Building on the success of their initial offering, ExpanDrive has released version 2.0 of their Mac client for accessing a wide array of online storage systems.

ExpanDrive is built on MacFUSE, an open-source project that provides the base functionality and SDK for connecting to remote and alternative filesystems. The ExpanDrive developer-alchemists have mixed in a bit of their own Python and Objective-C components to significantly enhance the potency of these MacFUSE-managed filesystems and definitely improved the formula for this major update. Read on to see what’s new in 2.0.

SFTP Overhaul

Not fully satisfied with the status quo, the developers brought the SFTP engine back to the lab and have completely re-engineered it. My tests confirmed that large file copies now transfer in approximately half the time. Traipsing through my cluttered web directories in the Finder is also a less painful experience due to a fully re-worked caching system.

An even more pleasant surprise is how quickly remote edits are detected. The video below shows a text file being edited in both vi on my very remote Linux box and also open locally in TextWrangler. Edits made on the server side show up almost instantaneously now.

FTP/FTPS Support

ExpanDrive has had experimental support for FTP/FTPS filesystems for quite a while and has now made it a first class filesystem in version 2.0. As a daily user of the product, I regularly peruse both their Twitter activity and Get Satisfaction support forums and can attest that they really do listen to users. It’s very obvious that they wanted to make sure that FTP/FTPS support worked under as many conditions as possible before bringing it to their entire user base. If you must use FTP, you should definitely take advantage of the enhanced security in the FTPS protocol if at all possible. Standard FTP transmits both your credentials and all data completely in the clear, making it very easy for malicious users to eavesdrop on your sessions.

GUI Enhancements

Continuing the theme of listening to their users, ExpanDrive has tweaked their GUI to provide more information about the types of drives available and provides the ability to eject volumes from their Drive Manager as well as open volumes in the Finder.

You can now also change the drive icon and use your own icons for ExpanDrive volumes by clicking on the drive icon in the edit dialog:

Live! New! Filesystem! (S3 Support)

Perhaps the most significant enhancement is the inclusion of support for Amazon S3. While inherently not as robust as SFTP volumes, S3-mounted volumes let you use the Finder to manage your buckets (i.e. copy/move/delete files), including setting object permissions via contextual menu. I created a test bucket via S3Fox, used ExpanDrive to move files into it and verified the results back in S3Fox.

Should You Buy/Upgrade?

If you’ve never used ExpanDrive and regularly have to FTP/SFTP files or work with content in S3 buckets, then you really should consider giving ExpanDrive a try (list price is $39.95 for new users). Existing users should also consider upgrading just for the speed and integrity enhancements alone. Couple that with good S3 support and it’s well worth the $19.95 upgrade price (free if you’ve purchased the previous version within 60 days of release).

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While Magnetk has made great strides in their support of FTP, anyone who has ever tried writing an FTP client knows that not all FTP servers are made equal. If you give the beta a try, but are having difficulty, make sure you take them up on their generous offer:

If you have an ftp server that ExpanDrive can’t connect to and you can give us a login to that server, then we’ll send you a generous ExpanDrive coupon for your trouble.

I feel obliged to point out, though, that if you can’t use the application to connect to your FTP server, having a free version of it will not do you much good.

ExpanDrive runs on OS X 10.4+ as a Universal Binary and will set you back US$29.00 should you decide to purchase it.

I’ve been running ExpanDrive since it was in pre-release form and this update will really improve my workflow. Give the new beta a go and let me know what you think.

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For those of us who don’t have an iDisk up in the MobileMe cloud, it can be very useful to have a way of easily moving files to an FTP server without opening up your FTP client and moving the file manually. Maybe you want to share a photo folder, send a colleague a set of documents or pass an MP3 file along — something which could surpass the attachment limit of your email server.

If you are using Transmit, there is a simple way to automatically upload a file to a given folder on your server, just by dragging and dropping. Known as a ‘Droplet’, it can reside on your desktop, in your dock, or even on Dashboard. While this idea seems a very simple concept, once you have set up and started using Droplets on a regular basis they can become an invaluable time-saver.

How is it done?

Open up Transmit and connect to the server you’d like to use. Navigate to the folder you’ll be wanting to upload your files to, then right-click and select ‘Save Droplet For Folder’:

You then proceed to tell Transmit where to save the Droplet, and decide whether you want the password saving. If it’s somewhere you don’t want anyone else uploading to, it may be wise to refrain from having the Droplet save your password. I find that the process is much easier if you elect to have your password saved:

Once the Droplet is saved to your desktop, it is simply a case of dragging and dropping your file(s) to the icon to upload them immediately to your server. It may be more convenient to drag the icon to your dock to allow you to easily upload files regardless of whether your desktop is visible.

Droplets on your Dashboard

Transmit also provides a Dashboard widget which achieves a very similar outcome:

Once you input the server information, uploading is as simple as dragging your files, pressing the dashboard shortcut key on your keyboard, then releasing the files over the Transmit widget.

Droplets in action

Just to get your creative juices flowing, here are a few ideas of how this feature could be put to use.

• Zipping up a large set of photos to share with your family
• Regularly uploading photos to your website or blog, directly to the required folder
• Uploading documents or large graphics to a shared FTP space in your workplace
• Sharing video clips or audio files – often too large to be sent via email

If you can think of any other creative ways to use a Droplet, let me know in the comments — I’m always intrigued to hear new ideas!

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I’ll take the latter issue first. The funny thing is, 4 years (or so) ago when I got back on the Mac side of things, finding a decent FTP client was next to impossible. Interarchy, Fetch, RBrowser and Cyberduck seemed to be the viable solutions. Then Transmit (from Panic) came out and the show was over (as far as I’m concerned). But in recent months – maybe the last year – it’s crazy how many FTP options are available to us. Yummy FTP, Captain FTP, and Forklift come immediately to mind. (There are plenty more though…)

Having options is great and all, but how many do we need? Is one really that much better than the other? The core functionality is all essentially the same, so I guess pick the best UI and plunk down your card to make a purchase.

Worse yet is the Text Editor scene. My favorite couple are TextMate (de facto winner in this space?) and SubEthaEdit – I tell you because I can see you care. But then there’s an endless line of other options here – xPad, TextEdit, TextWrangler, Mori, Jedit, Smultron, to name a few. The list goes on… I understand where apps such as WriteRoom offer something slightly different. But geez, it’s still just a text editor that’s aimed at the more easily distracted – hey look, squirrels!!!

But what is it about FTP apps and Text Editors that seemingly attract developers – the experienced and green alike? Every developer’s gotta practice on some project, and [guru] Scott Stevenson has a great tutorial on CocoaDevCentral for creating your own Text Editor (the tutorials here are hands-down, some of the best you’ll find on the web). So I get that – it’s an easy jumping-off point where you can get your feet wet and work your way up. But what drives every developer and their mother to try to sell their code as if it were so earth shatteringly different from the next 5, 10, 15 competing apps?

My intent is not to blast these developers – heaven knows I’m no application coder! I’m just trying to wrap my brain around the reasoning behind everyone trying to sell more or less the same program. (I understand that everyone wants to make a buck, but still!) I invite any coders – especially of Text Editors or FTP Clients – to either sound off in the comment here, or better yet, contact me directly (nick[dot]appleblog[at]gmail[dot]com) and lets get a conversation going on this topic.

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