Beyond FTP Concepts

There are several concepts key to understanding Beyond FTP.  These will be described in greater detail in the following topics, including important details associated with each.  This list is not exhaustive, but it covers the minimal necessary ideas that form the foundation of the product.

1.   Layered Architecture.  Beyond FTP is built in a series of layers.  This allows low level functions, such as an individual transfer, to be used by any number of higher level functions, such as the drag-and-drop interface and the scripting language.

2.   Address Book.  This is the repository for information associated with calling and accessing remote systems running either Beyond FTP or standard FTP.  The Address Book is displayed as a pane in the File Viewer window, and allows you to create and manage folders containing any number of addresses.

3.   Peer to Peer Connections.  Beyond FTP servers can communicate securely with both Beyond FTP clients and other Beyond FTP servers.  This communication can be initiated by either client OR server.  It takes place on a port that is unique to Beyond FTP.

4.   FTP Client Connections.  Beyond FTP servers and clients can communicate with standard FTP servers.  In this case they appear to the FTP server as a client.  This is the capability commonly associated with this class of product.

5.   User Security.  This is a separate security structure for limiting remote access to the local machine.  This structure is the same for both major platforms, and provides flexibility that is not found in the standard Microsoft account schemes.

6.   Queue Files.  Beyond FTP operations are driven from disk files called queues.  These are created by Beyond FTP and provide a number of critical operational and recovery capabilities.

7.   Add hoc Operations.  These are file transfers, deletes, renames, and directory maintenance functions that are initiated from the Address Book and/or File Viewer window.

8.   Scripts and Automation.  A script is the source file of commands that direct Beyond FTP activities.  The Beyond FTP scripting language is quite unlike most FTP scripting languages.  It does not include any FTP commands.  Rather, it consists of high level commands that are then interpreted for the appropriate address and platform.  For example, a single transfer command could copy an entire directory structure from one system to another.