QT6 QNetworkRequest and FTP

manordheim · J JonB 12 May 2022, 12:31

@JonB
As Samuel said, for file sharing in an organization there are more mainstream ways of doing it now. And it doesn't include windows network shares :)
For simple upload/download it's quite simple to set up a http server end-point (think transmitting logs/artifacts). Which will likely also have better performance compared to FTP.
When exactly it happened is hard to tell, though I wouldn't say it's fully irrelevant yet. But it seems closer than ever :).

JonB · 23 May 2022, 13:33

@manordheim , @SGaist
Thank you for your comments. My commercial usage is obviously very different from yours, or maybe you are more talking about social/personal users.

When we "share" files --- in either direction --- with customers etc. (external), we certainly do not use e.g. DropBox. They expect FTP access, with suitable username & password. When they download from our website (or if required upload to a secure area) they expect FTP to be available; or they may have their own FTP server for exchanging files with us. When I manage our website I use FTP to upload (large) files there. And so on.

So for my own part I would like to see Qt continue to support FTP. (Though I do not use Qt in my commercial life, only in my personal "hobby" life.) And over the years of answering questions here I have seen many requests/questions for FTP functionality, where we referred users to the old QFtp support. But maybe it's less now.

But I bow to your superior experience.

SGaist · wrote on 13 May 2022, 19:12

Nothing wrong with using FTP (unless it's not sftp ;-)).

As for the support, if memory serves QFtp was already turned into a module. So if you should be able to use it. You can also help with its maintenance to keep it alive :-)

manordheim · J JonB 13 May 2022, 11:50

@JonB I'd prefer no bowing. :) As I said, FTP is certainly still in use. And what you describe of passing files across companies with FTP is something I'm familiar with. But that's usually been a process outside the application. The workflow I've heard of in those cases is usually:

generate reports/results with the relevant application
upload to customer's ftp/make available on our ftp using a cmdline tool or some gui application

Though your experience could differ. :)

kkoehne · 23 May 2022, 15:26

@SGaist said in QT6 QNetworkRequest and FTP:

Nothing wrong with using FTP

Well, there's lots of things wrong with FTP :) Can't remember who brought this link up, maybe it as even in some discussions about this very feature of Qt Network: https://mywiki.wooledge.org/FtpMustDie

The security issue is probably fixed by SFTP, and 'don't break my workflow' is a valid requirement for a framework ... but I found the page entertaining.

SGaist · wrote on 23 May 2022, 15:26

@kkoehne Heeeey you cut the line short ! The content of the parenthesis was the most important !

Charlie8741 · wrote on 27 Aug 2022, 12:16

Hi,
Sorry to reply to this old thread, but do we have any news regarding FTP support ? I use it in my personal project and that missing support hold me from moving to Qt6...

Thank you for your time !

Mike Trahearn 0 · 28 Aug 2022, 06:34

As a major worldwide company whose customers are also major and worldwide, we and our customers expect to be able to use FTP as a means of communication between our devices. Yes we have and use other modern and appropriate mechanisms available for primary communication protocols but we still have current use cases which will outlast the Qt6 lifetime. Please give bringing FTP back to Qt6 some serious consideration otherwise large companies with heavy investments in Qt are going to have to consider what would be a costly course of direction change with significant D&D and no ROI. Thank you.

JonB · 29 Aug 2022, 00:20

@Mike-Trahearn-0
I do not disagree with you, but be aware this is a user forum. We have no influence over what The Qt Company does. Your comments would be best addressed to them.

Mike Trahearn 0 · J JonB 28 Aug 2022, 06:34

@JonB Thank you - they are very much aware I can assure you.

JKSH · wrote on 1 Sept 2022, 02:04

Is there a strong reason why it must be done via a Qt-ish FTP API? How about using QProcess to run cURL?

...or perhaps WinSCP if you're supporting Windows only?

legerborea · 6 Sept 2022, 12:58

@JKSH
Because using external binaries is not practical to implement. You have to manage binaries for all supported platforms (windows, macOS, linux) but the hard part is parsing output data, if you need to get status of download/upload, you have to parse output of curl.
Yes, that can be done ! But this is not very practical...

JKSH · 6 Sept 2022, 16:41

@legerborea said in QT6 QNetworkRequest and FTP:

Because using external binaries is not practical to implement. You have to manage binaries for all supported platforms (windows, macOS, linux) but the hard part is parsing output data, if you need to get status of download/upload, you have to parse output of curl.

OK, how about using the libcurl library instead? That's very cross-platform.

JonB · J JKSH 6 Sept 2022, 12:58

@JKSH That is a more viable answer! :)

legerborea · 6 Aug 2023, 11:03

Yes libcurl would be the one to use, but that need more development, I have a custom FTP class for Qt5 series (which use QNetworkAccessManager). So erase and rewrite all with libcurl... is very not practical (and add delay in development process).

Anyway, thank you for those informations and alternative solutions, I will consider libcurl.

FWIW, I've opened a bug ticket at: https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-111597

cedrix · wrote on 8 Oct 2022, 15:00

Hello, I also miss FTP since I switched to Qt 6. I don't like the idea of using libcurl because the more dependencies is added to an application, the more potential problems + the harder is the maintenance. I really hope that Qt will but back FTP support.