How Are You Editing Your Files On FTP?

I am now live on Jamrooms Servers and with a few tweaks it looks like I am going to get better performance than I was on my previous server which was actually really fast-It's a great deal because I get great performance and great support and at a MUCH lower price
Also now I do not have to pay for cPanel but that brings me to my question
What is the easiest and most efficient way to edit your files on FTP?

I am using Filezilla and I downloaded a program called PSPad for editing code then set the file types I will be editing to open with PSPad


So here is my basic workflow right now
I download the file I want to edit- the i change the file name on the server from "filename" to "xxfilename" so its not called or lost when edit and upload the copy I am working on...if the copy I am working on works fine I just leave it on the server and leave the backyup named with the xx prefix as my backup

I am 100% new to this but this is the 1st system I have come up with here

I am wondering how those of you who have been doing this for years are doing it

Looking for the best way
Thanks
updated by @derrickhand300: 03/23/15 12:15:27AM

That's not a bad way to go about it - keeping backups is always a good idea. I think the primary thing is to find a system you're comfortable with and stick with it.

Personally I use phpStorm and VIM for all my editing - but both are geared towards developers and really overkill for most users.


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
updated by @brian: 02/13/15 11:16:42AM

Thanks Brian
Concerning backups...I started downloading my public.html file to my desktop last night but it turned out to be pretty big so I stopped it after "Modules" and "Skins" had downloaded
I think these are most likely all the files i will be getting in to edit- Think this is all I need? Or should i go for the complete backup?
If I do this weekly it could take quite a bit of time....so just wondering
Also concerning this- is it ok to delete all the skin files i am not using?
For instance I am only using jrNingja and my custom skinI am working on- should I delete all the others to save space and time?
Thanks

1) Deleting skin files - yep. You can delete any skin you don't want to use

2) I don't think you need to download your entire public_html directory - that's BIG. We run nightly backups here for you already, so if something catastrophic happens to your site (let's hope not - keep fingers crossed) then we can restore your site to the last nightly backup.

Mostly what I think you'll want to download is just a copy of your skin customizations.

Let me know if that helps.

Thanks!


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net
updated by @brian: 02/13/15 11:45:02AM

Great info-thanks
Think I will wait til 5 am my time and try it- in case I need to restore
Maybe this will help some othewrs

This is all helpful.

Brian, I have a question concerning this:
"We run nightly backups here for you already, so if something catastrophic happens to your site (let's hope not - keep fingers crossed) then we can restore your site to the last nightly backup."

-say just for instance I have an accident and wind up in the hospital for a few days, unable to check my site at all...or I'm off on a safari with no internet for a week. What if during that time my whole site is hacked or self destructs in some way...but that I am unaware of that for say five or ten days. Will you have a backup that goes back to BEFORE the corruption?, that you can restore to? Or do you only keep ONE complete site backup, that is only 24 hours old at most? (scary thought)


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Backups are kept for the last 7 days - basically a "rolling" 7 days.


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Good on you Curtis (derrick? not sure which to use) for getting that far. One thing that’s important to point out is: Don't edit anything in the /modules/ directory directly or it will disappear the next time the module is updated.

If you want to alter a modules .tpl file, clone the skin and prefix it like this:

"Altering a modules template"
https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/documentation/development/1051/altering-a-modules-template

So the only files you should be messing around with are:
* Modules that you have created
* Anything in your cloned skin

There are ways to alter the way modules other people have made work that will keep them working. For that check out the:

"Events and Listeners"
https://www.jamroom.net/the-jamroom-network/documentation/development/1011/events-and-listeners

Micheal- do I understand correctly that it's ok though to make custom changes in the Module templates through our ACP, within Jamroom? ...And those customizations will remain unaffected by module updates? Am I understanding that you are referring only to making changes to module templates via our server and SFTP?


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Correct - if you change them in the ACP via the "Templates" section, you're good


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Brian Johnson
Founder and Lead Developer - Jamroom
https://www.jamroom.net

Whew!... 'cause that's what I've been doing.

This is a very important point for folks to understand methinks.


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...just another satisfied Jamroom customer.
Migrated from Ning to Jamroom June 2015

Thanks Michael
I have been trying to wrap my mind around what you said above for a LONG time- I will study the links you provided for a few hours

This is the course designed for developers wanting to extend stuff:

"Developers guide to customizing Jamroom"
https://www.udemy.com/developers-guide-to-customizing-jamroom

It doesn't cover every possible thing but it should allow developers to understand how to get going.