Opening files beginning with a dot

[TRiG]

I am using WeBuilder 2010 [Version 10.0 (10.0.0.116)].

I use this almost exclusively for editing PHP/CSS/JS files over FTP. I very rarely work on files stored locally.

Some of my PHP configuration files have names beginning with a dot (mainly so PHP's glob() function doesn't see them). I can see these files in WeBuilder, but I cannot open them. If I try to open them, I am presented with a blank file, as if the file contained no content. I can, however, open and edit .htaccess files. I did not have this problem with previous versions of WeBuilder, and my colleague, who uses the same software, does not have this problem with the current version of WeBuilder. (I'm on Vista; he's on XP.)

Presumably it's a configuration option somewhere in the program, but I couldn't find it. Options and Edit seemed the obvious places to look, but I can see nothing there.

TRiG.

[Karlis]

What is the part after the dot? obviously this is related to particular file names because .htaccess is also file name beginning with a dot.

Works on my Vista.

[TRiG]

We'd have files with names such as
.config.php
.user.php
.guest.php

And today I had a problem with another file that my colleague could open. But in this case, FileZilla on my machine was also refusing to download it, so it's probably a problem with my computer.

File name: "kelly_green.php".
WeBuilder: appeared to download (taking some time: it's a large enough file), but opened blank.
FileZilla: ditto, but then an error message appeared saying "Failed to modify file times for '<path>/kelly_green.php' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified)" And the file doesn't appear in the place I was downloading it to.

FileZilla gives the file size as 66979 bytes.

I suspect that this is not a problem with WeBuilder, but with my computer or perhaps with the server.

TRiG.

[Karlis]

Are you opening the files from FTP or local drive? I just tried saving/opening both localy and FTP and exactly the names you mentioned. All seems fine...

One thing I can tell is that you should be very careful with files that start with dot, due to ways how FTP work and files are handled it is a risky venture, there is a plenty of space for unexpected behavior dealing with such files both on the server side, on the ftp client side and even locally. Dot is a very special symbol, I believe on linux systems it hides the file and also dot means "current directory" and it is also file name separator.

It is no excuse, of course, all systems must be able to work with any types of file names, but it is better be on the safe side and use traditional names.

[TRiG]

FTP. And, as I said, my colleague can open them fine, using the same version of WeBuidler. Must be just some problem with my computer.

If I was building my own CMS I wouldn't have configuration files beginning with a dot, but this was developed before I joined. It's no big problem. I rarely want to edit those files anyway, and if I do, I can download them with FileZilla, edit them locally, and throw them back up again. It's just a minor annoyance.

It's just slightly odd that it's just me having this problem. It's also odd that I can open and edit .htaccess files. Computers are funny things, aren't they?

TRiG.

[Karlis]

Computers are funny things, aren't they?

Oh yes. "Miracles" (things that are impossible) happen all the time

[TRiG]

I think I've worked it out. I'm pretty sure it's Norton Anti-Virus blocking the downloads.

TRiG.

[Karlis]

Off Topic:

If you need to change anti virus, try Nod32 it is really much faster and the only anti-virus that does not clog the computer or ruin performance.

I have used Norton, McAfee, Kaspersky and they all have been fairly terrible at performance, since somebody recommended to switch to Nod32, I have never suffered slowdowns due to anti-virus and what is more it does not install any "extras" and does not show any pop-ups in system tray it just does its auto-updates silently without screaming.