Fetch Softworks

Editing PHP files using FTP (7 posts)

• Started 14 years ago by tlbookmantn
• Latest reply 12 years ago from Jim Matthews

• tlbookmantn Member

  I am new at FTP or any editing program for my web site. The web site was designed using PHP and I don't have a clue what all the chicken scratching means. Does Fetch translate this or not?

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi,

  No, Fetch does not understand or translate PHP files. Fetch is not a website editor.

  Fetch can help you upload your website files from your Mac to your server, and upload updates to them, and edit files using another program as a helper (you select a file on the server, click Edit, Fetch opens a text editor for you to make changes to that file, and then will save the changes back to the server when you choose Save in the editor). But it cannot translate or teach PHP or HTML.

  For more information about what Fetch can do for you, please see our What is Fetch? help topic.

  Please let us know if you have further questions.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 14 years ago #

• tlbookmantn Member

  I am sorry to be a pest but I have read through everything on your site but I still don't comprehend how to edit. I use hostmonster.com as my server and they have a FTP option but I need to see the info in English. That is just about my whole problem. In you help section I read that a person could use either an Apple Text Edit or Preview but when I click on a file it is just a conglomeration of junk that I can't decipher. Where can I go to find out this info? I have Googled it and still come up empty. You Fetch as the best documentation that I have found but it just guess I am to dumb to see how it is done.

  Thank you for your time
  Bob Leininger

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Bob,

  As you may have found, we have information about how to edit files in our editing a file help topic.

  It sounds like you are saying that the file opens in your editor, but the contents of the file don't make sense to you. Is that correct?

  I suspect it may be that Fetch and the editor are opening the file correctly and you are seeing PHP code, and since is a programming language it may not look much like regular English - but I may be mistaken about what is going on.

  If you could take a screenshot of your screen after you open a file for editing, and email it to us at bugs@fetchsoftworks.com, I'll take a look and try to give further advice.

  (To take a screenshot of your Mac's screen, press Command-Shift-3; this will create a new file on your Desktop that is the screenshot.)

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Scott McGuire Administrator

  Hi Bob,

  Thanks for sending the screenshot. It shows that Fetch is opening your files for editing correctly; what you are seeing is the PHP code that makes up your website. The PHP code is a set of instructions telling your web server and web browser how to create the layout and features of your website.

  When your web browser asks your web server to display a page, and the web server opens the file, follows the commands in the PHP program that's part of the webpage, and creates a webpage based on those commands, and what you see in the web browser is the result of those instructions. When you edit the original webpage, you see the raw, original instructions, not the results.

  I'm not sure if there's a program on the Mac that can both allow you to edit pages and show it to you in "plain English." There may not be; it may be that you need to understand PHP to make changes, but that depends on how your website was designed.

  What you need to do is talk to the person who designed your website, and discuss if there is a way for you to make the changes you want to make without understanding PHP, and if so, what the best way to do that is.

  I hope this helps clarify things.

  Thanks,

  Scott McGuire
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 14 years ago #

• Russ Member

  I am trying to upload a PHP contact form, like this one. I edit in Kompozer and all I get is a little yellow box that says PHP on it. The program support guy tells me to use PHP support to upload, but that doesn't make sense, because I can copy and paste entire files from another Web site and they show up on the document page as completely usable contact pages. Cant use them of course because they would contain the wrong send to email address, Any clues as to what I am doing wrong? I upload all the relevant PHP files, then upload the page with the initial PHP settings and still it doesn't work. Can you please help. Does Fetch contain some sort of PHP upload support?

  Posted 12 years ago #

• Jim Matthews Administrator

  Fetch will move the PHP file between your Mac and the server, but you'd want to use a program like TextWrangler or BBEdit to edit it. You can get TextWrangler from http://www.barebones.com

  Thanks,

  Jim Matthews
  Fetch Softworks

  Posted 12 years ago #