mirror-dir

A Java console application that mirrors a local directory to an FTP server. Basically, once the application is connected to an FTP server, it starts to copy files and subdirectories from your local directory to the FTP server recursively. If the file already exists, mirror-dir verify if it was locally modified, comparing the "last modified" property of the files. It uses Threads to run this in a loop.

Without third party libraries

I know I could be using Apache Commons FTPClient class or other Java library. But, with "showing skills" purpose, I choose implement my own FTP class, using sockets to connect with FTP server and input/output streams.

Getting Started

Prerequisites for development and testing purposes

• JDK 8 or higher installed
• Your favorite JAVA IDE (or only the notepad and OS command line if you like old school programming style)

Prerequisites to run

• JRE 8 or higher installed
• An FTP Server hosting account (I used a free limited account from DriveHQ)

Running mirror-dir

After opening you Operational System command line terminal:

• you may either run the .jar file located at MirrorDir.jar:

C:\User\Downloads>java -jar MirrorDir.jar

• or run the Main.class once you have all classes compiled:

C:\User\JavaProjects\MirrorDir\build\classes>java com.vas.mirrordir.main.Main

The console application is going to ask you for the FTP connection parameters, and then it will start reflecting the directory on the FTP server.

### MirrorDir config ###
>Local directory (e.g. C:\Vinicius\Documents\DirectoryToMirror):
C:\Users\Vinicius\Desktop\mirrorOrigin
>FTP domain (e.g. ftp.drivehq.com):
ftp.drivehq.com
>FTP user:
user123
>FTP password:
mypass0101
### MirrorDir config ###
Start reflecting...
Finish reflecting...
Start reflecting...
Finish reflecting...
Start reflecting...
Finish reflecting...

Known issues/bugs

• In RemoteMirror class, the lastTimeModified class method returns, in milliseconds, the time of the last changes on the file. Since the DriveHQ FTP server time zone is UTC and my local time zone is UTC-3, I subtracted 3 units of the hour field. It would be better to compare the time zones of the FTP Server and the local time zone to do a suitable adjustment:

LocalDateTime date = LocalDateTime.of(
                        Integer.parseInt(dateString.substring(0, 4)), // year
                        Integer.parseInt(dateString.substring(4, 6)), // month
                        Integer.parseInt(dateString.substring(6, 8)), //day
                        Integer.parseInt(dateString.substring(8, 10)) - 3, // hour
                        Integer.parseInt(dateString.substring(10, 12)), // minute
                        Integer.parseInt(dateString.substring(12)) // second
);

• When sending files to the FTP server, for some reason, the file size is increased by 3kb

Contributing

Feel free to run/test/create issues and even start pull requests.

ps* at FTPClient.class you can set DEBUG constant to true, then the FTP commands and responses are going to be printed

Authors

• Vinícius A. dos Santos - viniciusvasti