KBear - App of the Month
We also have an interview with the developer of KBear, Björn Sahlström.
Description of KBear by Rik van Achterberg
KBear is a graphical FTP client for KDE.
KBear is not provided as part of the KDE packages, you need to download if from The KBear website.
KBear makes it possible to connect with several servers at the same time. You can easily transfer files between servers and your computer that way.
If you start KBear for the first time, it will start the Wizard. Most of the default settings will be fine and you do not have to change them. You can change the settings later if you want.
KBear supports several protocols. By default it supports FTP and SFTP (FTP over SSH), but KBear can also use the existing KIOslaves and use for example Fish or SMB (Windows network protocol), if those are present on the computer.
To start a new connection, click on FTP, Fast Connection (CTRL+N). You can also click on the second button on the main toolbar.
At Hostname, you fill in the hostname or the IP-adress of the server.
The Port probably does not need to be changed from the default. If you have chosen FTP as the protocol port 21 will be used. This is the standard FTP port.
At Username and Password you fill in your personal information. If you want to connect with a server that does not need authorisation you should tick Anonymous login.
At Default directory you can specify the directory that KBear should navigate to once the connection has been made.
If you tick Save to SiteManager the data you just filled in will be saved to the SiteManager of KBear. In other words: it makes a bookmark of it. We will talk about the SiteManager later.
Click Connect to make a connection.
When you click on the SiteManager menu you will see the site Unnamed. This is the site you just saved to the SiteManager.
Now you can transfer files from your computer to the server. You can do this by dragging the files or directories to the other window. Now you can choose between Copy or Move. You can also drag files from other applications, like Konqueror, to KBear.
You can follow the progress at the bottom of the window.
Tip: You can cancel the task by right-clicking on the upper rule and choosing Cancel.
You can open as many connections as you want. This makes transferring files between several servers easy.
The KBear SiteManager
KBear's SiteManager is a collection of FTP connections. Several sites are already stored in the SiteManager by default, but you can also add your own bookmarks.
The SiteManager is a part of KBear, but can also be integrated into Konqueror. You can do this by ticking As Konqueror plugin. After that, you will have a SiteManager option in every Konqueror window. This SiteManager is the same as the SiteManager in KBear. Using this plugin, you can easily open FTP sites in Konqueror.
Tip: By default, KBear places an icon in your system tray. This icon could be in your way, and does not work very well on all computers. To remove this icon untick Show icon in system tray for database daemon.
At the left side of the window, you see the groups. You can classify your bookmarks into groups. This could be handy if you have a lot of bookmarks. To add a new group, click on the New Group button.
You can move your existing groups and bookmarks by dragging them to their destination.
The KBear Firewall options
KBear has arrangement for a few firewall settings. If you are behind a firewall, you can setup KBear so you can FTP anyway (these settings only apply to the FTP protocol).
Please note: If you are not behind a firewall, be sure you set Firewall Type as No Firewall.
Synchronising
KBear contains a very useful synchronisation tool. Using this, you can for example synchronise a directory on your computer with a directory on your server. That way, both directories will get the same contents, where the newest files will be kept.
Select the directory to synchronise on the server and click on top of KBear on Synchronise, Synchronise current directory. Now you can choose the directory on your computer that should be synchronised.
When the synchonisation tool is opened (this may take a while) you can see that it consists of two parts. The left part shows the files on the local computer. The right part shows the files on the server. Some files may have different colours. Red files are files that exist on both locations, but are different. Green files are files that exist on your computer, but not on the server. Blue files are files that are on the server, but not on your computer.
You can change these colours in the configuration of the synchronisation tool.
Between the two directory trees are four buttons. With the upper two buttons you can run a complete synchronisation. The first button updates the directory on the server, with the local directory as reference. The second button updates the directory on your computer, with the directory on the server as reference.
The two buttons at the bottom can only be used if you have selected a file. The right arrow updates a file on the server, and the left arrow updates a file on your computer.
Pay attention with synchronising! You could accidentally delete files if you do something wrong. So be careful and make backups if necessary.
If you have opened the synchonisation tool you can set it up by choosing Settings -> Configure synchronisation....
With the option Time Difference, you can set up the time difference between your computer and the server. For example, if the server's time is 14:20, and your computer's time 12:20, you should set the difference to +2. This prevents errors while synchonising.
We also have an interview with the developer of KBear, Björn Sahlström.
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