Table of Contents for Lesson
Fetch is a Macintosh
program for transferring files. It uses the File Transfer
Protocol (FTP) from a remote machine to your local machine or
from your local machine to a remote machine. Fetch is free to
users affiliated with an educational institution or
charitable non-profit organization.
For those who have never worked with Fetch, written
instructions and tutorial animations are provided
to learn how to use the program. These tutorial animations
are demonstrations of how to accomplish certain functions, as
if the instructor was in the room demonstrating the task.
Tutorial animations
for Fetch require Shockwave to run. Directions on how to
download Shockwave and a list of the animations available are
found on the page.
- Start your FETCH application.
- The "open connection" box pops up to allow you to enter
host, user ID & password. Find out from your
instructor what host, user ID, password, and directory you
should be using for your course. Note: If this box does
not pop-up when you start Fetch, you can get it by using
the FILE menu and selecting New Connection.
The information given on the graphics on this page is
for demonstration purposes only. You will need to use
the host name, user ID, password, and directory given by
your facilitator.
- Enter the host (can be letters or numbers).
- Enter the user ID (or put "anonymous").
- Enter the password if there is one, (could be your
e-mail address), or leave it blank.
- Indicate a directory if one is known--pub is
frequently used as a directory accessible to the
public. If you are not sure, it is best to leave the
directory blank. You can browse through the
directories and files and pick the one you want once
you are connected.
- Once you are "in" (connected), Check that your transfer
format at the lower middle of your Fetch window has the
Automatic mode selected (as opposed to "Text" or
"Binary").
- Next, go to the file you want by double-clicking and
opening directories/folders. You can get the file by
double-clicking on it, or by clicking on it once to select
it and then using the Get File button.
- Then a file selection dialog box will pop up that lets
you select the folder and file name where you want to save
the file you are getting. Pick the location (folder
and file on your machine) where you would like to put the
file you are fetching.
- Your ability to put a file is not available on
most sites. Most sites only allow you to get a file
but not put a file.
- You must close the connection when you are finished so
other people can use the connection. You can close the
connection by using the FILE menu and selecting
Quit or by clicking on the Close Connection
button in the top right corner of the FETCH window (if
present).
Downloading a Whole Folder at a Time
- Read the section about downloading a file.
- Start your FETCH application and fill in your host,
user ID, password, and directory the same as in the
downloading a file instructions.
The information given on the graphics on this page is
for demonstration purposes only. You will need to use
the host name, user ID, password, and directory given by
your facilitator.
- Once you are connected, double-click to open the
folders needed to get to the folder you want to download.
When you find the folder you want to download, click
once on it to select (highlight) it. Do not
double-click on it because we do not want to open the
folder.
As an example, if you were trying to get the whole
folder named templates from Fermilab (which is in
the edwebserver folder and then in the lincon folder),
you would:
- Double-click on edwebserver folder to open
it.
- Double-click on lincon folder to open
it.
- Click ONCE on templates folder to
select/highlight it.
If you double-click accidentally on the name of the
folder that you want to download, you can get back to the
containing folder by using the menu in the top middle of
your Fetch window to select the previous folder you were
in.
- Now from the Remote menu, choose Get
Directories and Files.
- In the file selection dialog box that pops up, click on
the Desktop button, and then select your hard drive;
use the existing folder name or type in a new name if you
prefer, and click on Save. The whole folder will now
be transferred from the remote computer onto your
computer.
Activity:
If you feel you would like some practice using
Fetch by downloading a file or folder, try one from
the following location:
(Place the file on your desktop for easier discard
later.)
- various fairy tales: host address: ftp.funet.fi, user
id: anonymous,
path or directory: /pub/doc/literary/etext/fairy-tale
Back to the top
Tutorial animation
available
- Start or open Fetch.
- Your New Connection window may pop up
automatically. If so, skip to the next step. If not, click
on the Open Connection button when the Fetch window
pops up. If your Fetch window does not have this button,
use the File menu and select New Connection
instead.
- Fill in:
- the name of the remote computer you want to put
files on.
- your user ID.
- your password.
- the folder path or directory on the remote computer
you want to put your files. Here is an example:
Leave the Directory field blank if you don't know
what folder path you want to be in on the remote
computer. You can always browse through the folders
on the remote computer after you are connected.
- Now that you are connected, make sure that your Fetch
will not add suffixes (like .txt and .bin) to the files you
will put on the remote machine. Do this by clicking on
Fetch's Customize menu, selecting Preferences
and then selecting the topic Uploading in the dialog
box. Make Sure the Box to Add File Format Suffixes is
Unselected (has no X in it)!
If this box is checked, Fetch will add ".txt" to the
file name of every HTML file you upload and Fetch will
add ".bin" to the name of every graphic file you upload.
This is not good, because then your links and images will
be broken. If you upload myfile.html and myfile.gif and
notice that what appears on the remote computer is
myfile.html.txt and myfile.gif.bin, then your file format
suffix preferences need to be changed.
- The next thing you should check is the name of the
folder or file you are about to upload. Remember it should
contain
No Spaces, No
Slashes, No # Sign
No Other Unusual Characters ( < > ) ? &
...
Please rename your folder or file if it does not
follow these rules.
- Also, try to use a name that will be unique to you. For
example, the folder names "html" or "Project" or the file
name "homepage.html" are not very unique, so using names
like these is "asking for trouble."
- When you get onto the remote computer, select folders
until you get to where you want to upload your file(s).
- Take a look at the files/folders that are already on
the remote computer and
Make Sure You Do Not
Overwrite Someone Else's Work
by uploading a folder or file with the same name.
Rename your local folder or file if you need to.
- If you are uploading a single file, use the button on Fetch's
first screen, and select the file on your local computer
that you want to upload.
- Use the button to close your connection.
If you have uploaded files onto a machine that is a Web
server, and you have uploaded your files into a folder that
is served by that machine's Web server, then you can
immediately use Netscape to look at the files you just
uploaded.
But what is the URL? Your URL is
http://computer.domain.type/folder1/folder2/filename.html
-
-
computer.domain.type
is the name of the computer you just uploaded your file
to. (Example: www-ed.fnal.gov)
-
/folder1/folder2/ is
the name of all the folders you went through on the
remote machine when you were selecting where to upload
your files/folder. (Example: /linc/spring96/projects_linc2/scavhunt/)
- filename.html is
the name of one of the files you uploaded. (Example:
start.html)
So for the example above, say I uploaded a folder called
scavhunt that contained a file
called start.html. I uploaded
the folder onto www-ed.fnal.gov
inside of the linc/spring96/projects_linc2 folder. The URL
would be:
http://www-ed.fnal.gov/linc/spring96/projects_linc2/scavhunt/start.html
Using this as a guideline, what URL would you use to look
at the files that you just uploaded?
Remember that if you change your
files, you must use Fetch to upload the changes,
AND you must use your
browser's RELOAD button to refresh your page and look
at any changed files you uploaded.
Tutorial animation
available
If you want to upload a whole folder:
-
- Select Put Folders and Files from Fetch's
Remote menu.
- Find the folder you want to upload on your local
computer, click once on it to select it, and
Add it to the list of items to upload.
- Then press the button when you are finished adding folders or
files to your list.
- When the Format Dialog Box pops up, choose Text
format for "Text" files and Raw Data format for
"Other Files." ("Other Files" in this case may mean your
gif and jpeg image files.)
After you select formats, Fetch will transfer your
folder(s) or file(s).
- Find the file or folder on the remote computer that you
want to delete or rename. Click once on it to select
it.
- Use the Remote menu to select Delete
Directory or File or Rename File.
- If you are deleting, Fetch will ask you if you are sure
you want to delete. If you are renaming a file, Fetch will
ask you for the new name.
Once you have the rights on the remote server to upload,
you are ready to place files in the directory or directories
indicated. This will apply to pages to be placed in your
portfolio or to your project pages. Check with your
facilitator for the correct login, ID, etc. that will allow
you permission to upload to your course server.