+27
Answered

Will there be support for SFTP?

Alexander Blach (Developer) 13 years ago updated 13 years ago 8

Answers

Answer
Answered
UPDATE: I finally received the necessary documents from the US government! SFTP will be in the next version of Textastic!


Previous Status was: Textastic 2.0 will have an FTP client. SFTP (a subsystem of ssh) is mostly working too already, but every app on the App Store has to respect US export laws regarding encryption algorithms.

This is what Apple says:
"Your application will be uploaded to an Apple server in the U.S., which means that your product will be exported from the U.S. and is captured by U.S. export laws. This requirement applies even if you only plan to distribute within your own country."

I've started the commodity classification request process but I can't release a version of Textastic with SFTP support before I receive the the required documents from the Bureau of Industry and Security (U.S. Department of Commerce). Unfortunately this can take a few weeks (hopefully not months).
PINNED
A little status update: the whole process with the Bureau of Industry and Security of the US Department of Commerce is quite frustrating for me.

I've been trying to follow their instructions at http://www.bis.doc.gov/snap/pinsnapr.htm

I've prepared the Company Certification Letter and faxed it to their Washington number on November 30th 2010 and didn't get any reply for nearly a month. I scanned the document and sent it as a PDF on December 24th – I didn't get any reply.

Then I used the contact form at https://www.bis.doc.gov/forms/snapinquiry.html on January 24th 2011 and - lo and behold - I received a reply by email on January 25th! They claimed that they had sent me an email stating that the information I submitted was incomplete and that I have to send a "Statement Explaining what Item you want to Export and to what Country". I had never received that email and it wasn't in my spam folder (and I send and receive a lot of email every day...).

So I answered this email the same day with the required statement. I haven't heard anything from them after that.

I sent another email on February 1st asking if they received my statement – no answer.

Today, I printed the statement on a company letterhead, signed it and sent it to their official email address.

I just want to get access to their system so that I can request the required documents. This is really frustrating for me as I really want to add SFTP support to Textastic.

So if any of you have any idea what I can do or what I may be doing wrong: I would really appreciate your advice.

... and I thought the German government agencies were slow...
+2
There are existing ssh client applications in the app store; I already have iSSH, iTeleport, TouchTerm and Server Admin that do this; so presumably this is just a matter-of-time thing than anything that's likely to be a serious blocker. :-) I've only just heard of this app (linked to from TextMate forum), and am very likely to be buying it shortly, but SFTP support instantly makes it far more useful, so a big +vote from here. :-)
+2
First off, thanks for such a useful app!

I just wanted to also chime in that SFTP/SSH support would help me immensely in my day-to-day work.

If it's not already asking too much, might you *please* consider adding full support for public-key authentication, not just password auth? Many server admins will often configure their sshd services with pkey auth-only (i.e. p/w auth disabled) for security purposes. Sadly, a lot of iOS apps that support SSH don't go the added distance of supporting pkey-auth and thus their transfer features are of limited use (to me) for that reason.

Fwiw, I'm familiar enough with the underlying mechanisms of the SSH2 protocol to realize that this isn't a trivial request, and I know that there's already a competing app that offers this feature, but I feel that Textastic is a great app that would attract even more users if it supported full SSH authentication.

Anyway, thanks for listening even if the request isn't immediately possible.
+1
Thanks, I will try to implement this.
+2
Count me in to purchase this app whenever it supports SSH. This looks like a great app already, but I'll need SFTP so I can access my web servers. Way to go on a great app!
PINNED
A little status update: the whole process with the Bureau of Industry and Security of the US Department of Commerce is quite frustrating for me.

I've been trying to follow their instructions at http://www.bis.doc.gov/snap/pinsnapr.htm

I've prepared the Company Certification Letter and faxed it to their Washington number on November 30th 2010 and didn't get any reply for nearly a month. I scanned the document and sent it as a PDF on December 24th – I didn't get any reply.

Then I used the contact form at https://www.bis.doc.gov/forms/snapinquiry.html on January 24th 2011 and - lo and behold - I received a reply by email on January 25th! They claimed that they had sent me an email stating that the information I submitted was incomplete and that I have to send a "Statement Explaining what Item you want to Export and to what Country". I had never received that email and it wasn't in my spam folder (and I send and receive a lot of email every day...).

So I answered this email the same day with the required statement. I haven't heard anything from them after that.

I sent another email on February 1st asking if they received my statement – no answer.

Today, I printed the statement on a company letterhead, signed it and sent it to their official email address.

I just want to get access to their system so that I can request the required documents. This is really frustrating for me as I really want to add SFTP support to Textastic.

So if any of you have any idea what I can do or what I may be doing wrong: I would really appreciate your advice.

... and I thought the German government agencies were slow...
+1
Hang in there, you have our support and we understand the process.
Answer
Answered
UPDATE: I finally received the necessary documents from the US government! SFTP will be in the next version of Textastic!


Previous Status was: Textastic 2.0 will have an FTP client. SFTP (a subsystem of ssh) is mostly working too already, but every app on the App Store has to respect US export laws regarding encryption algorithms.

This is what Apple says:
"Your application will be uploaded to an Apple server in the U.S., which means that your product will be exported from the U.S. and is captured by U.S. export laws. This requirement applies even if you only plan to distribute within your own country."

I've started the commodity classification request process but I can't release a version of Textastic with SFTP support before I receive the the required documents from the Bureau of Industry and Security (U.S. Department of Commerce). Unfortunately this can take a few weeks (hopefully not months).
Thank you so much for adding this feature. You and I had a brief twitter exchange about this when you launched Textastic, it is great you finally got through all the government hoops to add it. Thanks for sticking with it!