Fetch Softworks

Fetch Addresses and Web Addresses

The address (URL) you use to access files in Fetch is not the same as the address you would use to access files in a web browser. For instance, a Fetch address might look like this:

whereas the corresponding web address would like this:

Both of these addresses refer to the file "photos.html" that belongs to a user named "arthur", that is being hosted on the server "example.com". However, the first is an address that Fetch and other FTP clients understand, whereas the second is what someone would type into a web browser to see arthur's page of photos. (These types of addresses are also known as URLs; see the Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) topic for more information about them.)

If you have your own domain name, the addresses may look even more different; you may have something like:

Sending a Fetch address to most other people often isn't useful (unless they are also working with FTP), because even though most web browsers understand Fetch addresses, they won't show the file as a webpage when you use a Fetch address — instead may download the file or open an FTP client to view the file. Fetch addresses are also usually personalized, requiring your username and password to see the file, whereas web addresses are usually generalized and can be used by anyone without entering a password. So, once you have set up a WebView entry for your server, you can use the Copy Web Address command to get a web address, and send it to other people and they can click on it to view the webpage or file in a web browser.

Configuring WebView

Before you can use WebView with a server, you must set up a correspondence between a folder in Fetch and the address of a webpage that folder represents.

Why doesn't Fetch automatically figure out the web address for you? Unfortunately, there's no standard for specifying the web address of files on a server; each server uses its own method, and the method used by one server may not apply on another. There is no way for Fetch to ask your server which method it uses, so Fetch has to ask you instead. While the information for some popular servers is built into Fetch, in most cases Fetch needs your input. If you are not sure what the corresponding web address should be, you should contact your hosting provider or server administrator.

In general, you want to create a WebView entry for your home folder on a server, or the folder that contains your webpages; then that entry will apply for every file and subfolder in that folder. If you create a WebView entry for a subfolder, the WebView entry may only apply for all the items in that subfolder, but not for the items in the subfolder's parent folder.

However, Fetch tries to generalize WebView entries if it can — if it notices that the same folder name is at the end of both the Fetch address and web address, it will remove that folder name from both addresses to create a WebView entry that will apply to other folders on the server as well. While this should almost always be what you want, if for some reason you need to have the same folder name at the end of each address, you can edit the WebView entry using the WebView Preferences pane, and Fetch will not remove matching folder names.

To set up WebView for a server:

If the webpage that opens after you have entered a web address is incorrect — that is, it doesn't show you the page you expected, or it shows you an error — you may have entered an incorrect web address and need to try again. (See "Modifying WebView Entries" below.)

Once you have set up WebView for a server, you do not have to go through the set up process again.

The next time you choose WebView when connected to the same server, Fetch will show you the selected files or folder in your web browser instead of the WebView dialog.

Another way to set up WebView for a server is to choose Fetch > Preferences, click the WebView tab, and click the Add (+) button to add a new WebView entry using the expanded WebView dialog.

When you use the Preferences to set up WebView, the WebView dialog will request two pieces of information, both the Fetch address and a web address. You need to either enter the Fetch address of the server and folder you want to create a WebView entry for, or you can use the Get From Fetch pop-up menu to the right of the Fetch address field to get the Fetch address of a currently open transfer window. Then enter the corresponding web address or use the Get from Safari popup menu to get the web address of a webpage currently open in Safari.

The Get From Fetch pop-up menu is only available when there are open transfer windows, and the Get From Safari pop-up menu is only available when Safari is running and has open webpages. While WebView works with any web browser, Fetch can only show you a list of open webpages from Safari due to limitations of other browsers.

If you work with multiple servers, you can set up WebView entries for each server.

Using WebView: WebView Command

The WebView command allows you to select items in Fetch, and view them in your web browser.

To do this, select an item in a Fetch file list, and click the WebView button in the toolbar or choose Remote > WebView. If you have already set up WebView — or if you are using a hosting provider whose information is built into Fetch — a page corresponding to that item will open in your web browser. If you selected an HTML file representing a webpage, you will see the webpage, or if you selected an image file, you'll see the image. If you select a folder, what you see in the web browser depends on how your server is configured; you may see the contents of the folder, you may see a webpage that's inside that folder (if that folder has its own index file), or you may get an error, because web browsers aren't allowed to see the contents of that folder directly.

If you select multiple files, Fetch will open multiple webpages.

If you have not already set up WebView for this folder or one of its parent folders, the WebView dialog will appear, prompting you to set up the WebView for this folder. See the "Configuring WebView" section above for how to do this.

Using WebView: Copy Web Address

Fetch lets you copy the web address of the files (instead of the less useful Fetch address) by selecting files and choosing Edit > Copy Web Address. The web address is put on the clipboard, and you can use the Paste command to paste it into an email, a document you're editing, or in a web browser.

Once you've set up WebView for a server, you can also paste web addresses for that server in the New Connection dialog or the New Shortcut dialog to fill out the connection information, or in shortcut list windows to create shortcuts.

WebView is compatible with every major Mac OS X browser. It will use the browser you have specified as your default web browser. The WebView button's icon will always be the icon of your default web browser.

Modifying WebView Entries

If you want to delete or edit a WebView entry you created earlier, you can use the WebView Preferences pane. Choose Fetch > Preferences, and click on the WebView tab. Then select an entry, and click the Delete (-) button to delete it, or click the Edit () button to edit it. You can also add new entries by clicking the Add (+) button.

Alternately, you can edit a WebView entry from a Fetch transfer window. To do this, hold down the Option key and click the WebView button, or choose Remote > WebView while holding down the Option key. The WebView dialog will appear, and you can edit the web address entry that matches the folder or server displayed in that transfer window.