Welcome to the VFS FTPServer Implementation homepage.
This project has moved to VFS FTP. There you can find the FTPServer VFS Bridge compatible with the latest version of Mina FTPServer. Here the version for the Mina FTPServer 1.4_branch, that is compatible with Java 1.4, will be kept for reference.
This project provides an Apache Commons VFS implementation for the Apache FTPServer project. Instead of working only on local files, with this VFS bridge you can connect to any VFS provider. You can still use a local file system, but you can also use a ZIP file, loop through to another FTP server, or use any other available VFS implementation such as DctmVFS.
This bridge provides both read and write access to your VFS using the FTP protocol.
For the Apache FTPServer two services were implemented based on VFS; a File System Manager that delegates to the VFS Provider and a User Manager that allows the authentication to be based on the VFS Provider too.
It is possible to only use the VFS File System Manager and to handle the authentication using the standard Apache FTP Server mechanisms which support LDAP, a user database or a properties file with encrypted passwords.
Note that if the user passes this first station of authentication the VFS provider still has to allow access to the user too!
With this setup it is easy to restrict access to a certain group of users or to provide authentication if your VFS Provider does not have the ability to do so.
If you want to let your VFS Provider handle authentication directly you should use the VFS User Manager. It authenticates the user via the VFS provider by accessing the configured root.
To use this bridge you should just add the VFS libraries, the VFS FTP Server library and, if needed, your custom VFS Provider and its dependencies to the common/lib directory of your Apache FTP Server installation.
See the configuration page for more information about configuring the VFS Provider.
