Lua

Get a Directory Listing as XML

Demonstrates the Chilkat Ftp2.GetXmlDirListing method, which retrieves a directory listing and returns the parsed entries as an XML document rooted at <remoteDir>, with a <file> element per entry. The only argument is the listing pattern; an empty string lists the current directory.

Tip: Code to parse the returned XML can be generated at Chilkat Tools.

Background: This is the parse-friendly listing: Chilkat has already interpreted the server's raw LIST output — whatever its format — into consistent XML with names, sizes, dates, and types as elements. That spares you from writing format-specific parsers and is the right choice when a program, rather than a person, consumes the listing. Load the result into a Chilkat.Xml object to iterate the entries.

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Lua

local chilkat = require("chilkat")

-- Demonstrates the Ftp2.GetXmlDirListing method, which returns a directory listing as a parsed
-- XML document.  The only argument is the listing pattern; an empty string lists the current
-- remote directory.

local ftp = chilkat.Ftp2.new()

ftp.hostname = "ftp.example.com"
ftp.username = "myFtpLogin"

-- Normally you would not hard-code the password in source.  You should instead obtain it
-- from an interactive prompt, environment variable, or a secrets vault.
ftp.password = "myPassword"

local success = ftp:connect()
if not success then
    print(ftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

success = ftp:change_remote_dir("public_html")
if not success then
    print(ftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

-- The XML is rooted at <remoteDir>, with <file> elements for each entry.  This is easier to
-- parse programmatically than the raw text listing.
local xml = ftp:get_xml_dir_listing("*.html")
if not ftp.last_method_success then
    print(ftp.last_error_text)
    return
end

print(xml)

-- The XML can be loaded into a Chilkat.Xml object for further processing.

success = ftp:disconnect()
if not success then
    print(ftp.last_error_text)
    return
end