Issue a custom command to FTP server

In this article, we are going to show some examples that send FTP commands to a remote FTP server using the Ultimate FTP Component. Basically, the FTP protocol defines a set of standard commands which governs the communications between the client and the server.

The client sends a command, and the server returns a response either via the control channel or data channel (if a data connection is established). Behind the scenes, the Ultimate FTP library encapsulates and hides all these command-level details in order to expose high-level interfaces to the users. Therefore, we rarely need to send the raw FTP commands.

However, the Ultimate FTP still provides such functionality if needed, e.g., in cases of some FTP servers define their commands other than the standard ones.

Send Custom Command to FTP Server

Typically, the syntax for sending a FTP command from the client looks like this:

CommandName <argument_1> <argument_2>, …

For example, the following command creates a directory named “MyFolder”:

MKD MyFolder

If the operation succeeds, the server returns a response looks like this:

257 "/MyFolder" created successfully

Depending on the type of command, the server returns the response either via control channel or data channel (e.g., file transfer commands). For simplicity, this article only deals with the response sent through the control channel, which can be retrieved via ReadResponse() method of the Ftp class.

To send an FTP command, we can use the SendCommand() methods provided by the UltimateFTP.

For example, the following code snippet sends an MKD command to create a directory named “MyFolder”:

C#:

// Create a new class instance
using (Ftp client = new Ftp())
{
    // Connect to the FTP server
    client.Connect("myserver");

    // Authenticate
    client.Authenticate("user", "password");


    //Send Command      
    client.SendCommand(“MKD MyFolder”);

    //Printout the response
    FtpResponse res = client.ReadResponse();
    Console.WriteLine(res.RawResponse);

    // Disconnect
    client.Disconnect();
}

VB.NET:

' Create a new class instance.
Using client As New Ftp()

    ' Connect to the FTP server.
    client.Connect("myserver")

    ' Authenticate
    client.Authenticate("user", "password")


    ' Send Command
    client.SendCommand("MKD MyFolder")

    ' Printout the response
    Dim res As FtpResponse = client.ReadResponse()
    Console.WriteLine(res.RawResponse)

    ' Disconnect.
    client.Disconnect()
End Using

The above code produces the following output:

• If the folder created successfully:
  257 "/MyFolder" created successfully
• If the folder already exists then:
  550 Directory already exists

Validating Response for Custom Command Sent to Server

You can validate the response code received upon execution of command send to FTP Server. Following code shows how to verify the response.

C#:

// Create a new class instance
using (Ftp client = new Ftp())
{
    // Connect to the FTP server
    client.Connect("myserver");

    // Authenticate
    client.Authenticate("user", "password");


    //Send Command      
    client.SendCommand(“MKD MyFolder”);

    //Printout the response
    FtpResponse res = client.ReadResponse();
    if(res.Code != 257)
    Console.WriteLine(“Error in creating directory”);
    else
    Console.WriteLine(res.RawResponse);

    // Disconnect
    client.Disconnect();
}

VB.NET:

' Create a new class instance.
Using client As New Ftp()

    ' Connect to the FTP server.
    client.Connect("myserver")

    ' Authenticate
    client.Authenticate("user", "password")


    ' Send Command
    client.SendCommand("MKD MyFolder")

    ' Printout the response
    Dim res As FtpResponse = client.ReadResponse()
    If Not res.Code = 257
    Console.WriteLine(“Error in creating directory”)
    Else
        Console.WriteLine(res.RawResponse)

    ' Disconnect.
    client.Disconnect()
End Using

Note: Refer reference section for details about various return codes

References

RFC 959

List of FTP Commands

List of FTP Return Codes