Installing the action also installs a connection to the built in FTP server in OS X. That, in turn, makes it easy to attach FTP upload to a folder or as part of a workflow. Yes, the better FTP clients like Transmit and Yummy FTP allow you to create folder and dock drop boxes. But this is free. And it allows you to include file upload into any Applescriptable application, including the Finder.

Included with the Automator workflows are a couple of workflows that provide the action with immediate functionality. One is a simple upload of selected files and folders.

To take advantage of the workflow, I saved it as a Script Menu Plugin. Then I assigned a keyboard command for it in System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts.

Now all I have to do to upload files to my server is select the file, type Command + Option + Control + U and zap, the files are uploaded.

The capability to upload files in Windows Explorer has been available in Windows for years. It’s nice to finally see it for the Finder on the Mac.

The other included workflow will resize and upload images.

Think of selecting images in iPhoto, running the action and having your images, auto-sized, compressed and uploaded to a folder of your choice on your web server. Now that’s useful!.

I’m sure that as time goes on I’ll think of other ways to take advantage of this useful Automator action.

I liked what I saw. It was time to update and clean up one of my sites. Might as well try out the demo.

It looks like an FTP program. No surprise here. We see the modern two pane view with local directories on the left and the server on the right. There is no obvious way to reverse this, which doesn’t bother me. That’s how I’m used to working. Feature buttons have obvious icons and one touch I like is that the icons default to “Use Small Size” by default. It is easy to close the local view and use the program as another finder window, if you prefer.

This as a professional level webmaster’s tool. All of the expected power features are present, such as Mirroring, Remote Editing, Filtering, AppleScriptability, etc.. It also has a keyboard commands for almost every function, a nice touch.

Yummy supports both column and list views making it very easy to navigate through a site quickly. Since I first saw this feature I have considered it mandatory for my FTP program. It’s well implemented here and fast. Yummy supports several navigation options. Besides the column view there are the traditional forward and back buttons as well as a pull down menu that shows the entire path to the current window. The list view allows sorting by name, date modified, size and kind. The latter is nice because it sorts directories by folder first then alphabetically. Windows FTP clients sort that way and that was one of the few benefits of having to work on Windows for a while.

Yummy offers some other excellent features. A File menu command makes it easy to set a desktop alias to a remote folder. Then adding files to your server is a simple drag and drop. Yummy FTP starts up and does its thing then auto quits. Simple and elegant. Desktop Watcher attaches a folder action to any folder and auto uploads and datestamps files. It has folder synchronization and scheduling.

Yummy FTP works well with Rendezvous, making connections with local network servers automatic. Like a good Cocoa app it stores bookmarks and passwords in Keychain. It is possible to select the default local folder for a connection, though that is not immediately obvious. I had to first create a connection, then select it in the bookmarks window, then click the Advanced icon. It works. However, since I always keep mirrors of websites in my Home folder I would like to see the option in the default Bookmarks Edit pane. That’s just a quibble though. I don’t move my sites around on my hard drive so the extra step doesn’t come up more than once a site.

Yummy also has a file preview button. Previewing is so fast that I’d never know I was viewing a remote file. It’s a really nice to be able to see that remote image, that I can’t quite remember or to view the code of any text based file. In column view, the right most column works just like the finder giving file size and type.

Right clicking (That’s right – right not Control click. Come on Apple. Make a two button trackpad) on a file gives an excellent selection of options, like Add Favorite, Create Alias, New Folder, Get Info and more. It’s as complete a listing as any I’ve seen. I’m a big fan of contextual menus and like this one.

I do have a couple of small quibbles with Yummy FTP. Yummy has made the application opening display a bit too cute with it sort of unfolding as panes and drawers activate. It’s fun the first time. It’s annoying after that. I’d like to be able to turn that, ah, feature? off in preferences. I would also like to be able to set my double click option to edit files. Transmit has recently added remote image editing and I’d like that in Yummy FTP too.

Yummy FTP is fast. I gave up on Transmit a year ago because it would slow way down while uploading any file larger than 45-60 KB. It seems that Macintosh OS X (System 9 is fine) does not handle FTP as quickly as possible. Yummy FTP must use a different transfer engine. It also runs uploads on more than one file at a time, which noticeably speeds up multi-file transfers. FTP programs spend a significant amount of their time shaking hands with the web server and it’s nice to have several files moving at once so the pipe is always used. Also, I get a bit more bandwidth from my ISP while running multiple uploads or downloads than with a single file. I don’t know if this is particular to this situation or the way all cable systems work.

The user manual is a Wiki on the Yummy website. That makes sense but I’d like to have a local copy. The quick start guide is adequate for experienced FTP users.

Conclusion:
This is a solid program, well thought out. It has a solid feature set. Best on Mac speed and ease of use make it a good choice.

Yummy FTP
Publisher Yummy Software
$25 shareware – 15 day full demo
Yummy FTP requires Mac OS X 10.3 or higher

Value: 5
Features: 4
Documentation: 3
Ease of Use: 4
Stability: 5
Macness: 4

Highly Recommended

Cyberduck is an FTP program of the old school. Much like the venerable Fetch, it gives you one window into your web server in list/outline view. From that window you can move files and folders back and forth between you Mac and your web server. It’s easy and simple. The tutorial takes about three minutes to read. If you have any experience with FTP clients, you’ll be up and running immediatly.

Cyberduck has the basic features you would expect from a modern FTP client. With it you can upload and download files and folders, create new files and folders on your web server, change permissions, rename and move both files and folders and resume transfers. It also works hand-in-hand with most popular html editors to allow you to edit text based files directly on your web server.

In addition it has a nice bookmarks setup and offers synchronization of local and remote folders and supports the whole gamut of secure transfer protocols.

If that were all that Cyberduck offered, I’d recommend it. If something works reliably, as this does for free, you have to be happy. But, beyond the bare basics, Cyberduck is a pretty polished Mac program.

Cyberduck looks good. It is localized for a number of languages. It supports Applescript, Bonjour and .Mac iDisk. It allows toolbar customization. It is even a Universal Binary, ready to run natively on Intel Macs. And it supports third party productivity utilities like Growl and Quicksilver.

Publisher: http://www.cyberduck.ch

Cyberduck runs on Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later.

Ease of use: 4
Features: 3
Value for money: 5
Macness: 4+
Recommended