One of my client’s website that regularly requires updating is quite troublesome because it involves uploading at least 10,000 small files. What I normally do is compress all the files into one single ZIP file, upload and then use DirectAdmin’s built-in File Manager to extract it. I had to do that because when I try uploading a lot of small files, the FTP connection will timeout (TM Net, our Malaysian ISP is to be blamed) but weirdly when I upload a single big file, I can get a constant 40+KBps upload speed and never gets timeout.
Recently I’ve been very busy and can hardly spend any time to update my client’s website. So I intend to hand over everything to my client so that I can have more free time to myself. Before that, I will have to make sure that everything is in order and the steps to update the website are all written properly in step-by-step order.
One of the problem that I am facing is I cannot allow my client to use the DirectAdmin’s built-in File Manager because my webhosting subscription account is not a reseller type and I cannot create an account for him nor I can give him my existing username and password. A normal FTP client can do mostly what a PHP File Manager does except that it cannot command the server to extract an archive file that is already uploaded on the remote server. Fortunately I am able to install other third party PHP File Manager to replace the DirectAdmin’s File Manager.
If you do a search on PHP File Manager, there are actually quite a lot that you will find. What I am currently using now and I can say that it works is eXtplorer. It is a free PHP and JavaScript based File Manager that is able to:
Copy & Move Files and Directories by Drag&Drop Dynamic Directory Tree with on-demand loading of subdirectories Edit Files (with Syntax-Highlighting thanks to EditArea) Rename, Delete or Create new Files and Directories Access Files through FTP or directly (using PHP) to totally overcome permission and file ownership issues Upload or Download files just as you like Create and Extract Archives (ZIP, Tar, Tar/GZ, Tar/BZ) User Management with different permission levels like “View only” or “Edit” and “Admin”
Installation is pretty simple. Just download, extract and then upload to your webserver. You will need to allow write access (chmod 777) to /extplorer/ftp_tmp/ folder and /extplorer/config/.htusers.php file. Then just login, right click on the ZIP file and select “Extract Archive”. eXtplorer needs at least PHP 4.3 on the server and an up-to-date browser with Javascript enabled to run. Do take note that eXtplorer can only extract ZIP, Tar, Tar/GZ and Tar/BZ archives only.