Compress and decompress files in windows explorer ftp client

Question

I am trying to publish my website using ftp client in windows, but when I open windows explorer and open my ftp folder in the client side, I cannot zip or unzip my server files.

Right-click does not show WinRar, 7zip or other compress files tools which I have in my computer installed. I will appreciate if someone help me to figure it out somehow.

Answer 1

FTP is its own program, and while it appears to be running within the normal Explorer window it does not have access to or support utilities installed on your computer the same way Explorer does on your local files.

If you wish to upload compressed files to your host and decompress them there, the host will have to support decompression and have some way of running this. This would normally be carried out using some form of remote management shell such as SSH. You will have to check through your host's documentation to ascertain the correct method.

Answer 2

What you are asking for isn't possible via Explorer. FTP is designed for transferring files only - not working with the file system. It doesn't support zipping and unzipping, no matter what program(s) you use.

However, while what you are asking may not be directly supported as you'd like, there are a couple of (potential) work arounds...

• Connect to the server via SSH (as mentioned elsewhere). SSH is a completely separate protocol from FTP and can issue commands to the server. The drawbacks are that your server would have to allow it (not all do) and the server would have to have the correct tools to zip/unzip files.

• PHP scripts are another solution. These scripts will run on the server and zip or unzip files as needed. There are a number of scripts you can take a look at (Google is your friend). That said, similar to SSH, these scripts need to be supported on the server.