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FTP Integration

Abstract

You can upload content directly from Paligo to a web server via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) or FTPS (File Transfer Protocol Secure). To publish via FTP or FTPS, you must first set up the Paligo to FTP integration.

paligo-to-FTP-small.jpg

With the FTP (File Transfer Protocol) integration, you can publish your Paligo content, such as an HTML5 help center, directly to your web site.

This will allow Paligo to publish content to your web server. When you publish, the content is uploaded as files, such as HTML or PDF. It is not zipped, so there is no need to unzip it on your web server.

Before you can publish from Paligo to a web server via FTP or FTPS, you need:

  • Web hosting space

  • A URL for the domain (or its IP address)

  • User account and password for access to the domain. The user account must have read/write access to the folder that will receive the content from Paligo.

Connect Paligo via FTP

To connect Paligo to your web server via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) or FTPS (File Transfer Protocol Secure):

  1. Log in to Paligo via a user account that has administrator permissions.

  2. Sign in to Paligo using a user account that has administrator permissions.

  3. Select the avatar in the top-right corner. User avatar. It shows the user's image and their name. Next to the name is a downward pointing arrow, which when selected, reveals a menu.

  4. Select Settings from the menu. Cog icon.

  5. Select the Integrations tab. Jigsaw piece icon.

    Paligo settings. The Integrations tab is highlighted.

  6. Find the FTP settings and select Add to display the integration settings.

    Note

    Add is only available the first time you set up an integration. After that, Add is replaced by Change.

    FTP_Integration_Settings.jpg

  7. Enter the Host details. This can be the domain URL or the IP address of the domain.

  8. Enter the number of the web server Port that Paligo should attempt to connect to. The default port is 21.

  9. Check the Use secure TLS/SSL connection box for a secure, encrypted connection between Paligo and your web server. We recommend that you use a secure connection. But if your server is not set up for FTPS, you can clear the checkbox and Paligo will use an FTP connection instead. FTP connections are not secure.

  10. Enter the Username for the user account that will be used to access the domain.

    Note

    The user account must have read and write access to the folder that will receive the content from Paligo.

  11. Enter the Password for the user account.

  12. As Destination folder, you enter the directory path for the folder that you want Paligo to upload content to.

    To upload the zip file directly to the root, leave this field empty.

    Destination_Folder.png

  13. Use the Erase destination folder contents on publish checkbox to control what happens to any existing content in the destination folder.

    • Check the box if you want Paligo to delete the existing content before it uploads the new content.

    • Clear the box if you want Paligo to leave the existing content in place. When Paligo publishes, the destination folder will contain the existing content and the newly uploaded content.

  14. If you have special characters in your filenames, select the checkbox Enable UTF-8 mode.

    Important

    If you enable UTF-8 mode in Paligo, make sure that it is also enabled on your destination server.

    Do not enable this if your server does not support UTF-8.

  15. Select Save.

  16. Select the Change button for the integration.

  17. Select Test Settings to run a connection test.

    Test_Reset_Settings_Integrations_small.jpg

  18. If the settings are:

    • Correct, Paligo shows a green success notification.

    • Incorrect, Paligo shows a red failure notification.

      Check each connection setting carefully, to make sure you have not made any mistakes and try again.

      If the connection test continues to fail, contact Paligo support for assistance.

Publish via FTP

You can publish content from Paligo to your web server via FTP or FTPS. The process is very similar to "regular" publishing. You create your publication and topics, and set up a layout for the type of output you want, such as PDF, HTML5, etc. Then you choose the publication settings and publish. Paligo generates your content and uploads it to your web server.

Note

Your browser will also download a zip file of the content. You can keep this as a local backup.

To publish to your web server, the FTP integration settings need to be in place. You also need to have a publication and layout set up to create the output you want, for example, an HTML5 help center. You can then publish from Paligo to your web server:

  1. Select the dotted menu (...) for the topic or publication in the Content Manager.

    selectpublish.png

  2. Select Publish.

    publish-document-jan23.png

    Paligo displays the Publish document dialog.

  3. Select the Type of output you want to publish (for example PDF, HTML, HTML5, Word, XML, eLearning, SCORM, or other).

  4. Select the Layout to be used for your output.

  5. Select the languages to be published.

    Languages section of Publish document dialog. There are options for each language. English UK and Swedish are selected.

    Note

    If no translations are available, only the Source Language will show. If you have multiple languages translated and approved, you can select which ones to include. Paligo will publish each language as a separate output.

    For PDF output you can publish them as one multilingual publication, check the Combine selected languages box.

  6. If your content is set up to use Filtering / Profiling, use the Profiling attributes section to apply them. [Optional]. If you do not use filtering, ignore this setting.

    Select Edit and then choose the value for each filter that you want Paligo to use. For example, for Audience, choose Expert to include content that is marked as for expert users.

    If you do not want to apply a filter, leave the field blank.

    Profiling attributes dialog. Outputformat is set to include HTML.

    Select OK to add your chosen profiling attribute(s).

    Profiling attributes section of Publish document dialog. Shows Outputformat: HTML selected.

  8. In the Upload output section, check the Upload via FTP box. By default, Paligo will upload the output to the folder that is specified in the Paligo FTP integration settings.

    The upload output settings on the publish document dialog. There are options for uploading to GitHub, Bitbucket, Amazon Web Services S3, and via FTP. FTP is selected.

    You can publish to a different folder if required. Select the Edit icon next to Upload via FTP, and then select the folder on the Edit dialog. The settings you choose will only be used for this individual publishing process. Any future publishing will revert back to using the folder that IS defined in the integration settings.

    FTP edit dialog has a destination folder field. You can set a different destination folder just for this particular publication process.

  9. Use the Output filename section to control the filename.

    By default, Paligo will use the filename syntax that is defined in the System Settings.

    Output filename section. There is a Template field that contains the values ID, Title, and Format. In the top-right corner is a preview of the filename that Paligo will generate if the current settings are used.

    To change the information included in the filename, enter your preferred format in the publishing settings. Default is: ID-Title-Format.

    You can use:

    • ID - The ID of the document.

    • Title - The title of the publication or topic that you are publishing.

    • Format - The name of the output format, for example, PDF or HTML5.

    • Edit date - The date that the publication or topic was last edited.

    • Branch label - The text from the branch label for the publication or topic. This only applies if your content has been branched and it has a branch label. For details, see Add or Edit Branch Labels.

    • Unique value - A random string of characters, generated by Paligo, that is added to the filename to make it unique. This can stop the file from being overwritten by later publishes of the same document.

    Tip

    If you type @ into the field, Paligo displays a list of the available values and you can select from the list. To remove a value, click in it and use the delete key or backspace key to remove all of its characters.

    Note

    The filename shown in the top-right corner is a preview of the filename that Paligo will use when you publish.

  10. Set the Optional Parameters (leave unchecked if you do not want these features):

    • Save the output in Paligo - Check the box to save the zip file that Paligo creates when you publish. The zip file will be available from the Resource View and you can download it from the Saved Outputs tab. Clear the box if you don't want Paligo to store the zip file.

    • Notify me - Check this box if you want Paligo to send you an email when the publication is ready. This is useful if you have very large publications that can take a longer time to process and publish.

    • Make debug build - Check this box if you want Paligo to include a log file and link report. If there is an issue with your content, Paligo support may ask you to enable this feature so that they can use the log files to investigate.

  11. Select Publish Document.

    Paligo starts processing your content and applies your layout and publishing settings. The time that this takes varies depending on how much content you are publishing (the more content, the longer it takes).

    Publish_Progress_Bar_small.jpg

    A progress bar appears. Select the arrow to hide the progress bar and reopen it by selecting the progress clock in the top menu. To abort the publish, select the X.

    The published output appears as:

    • A ZIP file with the published output appears in the downloads folder on your computer.

      If you have altered your browser's settings to store downloaded files somewhere else, the zip file will be found there instead.

      If you are using a publishing integration, the zip file will also be sent to the relevant service.

    • A link in the Activity Feed Panel to download the published content.

    Note

    To make the content available online, first unzip the file. You can then use the file locally or you can use an FTP client, such as Filezilla, to upload the unzipped content to a web server.

    Tip

    You can save your publishing settings and reuse them to achieve a smoother publishing process, see Publishing Settings. Any settings you save can also be used for Batch Publishing.

    Publish document dialog has a Save Settings option and a Saved Settings tab. The option saves the currently shown settings and these can then be selected in a single action on the tab.

The output contents in the zip file is also published directly to your website via FTP or FTPS, depending on the FTP integration settings.