Often, we need to collect data from our clients or send them files that just wouldn't work through e-mail. They may be too big, or it may be sensitive data that shouldn't be passed via e-mail. For this purpose, we've had an FTP server for some time now. Here's some information on the FTP server.

Every client has their own username and password, which are set up in advance by ATS staff. Each of these accounts has its own root or home directory that is inaccessible to any other account on the server. The user has full permissions to this folder, so you may add or delete files or folders at will. Only you and ATS can see anything in this folder. There are two static folders, that are read-only, and appear for every account. These are the /public and /resources folders. The /public folder contains product brochures, or any other information that is publicly available. The /resources folder contains iMIS patches, demos of ATS software, and other iMIS utilities, for the benefit of our clients.

How to Connect

Connection Type

The ATS FTP server allows three different types of connections:

Standard FTP Connections

Just connect to ftp.atsol.org (port 21) with the username and password you have been provided:

FTP over Implicit SSL (FTPS)

Change your FTP client's encryption mode to FTPS, and connect to ftp.atsol.org (port 990). You will be prompted to accept the certificate - once you have done this, you will be connected over SSL:

FTP over Explicit SSL (FTPES) [Recommended]

Change your FTP client's encryption mode to FTPES, and connect to ftp.atsol.org (port 21). You will be prompted to accept the certificate - once you have done this, you will be connected over SSL:

Software

We recommend the free FileZilla FTP Client software. The screenshots above all came from that software, so it is tested and confirmed to work properly with the server in any of the methods described above.

Troubleshooting

Error: Failed to retrieve directory listing

Check if you have passive transfers enabled. The ATS FTP server does not support Passive mode, so this must be turned off. Check your FTP client software's Help for information on how to change this setting.

Update, 2011-07-05: Passive transfers are properly configured now, so this information is outdated.

As always, please don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or comments!

Justin D. Trout
Development Team Lead
http://www.atsol.org/
 

It’s not about the hardware. It’s about the association industry trends that steered us there.

Yes, ATS just won the ASI Authorized iMIS Solutions Provider of the Year Award + the ASI iMIS Solutions Innovation Award for our Online Marketplace e-shopping cart application. Was it hard work and are we proud? We’d be lying if we said we weren’t.

But we’re also fortunate enough to have recognized the association industry trends that drove our hard work in the first place. Things are changing rapidly when it comes to the member user experience with association websites. And it’s important that we all recognize the rapid shift.

The fact is, member expectations when it comes to association websites are rising exponentially. Why? For the simple reason that members are also everyday web users and consumers. They experience amazing technology on a daily basis as they interact with world class websites like Amazon.com , Netflix, etc., etc. These sites recognize preferences. Make recommendations. Spur interactive user feedback and dialog. And make the whole shopper experience incredibly simple and easy.

So when your members then go to your association website, they naturally expect the same or similar. The sad fact: if they don’t get it, they are disappointed or worse (worse being that they may leave your site altogether, move over to Amazon to purchase that same book that they should have purchased from you).

Lehman & Associates recently did a survey of the non-profit industry. One of the top things association members identified being dissatisfied with also had the highest importance: association online stores. That was a major focus for us, and we have a solution to that. The key was to take the strategic investment Associations already have in iMIS and leverage the power of the application as a base component. From there, our Online Marketplace e-commerce tool builds on this base to bring a high impact shopping cart experience. Now associations can compete against other non-association entities with the same high caliber tools, bells and whistles. It’s all about competing for member dollars, and about taking associations to the next level with strong features and functionality.

This same lesson applies to other association website and back end functionality. Your members are expecting more and more. The key is to build on the strengths of iMIS with other mission critical functions and cool features. For example, on a critical application process, eliminating the need for multiple databases to work together. In the end associations are looking for solutions that help increase revenue, decrease expenses, and increase member satisfaction. The ATS solutions in the marketplace let associations do all three.

Association technology is going to have higher and higher expectations placed on it going forward because of the bar being set by the outside world. It is all of our roles to be nimble enough to take technology to the next level within the association realm.

We use Basecamp for our project management, and we often get asked how we like to have To-Do items entered. Often we find that people put the entire text of the bug or action item in what is intended to be the item title. They miss the ability to add comments - and thus, the ability to attach files, since files are attached to comments. We've put together a quick (one minute) demo on what we consider to be "best practice" for adding To Do items:

View Online Now! 640x480

Hope that helps!