jsftp

jsftp is a client FTP module for NodeJS that focuses on correctness, clarity and conciseness. It doesn't get in the middle of the user intentions.

jsftp gives the user access to all the raw commands of FTP in form of methods in the Ftp object. It also provides several convenience methods for actions that require complex chains of commands (e.g. uploading and retrieving files). When commands succeed they always pass the response of the server to the callback, in the form of an object that contains two properties: code, which is the response code of the FTP operation, and text, which is the complete text of the response.

Raw (or native) commands are accessible in the form Ftp.raw["desired_command"](params, callback)

Thus, a command like QUIT will be called like

Ftp.raw.quit(function(err, data) {
    if (err)
        throw err;

    console.log("Bye!");
});

and a command like MKD, which accepts parameters, will look like

Ftp.raw.mkd("/new_dir", function(err, data) {
    if (err)
        throw err;

    console.log(data.text); // Presenting the FTP response text to the user
});

Usage examples

// Initialize some common variables
var user = "johndoe";
var pass = "12345";

var ftp = new Ftp({
    host: "myhost.com",
    port: 21, // The port defaults to 21, but let's include it anyway.
});


// First, we authenticate the user
ftp.auth(user, pass, function(err, res) {
    if (err) throw err;

    // Retrieve a file in the remote server. When the file has been retrieved,
    // the callback will be called with `data` being the Buffer with the
    // contents of the file.

    // This is a convenience method that hides the actual complexity of setting
    // up passive mode and retrieving files.

    ftp.get("/folder/file.ext", function(err, data) {
        if (err) throw err;

        // Do something with the buffer
        doSomething(data);

        // We can use raw FTP commands directly as well. In this case we use FTP
        // 'QUIT' method, which accepts no parameters and returns the farewell
        // message from the server
        ftp.raw.quit(function(err, res) {
            if (err) throw err;

            console.log("FTP session finalized! See you soon!");
        });
    });
});

// The following code assumes that you have authenticated the user, just like
// I did in the code above.

// Create a directory
ftp.raw.mkd("/example_dir", function(err, data) {
    if (err)
        throw err;

    console.log(data.text);
});

// Delete a directory
ftp.raw.rmd("/example_dir", function(err, data) {
    if (err)
        throw err;

    console.log(data.text);
});

You can find more usage examples in the unit tests for it. This documentation will grow as jsftp evolves.

API

Properties

Ftp.host

Host name for the current FTP server.

Ftp.port

Port number for the current FTP server (defaults to 21).

Ftp.socket

NodeJS socket for the current FTP server.

Ftp.features

features is an array of feature names for the current FTP server. It is generated when the user authenticates with the auth method.

Methods

Ftp.raw.FTP_COMMAND([params], callback)

All the standard FTP commands are available under the raw namespace. These commands might accept parameters or not, but they always accept a callback with the signature err, data, in which err is the error response coming from the server (usually a 4xx or 5xx error code) and the data is an object that contains two properties: code and text. code is an integer indicating the response code of the response and text is the response string itself.

Ftp.auth(username, password, callback)

Authenticates the user with the given username and password. If null or empty values are passed for those, auth will use anonymous credentials. callback will be called with the response text in case of successful login or with an error as a first parameter, in normal Node fashion.

Ftp.list(filePath, callback)

Lists filePath contents using a passive connection.

Ftp.get(filePath, callback)

Downloads filePath from the server.

Ftp.put(filePath, buffer, callback)

Uploads a file to filePath. It accepts a buffer parameter that will be written in the remote file.

Ftp.rename(from, to, callback)

Renames a file in the server. from and to are both filepaths.

Ftp.ls(filePath, callback)

Lists information about files or directories and yields an array of file objects with parsed file properties to the callback. You should use this function instead of stat or list in case you need to do something with the individual file properties.

Ftp.keepAlive()

Refreshes the interval thats keep the server connection active. There is no need to call this method since it is taken care internally

Installation

With NPM:

npm install jsftp

From GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/sergi/jsftp.git

Tests

To run the tests from the command line:

node test/jsftp_test.js

Please note that for now the unit tests require python because the FTP server used is written in python. In the future this dependency will not be there.

License

See LICENSE.