How to create a Windows FTP script

Creating an FTP script helps make uploading and managing files between your computer and your server a lot easier. Below are the steps required for creating an FTP script in Microsoft Windows.

Create a text document with commands used when in FTP. Below is an example of how this script appear.

open ftp.domain.com
username
password
cd public_html
dir
get file.txt
bye

The script above logs into the ftp site ftp.domain.com. Once connected, it enters the username and then the password (substitute username for your username and password for your password). Once logged in, the script then goes to the public_html directory, gets a directory listing, and then uses the "get" command to get the file named file.txt. Once the file is received, it logs off using the "bye" command.

Once the script file is created, for example, if it was named script.txt, to execute this script with ftp, you would type:

ftp -s:script.txt

If Windows FTP does not offer enough scripting options, consider WinSCP, which has a command mode for scripting and also allows the ability to connect to a secure FTP server.