+598
Planned
Edit Live Files
Edit files "live", meaning without having to download the file first, and then reupload.
Duplicates
11
Customer support service by UserEcho
Editing files live, would mean, every mistake you enter, like accedently highlighting everything and hitting the return key would delete both , the data on your iPad + the code on the server. How is this helpful?
You can see the Upload button as a save feature. And didn't all of us be happy once to be able to restore to the previous state?
"edit documents on the ftp without downloading them to your device."? Not going to happen, if you loose your Internet connection you have to wait? Where are the advantages? You have to refresh your browser anyway, so where is the difference between hitting 1 or 2 buttons?
If you want to edit documents live, you can use any VNC - App, but I would not like this feature.
Currently you have to go to the manager, ftp, download the file, go back to the editor, go to the appropriate directory, select the file, edit and send to the server. The worst thing that you need to do this for each new file. Download all files to the iPad is possible only for small sites. In my case, it is impossible.
Additionally, if you have a test server, the action is even more complicated.
If you transfer all the files through ftp to your iPad all those links are established for you 100% automatically. How is this complicated?
Other than that, I don't the too many people have the same problems.
I would like to say this would be a killer feature for me. Every time I switch branch in my source control system, I need to effectively download the entire tree again, to make sure that all local files are up to date, new files are added and old files are removed. Live editing means that I can be sure that what I am editing is exactly as it should be.
Let me give my opinion on the whole thing. I want live editing, but I also want the ability to download, want the ability to upload, and want the ability to create local files.
Let's say I'm going on a trip somewhere. I would not have internet access, so in my attempt to leave and work on a project without internet... I will download the whole folder of code to work on offline.
Let's say I'm not going somewhere without internet. Editing straight from the server will eliminate a lot of possible mistakes I might make. Such as not updating my local copy when I start working and forgetting to upload to the server.
Reason to keep local files is if I wanted to make a markdown note file on my iPad and wanted to keep it on my iPad. That is a good reason to keep it where you can have a local file.
That just says my outlook, take what you will... I would love to see this feature, but kinda like an add-on, not removing current features.
That's how I plan to implement this: as an additional feature so that you can still work with Textastic as you are used to.
I also support this very much. I still gave the app 5 stars, but this is my number one feature request.
See this feature in Cyberduck: it's very well done.
Thanks for this nice editor by the way!
This is a MUST.
I would really appreciate this feature. However, I rather prefer local edition with automatic sync similarly to other apps ( for instance PlainText).
Yes! Please! Live editing would be so nice. Other than that it's a pretty cool app.
Another issue this would solve is when I add a new file to Dropbox via computer. In Textastic I would need to go to the "World" icon, find the correct file and download it. Editing live files (in Dropbox) would remove this step.
Finally, Dropbox already has (some) version control. As such I am not worried about "losing" edits.
it makes the whole workflow far less complicated as I'm won't need to think about which is the latest source! This would help me a lot instead of first downloading and the upload it again.
I just want to be able to edit files that are stored in Dropbox. It seems with Textastic, I have to download, edit, and then upload again --- pretty painful
absolutely needed feature
Also would like to see this feature implemented. Would make workflow that much easier.
Since this feature is requested 5 years ago, is there any plan/chance to get current information if this is planned to be added?
I had started working on it quite a while ago, but didn't finish. I do want to implement it for Textastic 7 along other major improvements, but didn't yet change the status from "Under review" to "Planned" because there are other things I need to finish first.
Just adding to the chorus; this is extremely important and I think it kicks the editor into a whole new class when I can quickly edit remotely. No pressure, just adding my voice to this conversation to let you know it's important to me. I actually have few reasons to want to edit code locally
Yes, this is planned for a future update.
This is great news! I keep my fingers crossed for quick progress on this feature.
I would love the choice of being able to edit files live. Some files I only want to make very minor changes to so copying down, editing and then pushing to live is too much hassle.
Hi Alexander, this feature will come soon?
It is still on my todo list but didn't make it into version 7.0. I hope I can add it into one of the next versions.
Thanks for the response. I wait for it!
It's been something people have wanted for almost 10 years. Why mislead people into thinking it'll be done? Unfortunately, it's a reason why I had to use Coda and GoCoEdit instead.
If texastic had this feature I'd pretty much use this instead – and I know hundreds of devs that feel the same way.
I'm not trying to mislead anyone. I have made some preparations for live editing in the UI of Textastic 7. The tab bar was a necessary step for this for example (to make space for additional buttons in the navigation bar above it). I have also implemented parts of the UI for showing the connections below "Local Files" and "iCloud", but removed it so I could ship Textastic 7.
The big blocker is that Textastic currently uses libcurl for (S)FTP connection and it might not support all the commands I need to send to a server. I'm not sure yet if I can continue using it or if I need to switch to another FTP library to implement live editing (which is obviously a big change).
Would love to see this also! Just bought the app tonight and TBH I sort of assumed that's how it operated for SFTP remotes. (connect then just edit/save) At the moment that's what will keep me in Coda, as I'm often working on Node projects (running via Nodemon or create react app) where I just want to quickly edit remote files and see the results as I go. Hopefully libcurl will work out for you. Obviously it can upload files currently, but it sounds like you may be looking to do something more sophisticated than just uploading on "save"
Yes, I consider checking whether the file was changed on the server by looking at the file size and/or modification date and warning the user before upload.
I'm not sure if this is really necessary.
Understood. If that would be new behavior for uploads (in general), my vote would be to skip it for now. :) It looks like libcurl has CURLOPT_FILETIME to get at the mod time via SFTP now, but size doesn't seem to be implemented. Although from this it doesn't sound like it would be very hard for someone to add:
https://curl.haxx.se/mail/lib-2011-01/0094.html
Thanks again... liking the app :)
Currently not, but I'm actively working on adding this feature in the next major version of Textastic which is going to be a free update for existing users.
Before I put in the time to install, configure, and manage WebDAV on my development server, will Textastic be able to edit those files in-place or will I have to (re)upload edited files back where they came from? Will it choke on a self-signed certificate if I do?
I'm not out much money, but I'd never have bought Textastic if I'd even suspected it was unable to edit remote files.
Any news on this feature, its been a long time now... Using this feature on iPad Pro will be so awesome. Do not want to download large sized folders from my SFTP server.
Thanks in advance.
I just started using Textastic and it's really nice. I had some trouble understanding the edit flow. With Transmit and CyberDuck I can edit remote files externally with BBEdit.
That made Textastic tricky to understand that I have to download, edit, then upload...
Adding the ability to edit remote files with a hidden temp file would be amazing.
Would be nice edit remote files with iPad Pro, sure this has be a killer feature, it’s already the best code editor.
I don't really need this feature, but it's hard to see that the idea was expressed a decade ago and the status is still "Planned". No criticism, I just barely notice it. ;)
Really need this feature
Wow, a 12 year old enhancement request that's still getting comments.
Code Editor did a marvelous job with this: just hit cmd-S to replace the live file with a handy icon that dims when the server side file is current. Unfortunately Panic stopped supporting it a year ago and it's already crashy.
I could genuinely see how this is useful. Instead of downloading a file, you make a quick edit and on save it “reuploads”, and the tab can be marked as ‘remote’ so it’s not confused with local files. This would be useful for files you may regularly or occasionally update that you don’t need/want locally. .htaccess would be the #1 file I would use this for. It is annoying to have to download it, close the Transfer window, open it, all to edit it and reupload it. Saving the first two steps of having to download and close the Transfer window could save a lot of time, and now that it’s edited and marked with ‘remote’ I can still immediately access it. Just speculating :D
*edit*
Now that I think about it, this happens a lot more than I realized… I find myself running into more problems mistakenly updating old/outdated files and accidentally overwriting new files, compared to if I could just edit the file on the server and not worry about the local version until I’m ready to revamp it. This helps more with versioning in my opinion, as an outdated file I don’t want to touch is probably not needed locally or is being planned for a total overhaul later on.