Rocky Mountain Chapter - Colorado

Welcome

The intent of this document is to give really, really simple instructions for transferring files between your computer and the grassroots computer.  It is written for people who have never FTP'ed something before.  In fact, it is written for people who don't even know what FTP is, merely that they have been told that they have to FTP something.  

Special notes for people who use a real OS (linux), or a Macintosh.

These instructions are written for people using the Windows Operating System.  If you are using a Macintosh, you have something called FETCH that works the same way conceptually, but you'll have to find someone else to help you with it, since we've never used it.  Someone on HELP4-WEBMASTERS might be able to help you.  Chris Gehlker also proposes a free alternative for MAC users at the bottom of this page.

If you are using linux, you probably know how to use man pages and don't need our help, beyond getting specific isolated details.  The linux version of ftp is gftp, found as part of the gnome desktop package.  gftp looks and feels alot like the ws-ftp described for windows users below, so you'll feel at home.  

What is FTP

FTP is short for File Transfer Protocol.  It is the program used to transfer files from one computer to another when the computers are not on the same local area network.  Usually, it is used to copy files between a remote server and your local desktop machine.

Where do I get the FTP program if I don't already have it [note - Chris Gehlker offers a free alternative below]

MAC OS-X users should look at something called Fugu 

For Windows users, we recommend a  SmartFTP.   After downloading it, install it on your home machine like you would any other software. You can obtain it at http://www.tucows.com or http://cws.internet.com/ or from the vendor's website.

How do I configure for grassroots email once I've installed it

The vendor provides a complete tutorial if you want to learn more

Start SmartFTP

The first time you start SmartFTP you will be taken to a gneral configuration panel.  If that doesn't happen, or if you want to change settings at a later date, you can get to that panel by selecting the pull down /Tools/Settings or typing Ctrl+O.  Set your default desktop download directory and email address.  Nose around the configuration and make appropriate additional changes unique to your situation (are you behind a proxy server, etc)

You may need to restart for some of the changes to take effect.

Add grassroots to your favorites from the pulldown 

Edit your favorites from the same pulldown. Right click on the grassroots line, select properties

Property panel settings:

Protocol - Normal FTP

host - grassroots.sierraclub.org        Port - 21

Path - /home/yourchaptername  (making the obvious substitution)

enter User ID and password that we gave you. 

[remember to change the password here if you change the password on the server per our instructions on the setup page]

If you think you are going to use this application for other sites, or otherwise think you have a need to remind yourself of something, there is an optional comments section as the last entry on the page.  Use it in any way that you think that reminders can help you.

Note that if you ever are going to use this application for SFTP (secure FTP) transfers to another site, change the protocol for that site appropriately and point to port 22, unless the site owner gives you different instructions.

At that point click "ok" to complete or "cancel" to start over

Now how do I copy a file between my machine and the grassroots machine

Restart SmartFTP if you have exited the program.

On the third line of the application window, there will be pulldown that includes all your favorites that you entered above.  Select grassroots in that box if it isn't already showing. The user ID and password that you entered above will appear in boxes next to that in the same line.

Hit Ctrl+B or pulldown /File/Connect 

The box on the left contains the directory tree on the server that your assigned space should be on.  The box on the right is your server directory, and might contain some system control files. Ignore them. You will also see a file called aliases.txt. That is the table that is used by you to control what activists in your chapter have access to this system.

Skip this step if you have a file already on your home machine that you want to copy. Go to the step for copying to the grassroots server in that case. Highlight aliases.txt on the grassroots server (right side) and select /file/download from the pulldowns or hit Ctrl+D. This will download that file to the default directory on your machine that you defined in favorites above

Edit aliases.txt on your machine using whatever application works best for you.  I use wordpad.  Follow the format found on the examples in the aliases.txt file on the server.  The file contains two columns. The left column is your "alias" such as john.muir@yourchapter.sierraclub.org.  The right column is the "real" email address of your activist.

Make any desired changes.  Remember when adding a new line that there is a TAB between the left column and the right column. If you put spaces instead of a tab, the program won't work right when you copy it back over. 

Save the file on your machine. [Note - if you already created an excel spreadsheet on your machine, you can export that spreadsheet as a tab delimited file.  save that file as aliases.txt in the correct directory on your machine and it will be in the right format already, rather than editing the new file by hand]

Restart SmartFTP if you had exited it.

Setup Grassroots on the address bar just like you did for downloading.

Select the /FTP/CONNECT pulldown or hit CTRL+B

Open local browser under /FTP pulldown. Select in the local browser the directory where the file(s) you want to upload reside. Shrink the windows some so that both the grassroots window and the local window are open.

Select and drag the appropriate file(s) from your local window to the grassroots window.  In general, that should be a file called aliases.txt

You're done when the system says so at the bottom. Exit the program. Email us to check your work the first time.

FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol and as its name implies, it was the first standard for moving files over the Internet. There are countless freeware and shareware FTP programs. If you already have something you like, by all means use it.

FileZilla is one free FTP program for Windows that does the job. It is available from http://filezilla.sourceforge.net/. It is used for illustrative purposes here. If you don't like it for any reason, try something else. Mac users can try the free RBrowser Lite from http://www.rbrowser.com/RBrowserLite/RBrowserLite.html. It is a lot like FileZilla and has excellent on-line help.

Any FTP program will have some way of specifying a site or address, a user name and a password. Some, as illustrated above will also let you specify a port number but you can safely ignore this. It will have windows or panels for dragging and dropping files between the Internet and your local disk. It will also have some way of book marking sites that you want to visit again. FileZilla calls this the "site manager".

To reach our mail server type grassroots.sierraclub.org in the "Address:" field and the user and password are what we gave you into the other fields. Click the Quickconnect button. All but the address are case sensitive. When the remote site opens, choose "Copy connection to Site Manager" from the File menu. This will bookmark the site for future sessions.

Now just browse in your "Local Site:" window to where you stored aliases.txt and drag it into your "Remote Site:" window. That's all there is to it.