Automate deploying websites and more with this GitHub action. It's free!

Usage Example

Place the following in /.github/workflows/main.yml

yml
on: push
name: 🚀 Deploy website on push
jobs:
  web-deploy:
    name: 🎉 Deploy
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: 🚚 Get latest code
      uses: actions/checkout@v6
    
    - name: 📂 Sync files
      uses: SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action@v4.4.0
      with:
        server: ftp.samkirkland.com
        username: myFtpUserName
        password: ${{ secrets.ftp_password }}

Requirements

You must have ftp access to your server. If your host allows or requires ssh please use my web-deploy action
Some web hosts change the default port (21), check with your host for your port number

Setup Steps

Select the repository you want to add the action to
Select the Actions tab
Select Blank workflow file or Set up a workflow yourself, if you don't see these options manually create a yaml file Your_Project/.github/workflows/main.yml
Paste the example above into your yaml file and save
Now you need to add a key to the secrets section in your project. To add a secret go to the Settings tab in your project then select Secrets. Add a new Secret for password
Update your yaml file settings
If you appreciate this github action give it a :star: or show off with one of the badges below.

Settings

Keys can be added directly to your .yml config file or referenced from your project Secrets storage.

To add a secret go to the Settings tab in your project then select Secrets.
I strongly recommend you store your password as a secret.

Key Name	Required	Example	Default Value	Description
`server`	Yes	`ftp.samkirkland.com`		Deployment destination server
`username`	Yes	`username@samkirkland.com`		FTP user name
`password`	Yes	`CrazyUniquePassword&%123`		FTP password, be sure to escape quotes and spaces
`port`	No	`990`	`21`	Server port to connect to (read your web hosts docs)
`protocol`	No	`ftps`	`ftp`	`ftp`: provides no encryption, `ftps`: full encryption newest standard (aka "explicit" ftps), `ftps-legacy`: full encryption legacy standard (aka "implicit" ftps)
`local-dir`	No	`./myFolderToPublish/`	`./`	Folder to upload from, must end with trailing slash `/`
`server-dir`	No	`public_html/www/`	`./`	Folder to upload to (on the server), must end with trailing slash `/`
`state-name`	No	`folder/.sync-state.json`	`.ftp-deploy-sync-state.json`	Path and name of the state file - this file is used to track which files have been deployed
`dry-run`	No	`true`	`false`	Prints which modifications will be made with current config options, but doesn't actually make any changes
`dangerous-clean-slate`	No	`true`	`false`	Deletes ALL contents of server-dir, even items in excluded with 'exclude' argument
`exclude`	No	See Example	See Example	An array of glob patterns, these files will not be included in the publish/delete process. List MUST be in this format. You can use a glob tester to test your pattern(s).
`log-level`	No	`minimal`	`standard`	`minimal`: only important info, `standard`: important info and basic file changes, `verbose`: print everything the script is doing
`security`	No	`strict`	`loose`	`strict`: Reject any connection which is not authorized with the list of supplied CAs. `loose`: Allow connection even when the domain is not certificate
`timeout`	No	`60000`	`30000`	Timeout in milliseconds for FTP operations

Common Examples

Build and Publish React/Angular/Vue Website

Make sure you have an npm script named 'build'. This config should work for most node built websites.

yml
on: push
name: 🚀 Deploy website on push
jobs:
  web-deploy:
    name: 🎉 Deploy
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: 🚚 Get latest code
      uses: actions/checkout@v6

    - name: Use Node.js 16
      uses: actions/setup-node@v2
      with:
        node-version: '16'
      
    - name: 🔨 Build Project
      run: |
        npm install
        npm run build
    
    - name: 📂 Sync files
      uses: SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action@v4.4.0
      with:
        server: ftp.samkirkland.com
        username: myFtpUserName
        password: ${{ secrets.password }}

FTPS

yml
on: push
name: 🚀 Deploy website on push
jobs:
  web-deploy:
    name: 🎉 Deploy
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: 🚚 Get latest code
      uses: actions/checkout@v6

    - name: 📂 Sync files
      uses: SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action@v4.4.0
      with:
        server: ftp.samkirkland.com
        username: myFtpUserName
        password: ${{ secrets.password }}
        protocol: ftps
        port: 1234 # todo replace with your web hosts ftps port

Log only dry run: Use this option for testing

Ouputs a list of files that will be created/modified to sync your source without making any actual changes

yml
on: push
name: 🚀 Deploy website on push
jobs:
  web-deploy:
    name: 🎉 Deploy
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: 🚚 Get latest code
      uses: actions/checkout@v6

    - name: 📂 Sync files
      uses: SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action@v4.4.0
      with:
        server: ftp.samkirkland.com
        username: myFtpUserName
        password: ${{ secrets.password }}
        dry-run: true

Exclude files

Excludes files

yml
on: push
name: 🚀 Deploy website on push
jobs:
  web-deploy:
    name: 🎉 Deploy
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: 🚚 Get latest code
      uses: actions/checkout@v6

    - name: 📂 Sync files
      uses: SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action@v4.4.0
      with:
        server: ftp.samkirkland.com
        username: myFtpUserName
        password: ${{ secrets.password }}
        exclude: |
          **/.git*
          **/.git*/**
          **/node_modules/**
          fileToExclude.txt

exclude has the following default value

yml
exclude: |
  **/.git*
  **/.git*/**
  **/node_modules/**

if you overwrite the default value you will probably want to respecify them

Want another example? Let me know by creating a github issue

Badge

If you appreciate this github action give it a :star: or show off with one of the badges below. Feel free to edit the text or color.

md
[<img alt="Deployed with FTP Deploy Action" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Deployed With-FTP DEPLOY ACTION-%3CCOLOR%3E?style=for-the-badge&color=0077b6">](https://github.com/SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action)

md
[<img alt="Deployed with FTP Deploy Action" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Deployed With-FTP DEPLOY ACTION-%3CCOLOR%3E?style=for-the-badge&color=2b9348">](https://github.com/SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action)

md
[<img alt="Deployed with FTP Deploy Action" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Deployed With-FTP DEPLOY ACTION-%3CCOLOR%3E?style=for-the-badge&color=d00000">](https://github.com/SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action)

md
[<img alt="Website Deployed for Free with FTP Deploy Action" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Website deployed for free with-FTP DEPLOY ACTION-%3CCOLOR%3E?style=for-the-badge&color=297FA9">](https://github.com/SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action)

md
[<img alt="Website Deployed for Free with FTP Deploy Action" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Website deployed for free with-FTP DEPLOY ACTION-%3CCOLOR%3E?style=for-the-badge&color=2b9348">](https://github.com/SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action)

md
[<img alt="Website Deployed for Free with FTP Deploy Action" src="https://img.shields.io/badge/Website deployed for free with-FTP DEPLOY ACTION-%3CCOLOR%3E?style=for-the-badge&color=d00000">](https://github.com/SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action)

FAQ

<details> <summary>How to exclude .git files from the publish</summary>

Git files are excluded by default! If you customize the exclude option make sure you re-add the default options.

</details> <details> <summary>How to exclude a specific file or folder</summary>

You can use the exclude option to ignore specific files/folders from the publish. Keep in mind you will need to re-add the default exclude options if you want to keep them. For example the below option excludes all .txt files.

yml
exclude:
 - *.txt

</details> <details> <summary>How do I set a upload timeout?</summary>

github has a built-in timeout-minutes option, see customized example below

yaml
on: push
name: Publish Website
jobs:
  web-deploy:
    name: web-deploy
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    timeout-minutes: 15 # time out after 15 minutes (default is 360 minutes)
    steps:
      ....

</details>

Debugging your config locally

This action is a basic wrapper around my @samkirkland/ftp-deploy npm package. To test your config you can install @samkirkland/ftp-deploy and then convert your config to a yml action. Settings are one-to-one, this action is only a wrapper.

Contributing to this project

To test this action locally you will need to setup docker and act to run a environment similar to the one github uses for actions.

Download/install docker for windows, make sure it is running
choco install act-cli install act
Install the npm package using npm install --dev-only @samkirkland/ftp-deploy
Update the deploy script in package.json with a actual server/username/password
You can run the script using the following command npm run deploy (run this in the folder that has the package.json file)