.
A Bookmark can also be created within the Bookmarks Viewer window by clicking the Add toolbar icon. In this case, a very server-specific configuration can be created even before making a connection to the server for the first time.
The Bookmarks Viewer window is the central place to manage your Bookmarks. From there you can edit, duplicate, rename and delete your Bookmarks. You can also create folders within the listing and drag Bookmarks into it, in order to to organize them by category, for example.
To show the Bookmarks Viewer window, select Show All Bookmarks from the Bookmarks menu.
The toolbar at the top of the Bookmarks Viewer has icon buttons to click which act on the selected items in the list. Options include Connect, Add, Edit, Delete and Duplicate, as well as New Folder and Import.
If there are no selected items in the listing, the Connect button will open the New Connection window and the Edit button will display a file chooser window, from which you may navigate to any Bookmark, FTP Alias or FTP Watcher to alter their settings.
The Import button will display a folder chooser window, from which you may select a folder full of Bookmarks to add, as well as Favorites, Shortcuts and Bookmarks from other FTP client applications. Bookmarks from Yummy FTP or from other FTP client applications may also be dragged into the Bookmarks Viewer window to import them.
By default, the Bookmarks Viewer window displays a Column view representation of your Bookmarks, however List view may be selected by choosing the Show List View option in the View menu.
The Bookmark Editor window is displayed when editing or creating a Bookmark. To edit a Bookmark, select it in the list within the Bookmarks Viewer window and then click the Edit toolbar icon. To create a Bookmark, click the Add toolbar icon.
When the Bookmark Editor window is shown, the following options are available:
This tab shows the main settings which allow a connection to a server.
Server : The server IP address or name should be entered here. Names usually take the form of
ftp.somedomain.com. IP addresses take the form nnn.nnn.nnn.nnn where n is any number from zero to 255.
Password : If a user name has been entered the a password should be entered into this field. You may leave the field blank in order to be prompted for it during the connection process, or to cause the Keychain to be consulted, or when using Public Key Authentication with no passphrase. Note that if the Store passwords in Keychain checkbox is enabled in the Preferences then once the password has been entered into the Keychain it will no longer be displayed in this field.
Port :
FTP servers usually operate on port 21 and SFTP servers on port 22. Some servers have been configured to operate on non-standard ports, and if this is the case then that port number must be entered here.
Protocol : This setting determines whether the server uses normal
FTP or secure SFTP. You should select as appropriate.
Compression : For SFTP connections only, this setting will cause files to be automatically compressed and expanded as they are transferred, thereby reducing the time to transfer. This works particularly well with text files, but with other files which do not compress so well, such as image files, it is possible to slow down the transfer. If you regularly transfer a lot of text files, enable this checkbox.
SSH Key : When this option is enabled and SFTP is set as the protocol, an alternative method of identification that is known as Public Key Authentication can be used. When enabled, you should click the
Select button to navigate to and pick your private key from your public/private key pair. These are normally located in the .ssh folder within your Home folder and so Yummy
FTP will display this folder first.
This tab contains settings that are usually optional, and control options which are not considered essential in order to make a successful connection to the server, when the default settings are used.
Mac browser Home folder : In this area, a location on your Mac can be defined, which is shown in the left listing of the
FTP Browser window after connecting to a server. The path to the location is shown at the top of this panel. Click the
Select button to navigate to a location of your choice.
Use setting from preferences : When this option is selected, the default Mac Home folder as defined in the
Preferences is used as the location which is shown in the left listing of the
FTP Browser window after connecting to a server. If it is not selected, the location shown above the check box will be used instead.
Enable AutoRoute from this folder : This option works in conjunction with the Mac browser Home folder and is available only when the Use setting from preferences setting is not selected. When this option is selected, the chosen Mac browser Home folder defines the location of the 'mirror' copy of the files and directories on the server that reside in the directory defined by the Initial path setting in the Basic Configuration tab. With these settings configured correctly, the AutoRoute feature may be used with this Bookmarked server.
Time Zone : This are defines how far ahead or behind in time the clock on the server is in comparison to your Mac's clock. The setting is used to adjust the the displayed dates and times of items in the server listing of the
FTP Browser window. It is also used during synchronizations, to decide whether items on your Mac or on the server are newer.
Automatically detect time offset : When this option is selected, Yummy
FTP will attempt to discover the difference in clock settings between you and the server on your behalf. It does this by sending a small file to the server then asking the server the date and time of the uploaded file so that it may compare it to the date and time on your Mac and therefore calculate the time difference. The small file is automatically deleted after the operation has completed. This will be performed each time a connection is made to the server, and also prior to any synchronizations taking place.
Hrs:Mins Ahead/Behind : The time difference between your Mac and the server can be entered manually here. If the Automatically detect time offset option is enabled, the discovered difference will be shown and any changes to the setting will be overridden by the automatic discovery mechanism, unless it should fail for some reason. In this case, the entered setting will be the fallback value.
Use passive FTP (PASV) : When using the
FTP protocol to transfer files and fetch directory listings, a separate connection must be established with the server. This setting defines how the additional connection should be orientated - either Yummy
FTP initiates the connection and the server waits for it (Passive
FTP) or the server initiates the connection and Yummy
FTP waits for it (Active
FTP). Either setting will work, except for those servers which do not support both methods. Some firewalls also require one method in preference to the other. When the
Auto-detect Active/Passive mode option is selected in the
Preferences this setting will govern whether Passive or Active orientation is used by default - if anything fails, the other method will be tried.
Only use one connection : If the server does not allow several simultaneous
FTP operations at the same time, select this option to instruct Yummy
FTP never to try to open additional connections to the server.
Connect automatically at startup : When this setting is selected, a connection will be made to this server and an
FTP Browser window displayed every time you launch Yummy
FTP. This can be useful if you frequently manage the same server(s) or you would like automation capabilities for a Bookmark which has scheduled synchronizations attached to it.
Don't use proxy server : If this server is on your
LAN, or some other location which does not require it to be accessed via an
FTP proxy server, as you have defined in the
Preferences, if any, then attempts to connect with the server will not use the proxy server configuration.
Show all versions of files (VMS) : This option is specific to Dec VMS servers and variants. When it is selected, all directory contents are displayed in the server listing regardless of duplicate entries with differing version numbers. When it is not selected, only the entries which have the latest version number are displayed.
Don't synchronize dates : This option controls whether Yummy
FTP should or should not attempt to set the date and time of downloaded files to the same as the server file, and vice versa. It is intended as an override to the
Maintain modification dates of transferred files setting in the
Preferences.
Encoding : The menu shown allows the text encoding format to be selected that the server uses. Amongst many things, this is used to display names of items in the server listing. For the majority of servers, the UTF-8 setting will be correct and this is the default setting that is defined in the menu of the same name in the Server Options of the Preferences. This setting is intended as an override to the Preferences setting, and the first option Use Preferences Setting is therefore set as the default value.
Server Type : The menu shown allows the operating system or
FTP server make to be selected. By default this is set to the
Detect Automatically option and this will cause Yummy
FTP to try to determine the server type automatically. However, in some instances this is not possible and the appropriate setting must be selected manually.
Use EPSV/EPRT : This is a specialised option where
FTP protocol connections for data transfer can only be established by using an extended format of
FTP commands. Most commonly, it provides a means to connect with an IPv4 IP address over an IPv6/IPv4 mixed network.
Case sensitive : Although the Mac filing system treats two items with the same name but differing capitalization as identical items, some server systems do not and enabling this option will instruct Yummy
FTP to take capitalization into account when comparing names of items during transfers and synchronizations.
Translate : This option works in conjunction with the
Encoding menu. When it is enabled and an ISO8859 variant encoding is selected, names of items and transferred text files will be automatically translated between Mac encoding and
ISO encoding in order for the text to be displayed correctly in both places.