FIZZICIST  

153957PHOTOGRAPHY, SANJUANSKYWAY, JOHN BIGBOOTE:

Thanks for the information. I guess there's no substitute for trying RapidWeaver for myself.

As it turns out, I need to build a site that has some pretty extensive database capabilities. I don't see anything about that in Realmac's features list, but it doesn't exclude RapidWeaver as a tool for building a good-looking, standards-compliant "front-end" site that's accessible to all users. The part of the site that requires user registration and login for database access is a different matter. It looks like I'll be using Drupal for that.

Thanks again for the info about building pages from scratch. I'm looking forward to trying Rapidweaver now.  
(Version 4.2.2)

FIZZICIST  BDKENNEDY1:

Thanks! Consider my hand raised. Your review saved me the trouble of downloading and trying Rapidweaver. The feature list looks good, especially the parts about Rapidweaver's ability to generate standards-compliant XHTML+CSS code, plus the ability to edit the code directly. But if it doesn't let me design my own layouts from scratch in WYSIWYG mode, then what good is having the WYSIWYG editor in the first place? I might as well build my site from scratch in a really good coding app—like SEEdit Maxi 2—which (as of this writing) is freeware.

Your questions hit the nail on the head:

"Will someone please buy these 3 companies, combine the software and give us a single, excellent WYSIWYG program without having to install 1700 plugins? For god's sake why is this so difficult?"

I don't know why no one has done it yet (as far as I know), but I'll gladly buy a license for the first application that provides WYSIWYG construction from the ground up, generates W3C compliant code, and allows full, easy editing access to all parts of that code—including the CSS style sheet.

Until then, the best combination I've found for my needs (and it's still a pain, I'll tell you) is iWeb in combination with SEEdit Maxi 2, with occasional help from CSS Edit and HTML Optimizer.   
(Version 4.2.1)

FIZZICIST  I have to qualify everything here by saying that I'm new to FTP. I spent one entire day messing around with it on my LAN trying to get it to work, with only partial success. Part of the problem is my ignorance about what I'm doing, and the rest of it is PureFTPd Manager's lack of clear and thorough documentation of its ample features.

Yes, ample features. I've learned enough about FTP to know that PureFTPd Manager is a godsend to anyone who doesn't want to mess around with command line stuff to configure Apple's built-in FTP server. If you know what you're doing, I suspect that PureFTPd Manager is a great solution.

My problem is that I don't know what I'm doing (yet). PureFTPd Manager enabled me to set up and configure an FTP server, create virtual users, and successfully connect to the FTP server from another Mac on my LAN as a virtual user, but I could not view the target directory. PureFTPd Manager's server log confirmed that I had successfully connected as the virtual user, but in each case the FTP client could not fetch the directory list. I tried it with numerous FTP clients, all with the same result. The client shows that it's trying to list the "/" directory, not the actual "/Users/ftp/VirtualUsers/virtual user directory I've specified. As far as I can tell, the FTP server seems to be trying to get the FTP client to load a root user directory that doesn't exist.

The problem appears to be related to the PASV mode, which is automatically invoked because I'm using Panther's built-in software firewall on the FTP server host. I've checked several user forums for various FTP client apps, and the failure to list the target directory appears to be a fairly common problem. So far, I haven't found any solutions. I'm convinced that the solution lies in the way the FTP server host is configured.

Anyhow, the point here is that PureFTPd Manager provides no documentation that mentions this problem or explains how to correct it. It also provides little information about many of its other features, like the User ID and Group ID name and ID number options, nor does the documentation provide any explanation or examples of the kinds of entries needed to complete the textbox entries in the Transfers tab of the User Manager.

PureFTPd Manager's interface is nice, and considering the bewildering (to a newbie) array of features it provides, the developer has done a magnificent job of taking the control of Mac OS X's native FTP server functionality into an intelligible GUI format. For someone who already is knowledgeable (at least, more so than I am) with FTP, you probably can't find better freeware.

To be fair, I have not tried contacting the developer, so I can't comment on his responsiveness. I'm giving PureFTPd Manager an overall rating of 4 because I think it's a good start, and based on the other comments I've read about it here and elsewhere, it's a great application for people who already know what they're doing.  
(Version 1.6.3)