Use a web server as if it was sitting next to you

When it comes to transferring your files onto the web, there are numerous programs that will help you, in all shapes and sizes. There are command-line options for the hard-core programmer, and the graphical FTP and SSH clients range from the basic to the ludicrously advanced, and prices generally follow suit.

I use such clients on a daily basis, uploading files to various web hosts for my clients. For some time now I have been using Cyberduck, which is a free FTP/SSH client for the Mac, reliable and sturdy and does everything I need it to do without the fuss. Its drag-and-drop functionality makes moving files around a breeze.

However, just recently I discovered another solution that may possibly prove to be even better - MacFusion. This clever bit of kit allows you to connect to an FTP or SSH server and mount it on your desktop as if it were an external drive on your computer. That means you can open and edit files right on the server from pretty much any app you have open. You can browse the files through Finder, move things around, copy files across the web, everything you could possible want to do, all working as if your computer was the server. It's remarkable. It's also pretty fast, and with its tight integration with the Mac filesystem it's already made my life just a little bit simpler.

There are a couple of flaws in the system, however. My biggest beef is that MacFusion doesn't allow modification of files privileges. This is partly because the Mac file system doesn't really do much with them either. If I need to change the permissions of a file I need to either go into a terminal prompt and chmod it manually, or bring back Cyberduck. Not ideal, but something I'm learning to live with. The other problem is that it's not instantly possible to view hidden files on the server, again due to the limitations of the Mac Finder. Again, Cyberduck generally comes to the rescue. I did stumble across an Automator workflow that toggles the display of hidden files on the Mac, but I haven't tried it to see if it works with MacFusion as well.

It's still relatively early days for MacFusion, and I expect great things to come in the future, but from what I've seen so far it's a very promising and powerful solution to an otherwise mundane chore.