By Graham K. Rogers

Just when I needed to carry out some maintenance on my MacBook Pro, I realised I had forgotten the firmware password. I was not so lucky as I had been with the last time I did this on an earlier device: Macs have changed inside. A phone call Wednesday evening - after an expected 3 days - told me it was done. In the meantime I have been trying out my skills with the iPad.

Apart from presentations and some writing, the main reason I have this iPad is for reading and for surfing the web. In the early part of this week, I had to turn it into a production device with the addition of software to upload articles via FTP to my site. I had only done this before on a computer, although I had occasionally used a browser upload. With the app I settled on - iFTP Pro - I was also able to create and mark up text, so that was a bonus.

A guest column from a local writer on discrepancies with LINE and its possible insecurities, caused some minor problems that I did not discover until the file was uploaded: the formatted text was not in ASCII and several characters were incorrectly displayed. A quick edit and another upload fixed that.

A further difficulty came with the handling of images. As the whole app needed a bit of care to make sure I had things right,I decided to leave images alone initially. Once I was comfortable with the general use of the app, I started on the photos.

In the same panel as files that are created - at the top of the page - is a link to the photo album. Before trying this (I had just looked earlier), I created a new folder by pressing the + icon at the bottom of the screen. I use this also to create new files.

Entering the Photo Library, I saw the Last Import folder at the top: this is for files brought in from a camera. The folders I want are at the bottom of the panel: Camera Roll and My Photo Stream. The screen shots that I have taken of iFTP Pro are in these. Selecting one, which displayed full-screen, I was given two options: back to the Photo Library; or the Export arrow. There are several options for export to other apps, but not iFTP Pro, as well as "Copy". I tried this but the Paste command was not available to bring the selected image into the folder I had made.

Instead of importing into the app, the image is uploaded directly, without editing. When the FTP connection is made, a user has access to the Photo Library and one or more images may be uploaded. The files on the server use the standard iOS naming convention (e.g. IMG_0788.PNG) which uses capital letters, Fortunately, the same actions panel that is available for working on files within iFTP Pro (Edit, Move, and more) can be used to rename the file while on the server.

I had already learned that working with use of text only web pages needed some ability to imagine what the finished product would look like when uploaded, but the addition of images increases that. Fortunately, once a connection is made, it is quick and easy to edit the file while online.

The addition of iFTP Pro to my list of apps, has made working with the iPad a little easier this week although I am heading out of the door to collect the fixed MacBook Pro in a few minutes. With some tasks, working with the iPad is slower: typing for example; and the ability to switch between applications (or Windows on the Mac). Nonetheless, the last couple of days have demonstrated that, at a pinch, I can work with the iOS devices alone.

See Also:

Cassandra: Backups, Security and a Forgotten Firmware Password (2) - Connection with iFTP Pro

Cassandra: Backups, Security and a Forgotten Firmware Password (4) - iFTP Pro from the iPhone

Cassandra: Backups, Security and a Forgotten Firmware Password (5) - Tidying up and Final Comments

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.