README

$Id: README 23 2010-06-03 13:32:34Z veghead $

Oliver v1.3.0
(formerly Webshare)
http://www.fatsquirrel.org/software/oliver/
Copyright Veghead <veg@fatsquirrel.org> 2003-2010
See file COPYING for licensing details

Oliver is a PHP front end to FTP. It is intended to allow people 
to access files, normally only available via FTP, using a web browser. 
Despite the existence of many similar projects, notably Gollem 
<http://horde.org/>, it was created to fulfill specific requirements:

* Small and Simple 
  This isn't trying to compete with powerful systems like Gollem. It is 
  really only intended to be a functional skeleton for end-users to use and
  customize. The code should be well commented and easy to understand.
* Javascript optional
  There are bits of javascript here, but they're all optional. A lot of
  effort has gone into avoiding javascript here - I wonder if it was worth
  it ? 
* Fast
  Speed is essential and considered more important than features. This is 
  supposed to be usable. If you want bells and whistles you're probably 
  in the wrong place.
* Secure as possible
  Don't laugh! OK the very essence of this concept is insecure, 
  however it should be as secure as possible in the circumstances. 
  Using Oliver instead of FTP should improve the security of your file store.

Webshare is still a fair way from achieving these goals at present but 
nonetheless usable and reasonably functional.
Webshare was originally based on FCG FTP CLIENT By Tiago Luz 
<tiago@spammer.com.br> and Gollem <http://www.horde.org/> however nearly 
all of the FCG code has been replaced.

An extraordinary amount of thanks are due to Richard Geoffrion for superhuman levels of patience, encouragement, support and QA.