[plug] Slippery, secure file transfers

[Bernd Felsche]

Russell Steicke <r.steicke at bom.gov.au> writes:
>On Wed, Feb 08, 2006 at 04:56:25PM +0800, Bernd Felsche wrote:
>> I ran into a problem with a cantankerous FTP server and
>> equally-adept "support" staff of a business partner for one of my
>> customers.

>> Their FTP server doesn't work properly... "it works for everybody
>> else" - the "everybody else" is actually that unwashed population
>> using THEIR proprietary FTP windows client software to MANUALLY
>> transfer EDI documents.

>> So I gave up and tried to ssh into their server.... Bingo!

>> Now all I need to do is to get Python speaking ssh.

>If you want to drive sftp, perhaps expect would be a better tool
>than python and libraries.  I've used it to drive telnet mostly,
>but it's pretty darned good at it.

Check python-expect.

>The only thing I didn't like about expect was having to learn tcl, but
>only a minimal subset.

I vaguely remember tcl... from about a decade ago. :-)

The reason for choosing Python in the first place was because it'll
talk other protocols, thanks to all sort of nice network modules.
Handling all EDI methods within a common module means that when they
change their minds, the end users only have to change the
application configuration as per their ERP database and comfy
front-end... and it'll just work.

Having the EDI integrated into the main business application means
that all those islands of Windows "dependence" disappear; which is
easy to justify when you look at the hours spent daily in manual EDI
handling. Even the ubiquitous hired monkeys are more expensive then
robust integration.

Industry as a whole doesn't see the irony in manual EDI.

And a few companies out there are exploiting ignorance but providing
data clearing houses... which apply pretty questionable stylesheets
to stuff sent to them before automatically forwarding.  For "just a
few cents per document".

That may have been easy to justify with expensive dialup networks
but nowadays?
-- 
/"\ Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth, Western Australia
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