jsftp

What is jsftp?

jsftp is a lightweight FTP client for Node.js that allows you to interact with FTP servers. It supports a variety of FTP operations such as uploading, downloading, renaming, and deleting files, as well as creating and removing directories.

What are jsftp's main functionalities?

Connecting to an FTP server

This code demonstrates how to connect to an FTP server using jsftp. You need to provide the host, username, and password for the FTP server.

const JSFtp = require('jsftp');
const ftp = new JSFtp({
  host: 'ftp.example.com',
  user: 'username',
  pass: 'password'
});
ftp.auth('username', 'password', (err, res) => {
  if (err) return console.error(err);
  console.log('Connected to FTP server');
});

Uploading a file

This code demonstrates how to upload a file from the local filesystem to the FTP server using jsftp.

ftp.put('local/path/to/file.txt', 'remote/path/to/file.txt', err => {
  if (err) return console.error(err);
  console.log('File uploaded successfully');
});

Downloading a file

This code demonstrates how to download a file from the FTP server to the local filesystem using jsftp.

ftp.get('remote/path/to/file.txt', 'local/path/to/file.txt', err => {
  if (err) return console.error(err);
  console.log('File downloaded successfully');
});

Listing files in a directory

This code demonstrates how to list files in a directory on the FTP server using jsftp.

ftp.ls('remote/path/to/directory', (err, res) => {
  if (err) return console.error(err);
  res.forEach(file => {
    console.log(file.name);
  });
});

Deleting a file

This code demonstrates how to delete a file on the FTP server using jsftp.

ftp.raw('DELE', 'remote/path/to/file.txt', (err, res) => {
  if (err) return console.error(err);
  console.log('File deleted successfully');
});

Other packages similar to jsftp

ftp

The 'ftp' package is another FTP client for Node.js. It provides similar functionalities to jsftp, such as connecting to an FTP server, uploading, downloading, and deleting files. However, 'ftp' is known for its simplicity and ease of use, making it a good choice for basic FTP operations.

promise-ftp

The 'promise-ftp' package is a promise-based FTP client for Node.js. It offers similar functionalities to jsftp but uses promises instead of callbacks, which can make the code cleaner and easier to manage, especially for complex workflows.

ssh2-sftp-client

The 'ssh2-sftp-client' package is an SFTP client for Node.js. While it focuses on SFTP rather than FTP, it provides similar functionalities such as uploading, downloading, and managing files on a server. It is built on top of the 'ssh2' package and is known for its reliability and performance.

README

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, res) {
    if (err)
        throw err;

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

// Delete a directory
ftp.raw.rmd("/example_dir", function(err, res) {
    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, I promise!

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.dataConn

NodeJS socket for the current passive connection, if any.

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 stgring 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 files 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

The test script fires up by default the FTP server that comes with OSX. You will have to put your OSX user credentials in jsftp_test.js if you want to run it. If you are not on OSX, feel free to change the FTP host, port and credentials to point to a remote server.

To run the tests in the command line:

node jsftp_test.js

If tests are failing it might be that your user doesn't have enough rights to run the FTP service. In that case you should run the tests as sudo:

sudo node jsftp_test.js

Please note that running scripts as sudo is dangerous and you will grant the script to do anything in your server. You should do it at your own risk.

License

See LICENSE.