One of my favourite tools as a WordPress techie is a tiny plugin called MY FTP, is has helped me too many times to remember, I thought a quick post on this excellent utility would be a good idea.

Here is the download link http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/myftp/

What Is MY FTP

It is a plugin that creates an FTP console inside of your WordPress dashboard.  FTP standard for file transfer protocol, and once this bad boy is installed you get the ability to navigate your WordPress file system, upload files and even edit files.

One limitation of MY FTP is that it uploads only, there is no download function.

The Real Power of MY FTP

The real power of MY FTP is not it’s FTP capability, rather it is that is allows you to edit WordPress files without the need to have FTP credentials.

Imagine you need to edit the wp-config file and don’t have ftp access to a site, just install MY FTP and there you go, open up the file browser, navigate to the file in question and click on the edit button, excellent.

Imagine you need to add some plugin code to a theme file, but cannot get access to that file because it is buried deep in the file system, bingo fire up MY FTP browse to that file and make your changes.

Installation

The plugin has a standard installation, either search for “my ftp” note the space there is a clone with no space from the plugin dashboard or download it from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/myftp/

A Word Of Warning

Absolute power corrupts absolutely, you can really screw up your site with MY FTP if you don’t know what you are editing. Use it with caution, if you don’t know what you are doing, call in the experts, you have been warned.

Wrap Up

As I have said MY FTP has gotten me out of all sorts of technical support pickles, check it out.

Image by trainor