We mentioned earlier that Rumpus supports all the major encoding capabilities required of an FTP server that is tailored for the Mac OS. The encoding tab, shown in Figure 7, allows you to customize how files are encoded, saved, and displayed to clients for your particular environment. Note that MacBinary encoding is always available for clients that support and ask for it (and most Mac FTP clients are smart enough to do just that).

Figure 7: The Encoding configuration tab.

Text Type, Text Creator

Mac OS files are labeled with "Type" and "Creator" codes, which enable the operating system to determine which applications are suitable for processing which files. When files are uploaded to your FTP server in plain text mode, Rumpus can save the file with appropriate type and creator codes so that the file can be opened and handled by any application you choose.

In the case of text files, it is unlikely that you will need to change the default Text Type, as "TEXT" is the standard type code for plain Mac OS text files. The Text Creator, however, can be set so that double-clicking on the file will open it in the application of your choice. For example, to have plain text files opened using SimpleText, set the Text Creator to "ttxt". To use BBEdit as the standard application for opening text files, set the code to "R*ch". It is important to note that both type and creator codes are case sensitive. Be sure to enter them exactly, including matching case.

Binary Type, Binary Creator

FTP clients can also upload raw binary files to your server, in addition to text format, as described above. Just as with text files, Rumpus allows you to select the type and creator codes for these binary files. Because the contents of binary files vary, sensible default values for Binary Type and Creator are impossible. However, these values can be set for your site if most of the binary uploads are of a common file type. For example, if GIF images are frequently uploaded as raw binary files, you might choose to set the Binary Type to "GIFf" and the Binary Creator to "GKON". This would cause raw binary files to be saved as Graphic Converter GIF image files.

Important Note! Most Mac OS clients will send files using the MacBinary file format. Files encoded with MacBinary are transfered with their type and creator codes intact, and Rumpus will save the files using the correct, original codes. Both the text and binary type and creator code settings in Rumpus will apply only when the codes cannot be determined using the file encoding, such as when files are uploaded from a non-Mac OS FTP client.

Allow Automatic BinHex Encoding

Automatic BinHex Encoding can be enabled so that users can add a suffix of ".hqx" to any filename request and Rumpus will automatically encode the file into BinHex format as it is returned. For example, to receive a file named "ReadMe" (which resides in the FTP folder) in BinHex format, the client can simply request the file "ReadMe.hqx" and Rumpus will BinHex the file as it is served.

BinHex is a popular format that puts the entire Macintosh file, including both data and resource forks, into a single, 7-bit data stream. While virtually all modern FTP clients support 8-bit binary transfer mode, BinHex can be used when only 7-bit ASCII mode is available (due to client or network limitations). The format can be decoded by many popular compression engines, including StuffIt Expander.

Default To MacBinary Transfers

MacBinary is a standard format used by many popular Macintosh clients and servers to send a complete file (data fork, resource fork, and Finder information) over a single data stream. It is an 8-bit data format, so it should be used only in binary transfers and not ASCII. Files sent in MacBinary format from Rumpus to a client that supports MacBinary will appear on the user's computer as normal Mac files, exactly as they appear on the server. Clients that don't support MacBinary should use a decoding "helper application" such as StuffIt Expander to extract the complete file from the encoded file sent by Rumpus. Most Macintosh FTP client applications will automatically request that files be sent in MacBinary format, when appropriate.

If you transfer a binary file without MacBinary encoding, then only the data fork will be sent to the client. In cases such as text documents, GIF images, and other data files this may be adequate. In fact, non-Mac OS computers will likely be confused by Mac OS Finder information and resource data, so the file's data fork is all that should be sent to non-Mac clients.

Checking "Default To MacBinary Transfers" will cause Rumpus to automatically send all files requested in binary mode as MacBinary, unless the client specifically requests that files not be sent as MacBinary. This option should be used only in all-Macintosh workgroups, as non-Mac clients will most likely not be able to work with the MacBinary files. In all-Mac environments, some clients may behave better by forcing all binary transfers to occur as MacBinary, although most clients will ask for the data in the correct form anyway.

Files are sent in MacBinary format when clients specify that MacBinary mode should be enabled using a standard FTP command. In addition, MacBinary encoding will be performed when the suffix ".bin" is appended to the request for a file. For example, the "ReadMe" file mentioned above would be sent as a MacBinary file if the client requests "ReadMe.bin".

Show Actual Filenames In Lists

This option allows you to display or suppress the actual filenames of files in directory listings ("lists"). In most cases, you should leave this option on, so that filenames are displayed correctly when clients request directory listings. However, by unchecking this option, you can suppress the real filenames from being shown. This feature can be useful when you want to display filenames with either the ".bin" and/or ".hqx" extensions only, as described below.

Show ".bin" Extension In Lists

As discussed above, Rumpus can automatically serve a file in MacBinary format when asked by simply appending the ".bin" extension to the filename of the file being requested. Many clients, however, won't be able to use this functionality simply because they don't know it exists (or because their graphical FTP client won't allow it). For this reason, Rumpus can automatically duplicate each filename in a directory listing, appending a ".bin" suffix to the extra filename entry. Of course, if you only want files to appear as ".bin", you can suppress the real filename entirely by unchecking the "Show Actual Filenames In Lists" option.

Show ".hqx" Extension In Lists

In the same way that Rumpus can append ".bin" extensions to filenames in directory listings (see "Show '.bin' Extension In Lists" above), the extension ".hqx" can be automatically added to each filename in a list. While the modified filename won't actually exist as a file on the server, Rumpus will serve the file as a binhexed file correctly as expected.