John Gruber has posted quite a positive review of ExpanDrive, an SFTP tool for OS X:

ExpanDrive 1.01 is a new $29 file system extension for Mac OS X, based in part on MacFUSE, that lets you mount SFTP servers as volumes in the Finder. I’ve been using ExpanDrive for a week and it is extremely impressive. I’ve never seen anything like it for the Mac. Magnetk, the company behind ExpanDrive, has a similar product for Windows called SftpDrive that’s been around for a while.

SFTP may be a bit of a deal breaker, but still it’s a pretty cool idea that would make TextMate projects much more useful than the current temp items hacks, for one. I wrote about MacFUSE on Jambor-ee a while back (currently not online), and it seems to have come of age…

Why is SFTP a deal breaker?  I view it as a boon.  I just downloaded ExpanDrive, as I’ve been yearning for years to be able to drag a remote folder to TextMate to create a temporary project for editing multiple files.  Here’s hoping it performs well over a satellite connection!

Oh, just insofar as it might not be as common as plain old FTP when working on a client’s server account.

Some cool ideas on their site:

ExpanDrive has a nearly infinite number of practical uses, including:
  * Music - store your music on a remote share and listen to it over iTunes from any Internet connection
  * Movies - save your movies to a remote drive and share them over the Internet with your friends
  * Web Pages - edit your webpages as if they were stored on a local drive - no more drag and drop!
  * Storage - avoid the hassle of an external hard drive and access your files from anywhere in the world
  * Back Up - save important documents on remotely share for safe keeping

..but yeah whole directory structure -> Textmate project = win.

edit: err and yeah, let us know how it goes Derek!

Well I try to connect, get a green light, but no drive is mounted on my Desktop or available to finder.  I see a folder in /Volumes/ was created for it, but there’s no data, so I’m not sure why it’s not working.  Oh well, no time to mess with it further today!

I just had a go with this and whilst I can get the drive to show up every time there is a big problem when saving files. I go to Textwrangler or some other program, type in some text and then go to save this file in the now mounted drive. It does save every time but I have to disconnect and then re-connect to be able to see the newly created files which is a bit of a pain. :-(

Dragging and dropping works fine though from the finder to the drive so if you create the file first then there isn’t a problem but it kind of does away with the usefulness if you have to keep dropping the connection then re-connecting to get it working the way it should.

Derek - I read on their forums that you may need to install MacFUSE yourself to get it working as their (Expandrive) installer is having a few problems.

There is another program that does this also called SSHFS which is available at the same Google link as above. I’m pretty sure this only allows you to connect to SSH enabled FTP servers which is a bit upsetting as most of my servers are normal FTP and so I can’t use this on them. Just thought it might help someone out though?

This kind of thing would be awesome if they can iron out the bugs though.

Best wishes,

Mark

I did check my fuse installation, Mark, but thanks.  You can see on my post (djones) to their forums some weird errors found in the Console, namely something is failing and then it starts looking for files on the developer’s machine…

Ah that’s you is it!

Sorry didn’t realise.

It’s a shame these kinds of applications don’t work quite the way we would like them to as they really would be a time-saver. I read somewhere though that this functionality is built into Leopard. Does anyone know if this is true or not as I haven’t updated to that system yet.

Best wishes,

Mark

Well, you have the iDisk and WebDAV natively in OS X, but this method is supposed to be faster and smoother (when it works).

I can’t trash Transmit just yet. I haven’t yet figured out how to view hidden files in Finder, i.e. htaccess.

Alan, drag the parent folder to TextMate to create a project (or create a project in BBEdit / TextWrangler what have you), and use it to create and manage hidden files.

Not a bad idea. Though I normally launch TextMate to edit or create the files through Transmit.

Edit: Duh, I now see what you’re saying. That is pretty cool.

Thanks Derek. Will look into WebDAV when I eventually upgrade the system. Shame about this though as it would be really great if it did work. I know that SSHFS does work though if anyone’s interested, just a shame you can’t do standard FTP on it though.

Best wishes,

Mark

Oh wow oh wow oh wow oh wow. I waited until downloading and installing before getting excited…but NOW I’m excited.

I just downloaded ExpanDrive and installed it. I currently have a masugadesign dev EE site that I’ve been working on for…way too long. I put in the SFTP info to that server and fired it up…boom, green light, and there it is on my desktop. I opened a new empty Transmit project (not my remote_files temp folder hack project that I know so well) and dragged my dev folder into the side drawer. I got a beachball for a few seconds…and then the folder appeared.

I opened my templates folder, and opened a couple files, made a few small changes to each, saved…and voila! Just like it was when I used to spend more time working locally. I am extremely happy about this development, as I am a “template-saving-20-pages-open-at-once” kind of guy.

This will require more testing of course, but I won’t necessarily need Transmit open all the time in conjunction with TextMate if this works out. Very cool!

Yeah Ryan, that’s essentially my hope for it as well.  It basically provides the main functionality I desire from Coda, but with the benefit of retaining my application choice for working with files.

-Alan- - 04 March 2008 11:04 AM

I can’t trash Transmit just yet. I haven’t yet figured out how to view hidden files in Finder, i.e. htaccess.

A couple other options here, both of which I use:

1.InVisibles: A small script to toggle item visibility in the Finder. (free)

2. Who actually uses the Finder? Just kidding, but Path Finder from Cocoatech will show you invisible files. Ever since they launched version 4, I’ve been using it instead of the Finder. ($35)

Hope those help. Sounds like InVisibles might be useful to you.

Ryan, does Path Finder still have a clunky replacement for the Desktop?  Or can you use it seamlessly with the native Desktop?  That is what prevented me from keeping it last time I tried it.

Derek, I don’t disable or hide the Finder in any way - I just run PF alongside the Finder, and elect to use its windows rather than the Finder windows. I mean, sometimes Finder windows pop up if I use a “Reveal File” command or something, but when actively using those sorts of windows I always use the Path Finder ones.

They’re up to version 4.83 now and it’s come quite a ways from where I remember it being around the tail end of version 3. I mean, I love the tabs. I have 5 tabs/folders open in one window. Does the Finder have tabs? I honestly don’t even know…haha. I’ll bet I’m not even scratching the surface of what this latest version does, but then again, I only paid $35. If the license was around $80 I’d probably be trying to use more of the features just to make sure I got my money’s worth.

I just browsed through the menu items at the top…and to confirm…yeah, I’m just scratching the surface of how I could fully use this app.

Anyway, not to get too far off topic - I closed ExpandDrive, TextMate, and my project (which I had saved). I re-opened the project without the drive being mounted, and the folder showed up red. Then I mounted the drive - and the folder was still red, even thugh it knew where the files were supposed to be residing. Not sure if that’s normal behavior for the ExpanDrive setup or not. I had to drag the folder into the project again.

It looked to me like upon quitting or unmounting a drive, that it was not removing the link / folder in /Volumes/, so additional connects made each subsequent connect “Name 1”, “Name 2”, and so on, so TextMate probably was still referencing the original Volume link.

Yep I can confirm that Expandrive definitely has a few teething problems and personally I’m not sure from what I have read that the developer will be fixing them.

Shame really as it would be a really great addition to OSX.

I for one unfortunately will not be getting rid of my trusty FTP clients for some time yet :-(

Best wishes,

Mark