I have to download the latest file from an FTP Server. I know how download the latest file from my computer, but I don't how download from an FTP server.
How can I download the latest file from a FTP Server?
This is my program to download the latest file from my Computer
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
string startFolder = @"C:\Users\user3\Desktop\Documentos XML";
System.IO.DirectoryInfo dir = new System.IO.DirectoryInfo(startFolder);
IEnumerable<System.IO.FileInfo> fileList = dir.GetFiles("*.*", System.IO.SearchOption.AllDirectories);
IEnumerable<System.IO.FileInfo> fileQuerry =
from file in fileList
where file.Extension == ".txt"
orderby file.CreationTimeUtc
select file;
foreach (System.IO.FileInfo fi in fileQuerry)
{
var newestFile =
(from file in fileQuerry
orderby file.CreationTimeUtc
select new { file.FullName, file.Name })
.First();
textBox2.Text = newestFile.FullName;
}
}
OK, with this code I know the date of the last file, but How I know the name of this file????????
You have to retrieve timestamps of remote files to select the latest one.
Unfortunately, there's no really reliable and efficient way to retrieve modification timestamps of all files in a directory using features offered by .NET framework, as it does not support the FTP MLSD
command. The MLSD
command provides a listing of remote directory in a standardized machine-readable format. The command and the format is standardized by RFC 3659.
Alternatives you can use, that are supported by .NET framework:
ListDirectoryDetails
method (the FTP LIST
command) to retrieve details of all files in a directory and then you deal with FTP server specific format of the details
DOS/Windows format: C# class to parse WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectoryDetails FTP response
*nix format: Parsing FtpWebRequest ListDirectoryDetails line
GetDateTimestamp
method (the FTP MDTM
command) to individually retrieve timestamps for each file. An advantage is that the response is standardized by RFC 3659 to YYYYMMDDHHMMSS[.sss]
. A disadvantage is that you have to send a separate request for each file, what can be quite inefficient. This method uses the LastModified
property that you mention:
const string uri = "ftp://example.com/remote/path/file.txt";
FtpWebRequest request = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(uri);
request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.GetDateTimestamp;
FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
Console.WriteLine("{0} {1}", uri, response.LastModified);
Alternatively you can use a 3rd party FTP client implementation that supports the modern MLSD
command.
For example WinSCP .NET assembly supports that.
There's even an example for your specific task: Downloading the most recent file.
The example is for PowerShell and SFTP, but translates to C# and FTP easily:
// Setup session options
SessionOptions sessionOptions = new SessionOptions
{
Protocol = Protocol.Ftp,
HostName = "example.com",
UserName = "username",
Password = "password",
};
using (Session session = new Session())
{
// Connect
session.Open(sessionOptions);
// Get list of files in the directory
string remotePath = "/remote/path/";
RemoteDirectoryInfo directoryInfo = session.ListDirectory(remotePath);
// Select the most recent file
RemoteFileInfo latest =
directoryInfo.Files
.OrderByDescending(file => file.LastWriteTime)
.First();
// Download the selected file
string localPath = @"C:\local\path\";
string sourcePath = RemotePath.EscapeFileMask(remotePath + latest.Name);
session.GetFiles(sourcePath, localPath).Check();
}
(I'm the author of WinSCP)