wp-eXtplorer the file and FTP management extension for Wordpress, is finally out!

 

For a few months, Kulendra.Net had an ongoing project that aimed at delivering a file and an FTP manager for Wordpress. Coming from a Joomla background, our natural take was to see if we can port the eXtplorer (by Soeren) into Wordpress. Well, we are happy to say that we were successful.

 

Porting eXtplorer wasn't easy. eXtplorer was an extension that was supposed to run as a standalone file manager or an extension for Joomla. However, porting it directly into Wordpress raises a large number of function name conflicts with existing function names in Wordpress. Since namespace concept exists only from PHP 5.3.0 onwards and since we wanted this extension to function in as many systems as we can, we resorted to a different option, install eXtplorer on it's stand alone version and load eXtplorer inside Wordpress using an iframe. But then you start getting the problems with regards to security. Having a standalone installation that gives access to the file systemobviously raises security concerns and requires a tight user control policy, and our answer to that: Wordpress' own user management system.

After spending quite some time on deciphering Wordpress' and eXtplorer's password encryption systems and trying to making them compatible with each other, we finally managed to ensure that no user who is not configured in Wordpress cannot access the file system, and what's better, even if you try to access it from Wordpress, there is a separate login that prevents you from accidentally invoking the extension.

So check it out, let us know what you think. You can download it from http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-extplorer/ or the wp-eXtplorer Project Homepage

Update:

• wp-eXtplorer reached 100 downloads by today, 30th July 2010, 18 days after being released on this site and a mere 7 days after it being released at Wordpress plugin directory.
• 16th Aug 2010: wp-eXtplorer reaches 200 downloads.
• 03rd Sep 2010: wp-eXtplorer reaches 300 downloads.
• 18th Sep 2010: wp-eXtplorer reaches 400 downloads.
• 26th Sep 2010: wp-eXtplorer reaches 500 downloads. If you too have downloaded wp-eXtplorer, we sure would like to hear more from you!