1298714 - FTP is not the only way to upload files to a web server

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Developer Documentation Graveyard :: Learning Area, defect, P1)

Description

[Hamish Willee]

:: Developer Documentation Request

      Request Type: Correction
     Gecko Version: unspecified
 Technical Contact: 

:: Details

There are a number of topics that suggest FTP is the "right" way to get files onto the web server. That is probably "dangerous" as a recommendation due to the inherent insecurity. I'd suggest minimally change recommendation to a secure method like SFTP, Rsync over SSH.
Topics affected include:
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Common_questions/How_much_does_it_cost
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Common_questions/What_software_do_I_need
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Common_questions/Upload_files_to_a_web_server#Getting_to_grips_with_an_FTP_client_FireFTP

I would also recommend rewording this from a "you must to it this way" to "one option". 

I'd also argue that file transfer is now a secondary method. The main approach that I'd recommend would be using github as an intermediary (much more common now continuous delivery is so popular)

Comment 1

[Hamish Willee]

Actually, we mention github and rsync here: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Common_questions/Upload_files_to_a_web_server#Other_methods_to_upload_files

However they are considered "advanced", while Github is IMO "the default".

Comment 2

[Eric Shepherd [:sheppy]]

I agree that we should encourage SFTP rather than FTP by default, although we probably need to also cover regular FTP since there are still some sad servers which don't let you do SFTP.

Comment 3

[Chris Mills [:cmills]]

OK, I've rewritten all of these pages extensively so that they talk about using SFTP, warn about the dangers of using regular FTP, and also have more information about Rsync, GitHub with custom domains, etc. I think this is much better now. Does it work for you Hamish?

It's only taken me 2 years ;-)

Comment 4

[Hamish Willee]

only taken me 2 years

Me too :-) . Discovered this when consolidating my MDN emails. The docs look better - a lot less narrow focus. FWIW I also decided to create the glossary item for Rsync out of the linked contents: https://wiki.developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Glossary/Rsync