Net Ftp Laravel Package

Getting Started

This package is an archived PEAR package (pear/net_ftp) offering a minimal OOP wrapper over PHP’s native ftp_* functions. Due to its age (archived, unmaintained, 3 stars), it should only be used when maintaining existing legacy systems that already depend on it—never for new projects.

To begin:

1. Install via PEAR: pear install Net_FTP (requires PEAR to be installed and in include_path)
2. Or manually include: require_once 'Net/FTP.php'; (after placing Net/FTP.php in your include_path)
3. Basic usage:

   $ftp = new Net_FTP();
   $ftp->connect('ftp.example.com');
   $ftp->login('user', 'password');
   $ftp->put('remote.txt', 'local.txt'); // upload
   $ftp->get('local_copy.txt', 'remote.txt'); // download
   

Implementation Patterns

• Legacy wrapper pattern: Replace ad-hoc ftp_*() calls with Net_FTP only to unify syntax in older codebases (e.g., pre-Composer apps).
• Request-scoped singleton: Instantiate once per request (not per operation) to avoid redundant connections; reuse for batch ops like file sync or config deployment.
• Error-first control flow: All methods return true/false or PEAR_Error. Always check:

  if (PEAR::isError($result = $ftp->put(...))) {
      $error = $ftp->getError();
      // log or handle
  }
  

• Passive mode enforcement: Always call $ftp->setPassive(true) before transfers—active FTP is blocked by most firewalls.

Gotchas and Tips

• No TLS/FTPS support: This package only supports insecure plain FTP. Credentials and data transmit in plaintext. Never use in production without isolation (e.g., internal-only, firewalled networks).
• PEAR_Error ≠ exceptions: Errors don’t throw exceptions—enable PEAR’s error handling globally (PEAR::setErrorHandling(PEAR_ERROR_DIE)) only in CLI tools, or check manually.
• PHP 8+ incompatibility: The package is untested on modern PHP. ftp_set_option() usage may break on PHP ≥8.1 due to stricter type checks. Validate on target runtime.
• Autoloading void: Not PSR-0/4 compatible. Requires manual require_once and correct include_path—conflicts with Composer-based Laravel autoloading.
• Migration path: To escape legacy dependency:
  • Replace with PHP’s native ftp_connect() → ftp_* for trivial cases
  • For robustness: Use league/flysystem + league/flysystem-ftp (and migrate to league/flysystem-ftp-secure for TLS)
  • Audit all FTP usage for SFTP replacement—always preferred for security.