Streaming video from the Amazon CDN

The latest 3.4 release of Cyberduck now supports the configuration of Amazon CloudFront streaming distributions. A dropdown menu in the Info panel allows to choose between traditional basic HTTP distributions and the new RTMP streaming distributions supported.

Amazon Cloudfront Streaming Distribution

The help section will be edited with updated instructions soon altough the configuration should be straightforward. In the meantime refer to the official Amazon documentation on streaming distributions.

It probably has never been easier to distribute a video in the CDN for streaming with a click of a button.

Edit with your preferred application

Regardless of the file type, Cyberduck 3.4 allows to edit files with your preferred editor from the remote server. This allows to edit not only text files but images and other binary content as well with your preferred application directly from within Cyberduck.

Edit with any application

The Command-K shortcut and the edit toolbar button will always point to the application set as the default application in the Finder for a given file type. A default editor application can be choosen in the Preferences and set to override the default application that would be used when double clicking the file of a given type in the Finder.

Snow Leopard Compatibility Update

Update. Cyberduck 3.3 has been released.

The new cat will be let out of the bag next month earlier than anticipated. Cyberduck is getting ready. Lot of work has been put into Snow Leopard compatibility recently with a shift to Rococoa instead of the deprecated bindings used before. Thanks to Duncan McGregor and the Rococoa community for their work which serves as the new solid foundation for Cyberduck to build upon.

Please test the latest beta release to help make the transition as smooth as possible. Be sure to report any rough edges you may find.

The beta currently has the following limitations:

  • No MobileMe bookmark synchronization when running as 64bit application. Use the Finder Info panel to select Open in 32-bit mode for the Cyberduck.app application bundle if you need this feature.
  • No AppleScript support beside basic Open URL events from third party applications like web browsers.
  • No Dashboard Widget whatsoever as this uses the AppleScript interface.

The current beta requires an Intel processor and Mac OS X 10.5 or later. Progress is tracked in ticket #3039.

Latest S3 improvements for content distribution fine tuning

The latest 3.2.1 point release was a maintenance release but brought much better Amazon S3 integration for those serious about content delivery using the Amazon CloudFront infrastructure. For those who have skipped the release notes, a quick reminder of the new features that let you control and fine tune your distributions from within Cyberduck.

  • If you want to distribute content using BitTorrent, the Info window now displays the URL for the selected file.
  • Temporary publicly accessible URLs are displayed in the Info window also in the S3 section. This allows to give URLs to third parties to access content that is generally not accessible from anonymous users.
  • Access Logging can be configured for both S3 and CloudFront. Log files are stored under logs/ the S3 bucket
  • To control caching, a Cache-Control header can be configured for files. This allows you to minimize access costs for static content.

For more details, refer to the Cyberduck Wiki help section on S3.

Expect support for the Rackspace CloudFiles logging feature announced yesterday in an upcoming release.

Make those icons big

There are several user interface refinements in the latest update to Cyberduck 3. First, you may have noticed the prominent new Open Connection icon contributed by Dietmar Kerschner in the toolbar. Also, you can now choose to display 64 pixel sized icons in the bookmark viewer with larger font size. This configuration option makes the new bookmark icons designed by Robert Curtis shine.

Large bookmark icons

Also, there is a new hidden configuration option to adjust the font size in the browser window if you have readability problems with the default setting.

Donation Keys

There is another compelling reason to upgrade to the latest 3.2 release of Cyberduck besides the usual enhancements and bug fixes the update provides. As a contributor to Cyberduck you receive a donation key that disables the donation prompt which is displayed periodically when quitting the application. Enter Cyberduck Premium Edition sort of.

When contributing money using Paypal, a key is automatically emailed to you. Contributors of localizations, icon design or similar should request a donation key from me. Also if you sent me a DVD from Amazon please contact me as I do not receive your address from Amazon.

If you have donated previously to Cyberduck via Paypal and have not received a donation key, you can recover your key.

“Like an old Volkswagen Beatle”

The news and blog coverage of the 3.1 release of Cyberduck was broad and welcoming. Some excerpts here:

Cyberduck 3.1 Released

Version 3.1 has been released into the wild today! Read about all the new features and enhancements in the changelog.

Update: A bugfix release is available for a crashing bug affecting some users and restoring compatiblity with MobileMe iDisk and other WebDAV server implementations. Use the ‘Check for Update…’ feature in Cyberduck to automatically update your already installed version. If your 3.1 installation crashes immediately on launch, open Terminal.app from the Utilities folder in your Applications and paste the command exactly as below
defaults write ch.sudo.cyberduck connection.login.name myusername
This will set a default username that was previously empty and caused version 3.1 to crash. Relaunch Cyberduck and install the automatic update.