Upcoming Features

Lets get some feedback...
I've been busy working on some upcoming features in CrushFTP. I'm always looking for feedback, and its your feedback that helps shape how I go about implementing new features. My to-do list is never ending as I keep adding to it with users feedback.

Help be get some priorities on what you are most interested in.

CrushPGP - Plugin that makes all files listings end in ".pgp". Requesting one of these files results in the file being encoded / encrypted band streamed to the end user. When SSL isn't enough, maybe this is just the security you need. The private key used to encrypt files can be set on a per user basis. So you can have individual accounts that encrypt files differently in PGP. Its a reverse of the private / public key mentality. Some banks use this to ensure (if you trust the bank) that files being sent from them can only be read with someone who holds your public key. In this case...both keys are "private" as you keep them both secure.
This plugin will be one of my more complex plugins...so it will take a day or two to code.

File Filtering for WebDAV Email Events
Ever notice when you upload with the finder, your email notifications states something like:
test.tst 0 bytes
._test.txt 500k

That's because the finder uploads the file as the hidden file, then renames and swaps the files before deleting the originally named item. It keeps someone from potentially trying to access the file while its in progress. It however makes the email reporting be confusing!

I plan on creating some logic in CrushFTP 4 that will follow renames with uploads so the resulting email notification would contain only the files that were uploaded (with their final name after it was renamed) and none of the "." items that were uploaded, or items that were uploaded and immediately deleted.

Better Update Mechanism
So its no secret the update mechanism isn't really holding up as well anymore. It still works, but is far from ideal. Besides loading my main server more than needed, its slow for you...the real user of it! The next version of the update mechanism will only update files that have changed, and will transfer everything in a .zip. One single file to download.


Running CrushFTP behind Apache
CrushFTP 4.1 now supports running CrushFTP behind apache. This means that your main server will still be your main server. A path on your server, will be "reverse proxied" to CrushFTP. So when users go to: http://www.yourdomain.com/files/ they will get the CrushFTP WebInterface instead. ('/files/' is just an example...you can make it what you want.) It only takes a couple config entries in your apache config, and telling CrushFTP what "path" you have set, and the rest is handled for you. No need to open multiple ports as everything can come across on one port as well (80).


Have you seen my new plugins?
Just wrote a few new plugins. These include:
OSXNetInfo - integrate CrushFTP with OS X accounts (this includes OS X Server accounts)
AutoUnzip - Automatically decompress those .zip files users are uploading. Makes for an end to end solution. The CrushUploader automatically zip's files when they upload them, and the AutoUnzip plugin can automatically unzip them as they arrive.
PreferencesController - Lets you specify times of the day that specific configurations of the CrushFTP server are active. This means you could for example throttle bandwidth during the day, and let it loose in the evenings! Some other uses might be enabling certain plugins at different times, or disabling FTP access at specific times. Use the plugin to make a "snapshot" and that config will be used whent he specified time arrives.

Plugin Updates
The HomeDirectory plugin now has the option to put users in a new folders daily, hourly, whatever. You could use this to have a "rolling" folder where every days users get a new folder to upload into. Once the day changes, their previous days files are no longer accessible.
The CrushLDAP plugin also has been expanded to work with more LDAP servers. LDAP still ain't easy...but at least you have the options to configure it now.

I've got a lot of other features planned, some bigger than others. This is a good start to future posts I'll be making explaining things you can do with CrushFTP 4. Feel free to email me directly as well. I'm just getting started...:)