Importing FTP sites info from FileZilla

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mll
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Importing FTP sites info from FileZilla

Hi,

I have decided to make the switch and migrate completely from FileZilla. WinSCP is really too good and reliable. :)

But I have a dozen of FTP sites info (address, login, password, etc.) saved in FileZilla.

Is there any way to easily import this info into WinSCP?

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mll
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Well, I did see this ticket, but it seemed to have fallen into oblivion. :)

To me, WinSCP's advantages against FileZilla are:
  • encryption of stored passwords
  • encryption of stored passwords
  • encryption of stored passwords
  • more reliable for big transfers
  • ability to edit files on the fly (through SSH I guess)
  • SCP protocol
Oh, and did I mention encryption of stored passwords ? :)

Two thing from FileZilla that I'll regret:
  • easy file queue management
  • tabbed sessions
  • WinSCP's strange GUI while transferring (this modal window with this "minimize" button)

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martin
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Prague, Czechia

mll wrote:

Well, I did see this ticket, but it seemed to have fallen into oblivion. :)
I hope it makes it to WinSCP 5.2 (I know, too late for you anyway).

mll wrote:

- encryption of stored passwords
Do you mean master password?

- more reliable for big transfers
Does FileZilla drop big transfers or what is the problem?

Two thing from Filezilla that I'll regret :
- easy file queue management
What do you miss in WinSCP specifically?

- tabbed sessions
WinSCP has tabbed sessions.
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/ui_tabs

- WinSCP's strange GUI while transferring (this modal window with this "minimize" button)
You can make WinSCP use queue for all transfers, just like FileZilla:
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/ui_pref_background

Let me know if that helps.

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martin wrote:

mll wrote:

- encryption of stored passwords
Do you mean master password?
Yes, I was uncomfortable with my passwords kept in clear text by FZ. I'm now using WinSCP with a good master password

- more reliable for big transfers
Does FileZilla drop big transfers or what is the problem?
Yeah, it sometimes is clunky. When I upload lots of small files, or one big file (mostly on the FTP protocol), my experience is to have less problems with WinSCP.

- WinSCP's strange GUI while transferring (this modal window with this "minimize" button)
You can make WinSCP use queue for all transfers, just like FileZilla:
https://winscp.net/eng/docs/ui_pref_background

Let me know if that helps.
Uh oh... I just realized I've been using a quite outdated version of WinSCP (4.3.8). I'll try the latest version which, as your links tend to show, should make me happy.

Thanks a lot for your input.

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Wes
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Hi there,

I'd like to echo mll's post, import from Filezilla would make moving over a lot smoother of a process. In lack of an import tool I'd just like to be able to set "FTP" and "do save password" as defaults, as I have to change them for each site I add. And I have about 200 to copy from Filezilla... Might be worth just writing a quick conversion tool to convert the .xml to your .ini format, but the passwords would be an issue.

Encrypted passwords is the biggest reason I'll be moving over though, so it's hard to complain about that.

Anyway, just adding my vote for the import feature.

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Wes
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Okay, I wrote a quick Python script to convert FileZilla's .xml file to WinSCP's .ini file format.
# Author: Wes Cook
# Date: January 18, 2013
# Note: Convert Filezilla .xml file to WinSCP .ini format.  Include sitemanager.xml in directory with script.
 
 
# Main Program
def main():
   # XML junk
   import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
   tree = ET.parse('sitemanager.xml')
   root = tree.getroot()
   group = 0
   output = ""
 
   # Loop through all entries
   for groupChild in root[0]# Group
      for siteChild in root[0][group]# Single entry
         host = siteChild.find('Host').text
         port = siteChild.find('Port').text
         user = siteChild.find('User').text
         #pasw = siteChild.find('Pass').text  # Not working, have to encrypt it somehow
         name = siteChild.find('Name').text
 
         # Build data
         output += "[Sessions\\" + name + "]\n"
         output += "HostName=" + host + "\n"
         output += "PortNumber=" + port + "\n"
         output += "UserName=" + user + "\n"
         output += "Password=*****\n"
         output += "FSProtocol=5\n"
         output += "RemoteDirectory=/\n\n"
      group += 1
 
      # Write to file / Output
      open('output.ini', 'w').write(output)
      print(output)
 
# Boilerplate Code
if __name__ == '__main__':
   main()
It just spits out a file called output.ini and you can copy the text to your WinSCP config file. I didn't want to get into parsing of the ini file but I think this will do.

The passwords don't copy over because they're encrypted. For now I'm just assigning some asterisks, that way when you try connecting and it fails it will ask for the real password and offer to save it. Anyway, hope that helps anybody else looking to move from FileZilla to WinSCP.

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Otzi
Guest

Re: Sites import from Filezilla was implemented in 5.2 beta

@Petr: I just downloaded installation 5.2.0 build 3157 but Tools > Import sites is disabled!?! Am I doing something wrong?

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martin
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Re: Sites import from Filezilla was implemented in 5.2 beta

@Otzi: It's disabled when there are neither PuTTY nor FileZilla sessions available for import.
Where do you want to import your sessions from?

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Otzi
Guest

Import was obviously disabled because all my sites in FileZilla are inside subfolders. After moving them to root Import in WinSCP was enabled.
But disapointed, imported were only server names. For username are imported "anonymous" although I have in FileZilla "Logon type" set to "Normal" with saved usernames and passwords. Passwords also seems to be "anonymous".

I use latest FileZilla 3.6.0.2, where export of sites is possible to .xml with plain text passwords.

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