Edit through FTP with TextMate and Cyberduck

Posted: 03/28/2009

I do a bit of freelance php work where I need to edit files through FTP. Textmate does not support this very well out of the box, and at first it seemed like I would have to open and edit each file in its own window. But by combining this tip by subtlegradient with this tip by ciaranwal.sh we can use tabbed editing, project drawer, and cmd+t to switch files. The steps:

1. In Cyberduck’s preferences make sure external editor is set to TextMate. Also, it helps if “Double click opens file in external editor” is set to true.

2. Open up a file from your FTP project that is close to the top level directory of your project, you’ll see why in a minute.

3. In the TextMate window that popped up, hit ctrl+shift+o (Bundles > Shell Script > Open Terminal). The terminal will open at the temporary location where the file you are editing is.

4. cd .. back to the top level directory of your project and enter: mate .

Now any subsequent files you open using Cyberduck will be added as tabs in the current TextMate project.