Using the Plain-Text Client

EFT Server comes with a built-in upload form, known as the Plain-Text Client (PTC). When HTTP or HTTPS transfers are enabled in the EFT Server administration interface and your users have permission to upload to EFT Server using HTTP or HTTPS, they can upload files to their home directory via a Web browser using the PTC. The PTC uses JavaScript; it does not require you to install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). If your end users cannot or do not want to allow JavaScript, you must turn off JavaScript in the browser. With JavaScript disabled, many of the PTC features are disabled, including file delete, file rename, change password, new folder creation, and log out.

The size of file uploads is limited by the setting in the Settings Template or user account and the fact that you are using HTTP to upload files. Browser-based uploads are limited to a 2GB or less file size. EFT Server checks the size of the uploaded file and will close the connection if it exceeds the 2GB limit. The browser stops the transfer process upon the connection closing and informs the user of the broken connection. (The over-size-limit error message sent by EFT Server will not be received by the browser, just the information regarding the broken connection.)

Ensure the Windows Firewall on the EFT Server computer is not blocking Web access. In most Windows operating systems, the Windows Firewall is turned on by default.
If you are sending files with the Secure Ad Hoc Transfer (SAT) module and using Single-Click Authentication, SAT creates the Single-Click link and sends it to the user. When the user follows the link, the PTC appears.
If the Web Transfer Client (WTC) is installed, enabled, and has licenses available, you can transfer files with the WTC instead of the PTC. The WTC benefits include resume support, a transfer queue, sending multiple files concurrently (as opposed to sequentially), no file-size limit, drag-and-drop support, and integrity validation.

The procedures below describe how to:

Transfer files using the PTC
Upload a file
Download a file
Rename a file or folder
Delete a file
Create a new folder
Change your password
Log out
Customize the PTC

To transfer files to/from EFT Server using the PTC

In a Web browser, type or paste the URL for EFT Server. If you are using an HTTP or HTTPS port other than the default, also provide the port number in the URL. For example, type: http://10.0.0.124:8080/. The EFT Server login page appears.
Provide your login information, select the Use plain interface check box, then click Login.

To upload a file

Click Upload. The Upload bar appears. (To close the Upload bar, click Upload again.)
Click Browse. A standard Open dialog box (depending on your operating system) appears.
In the Open dialog box, select a file, then click Open.
In the PTC, click Upload. The file is uploaded to EFT Server and appears in the file listing.

To download a file

Do one of the following:

Click a file name/link. If the file cannot be viewed in the browser, a standard File Download dialog box appears (depending on your operating system). Click Save to save the file to your hard drive or a network location, or click Cancel to cancel the download.

Right-click the file, click Save Target As (in Internet Explorer) or Save Link As (in Firefox and Chrome), then specify where to save the file.

To rename a file or folder

Select the check box next to the folder or filename, then click Rename. The Rename dialog box appears.
Click in the New Name box, type a new name for the folder or file, then click OK. The folder or file is renamed.

To delete a file

Select the check box next to the filename, then click Delete. A confirmation message appears.
Click OK to delete the file or Cancel to keep the file.

To create a new folder

Click New Folder. A dialog box appears in which you can type a name for the folder.
Click OK. The folder appears in the tree.

To change your password

In version 6.1 and later, if the user account does not have Change Password enabled on the Server, the Change Password button is not available.

Click Change Password. The Change Password dialog box appears.
In the Current Password box, type the password that you used to log in to the Web Transfer Client.
In the New Password box, type a new password.
In the Confirm Password box, type the new password again.
Click Apply to verify the new password or Cancel to keep your current password.
- If the new and confirm passwords do not match, an error message appears. Click OK to try again.
- If the new password is the same as any of your previous passwords (depending on password history settings), a message appears and the password is not changed. Click OK to try again.
- If the new password is accepted, the Password Accepted message appears and you are logged out of EFT Server. Click OK to continue.
The login dialog box appears. Type your new password, then click OK to log back in to EFT Server.

To log out

Click Logout. A message box appears explaining that you have been logged out of EFT Server, and reminds you that for extra security, you should close the browser.
Click Exit. If a confirmation message appears, click OK. The browser closes.

Customizing the PTC

You can customize the PTC to suit your needs. For example, you can change the GlobalSCAPE logo to your logo. Be sure to change only the HTML between the <body> tags. Changing content within the <head> tags could make the PTC unusable.

The safest way to edit the form is to make a backup copy first, then make one change at a time so that you can more easily back out the changes you make, if necessary. The files that make up the PTC page are stored on the EFT Server computer (e.g., C:\Program Files\GlobalSCAPE\EFT Server Enterprise\web\public\EFTClient\ptc\). You can also create a Site-specific branded page.

To customize the PTC for a Site

In the \web\custom\ folder, create a new folder with the same name as your Site. For example, name it MySite.
In the MySite folder, create a folder named EFTClient.
Copy the contents of \web\public\EFTClient\ptc\ into \web\custom\MySite\EFTClient\ptc\.
Make all of your changes in the \custom\ptc folder.

You can copy the entire contents of the public folder into custom and/or MySite\custom. If you want to customize the Web Transfer Client interface, you will edit the files in the custom folder for those web pages. EFT Server first looks in the Site's custom directory \web\custom\MySite\EFTClient and loads any branded files. For files that are not present in the Site's \custom\MySite\ directory, EFT Server checks the Server's custom directory, \web\custom\EFTClient\, and loads the files that it finds there. Finally, for any other files, it will load the default files from \web\public\. Branded files that are Site specific override any Server-wide branded and default files, while branded files that are Server-wide override the default (GlobalSCAPE-branded) files provided by the installer.

The files that you can edit include:

EFTWebClientPlainText.htm is the HTML page that defines the PTC page.
banner.png is the EFT Server/GlobalSCAPE logo in the upper left corner

You can replace the logo with your own logo if you make your logo the same dimensions (320 x 63 pixels).

The text "Powered by EFT Server" can be replaced in EFTWebClientPlainText.htm.

To replace the GlobalSCAPE logo with your logo

Edit your company logo so that it is 320 x 63 pixels and save it in the custom folder, with the same path as in public folder. For example, C:\Program Files\GlobalSCAPE\EFT Server Enterprise\web\custom\EFTClient\ptc\.
Open EFTWebClientPlainText.htm in a text editor and find the image tag (e.g., <img alt="GlobalSCAPE Enhanced File Transfer" src="/EFTClient/EFTPlainTextClientRes/banner.png" style="width: 320px; height: 63px" />).
Replace banner.png with the filename of your logo.

(Or just name your logo banner.png and replace the GlobalSCAPE banner.png. Be sure to save a backup copy of the logos in another location.)

You will not be able to see your changes in a WYSIWYG editor. You will have to copy the changes to the EFT Server installation folder, then refresh the browser to see the changes. (It is a good idea to save a copy of all original files so you can revert to them if necessary.)