Seeing who changed what with the site activity log in FTP by Zaweba

Two people editing one website will, sooner or later, ask the same question: who changed this? The page looked fine on Monday, now the header is different, and nobody remembers doing it. The optional site activity log in FTP by Zaweba is a simple answer. Each copy of the app that works on the site adds a line to a shared log after every upload, delete and rename.

What each line records

Each line holds the time, the action, the path, your chosen name, the PC name and the app version. Your name is the one you set in File, Options, so it is worth setting before you start; a log full of PC names is much harder to read than one with people's names.

Site, Site Activity shows the log, with a filter, so a long log can be narrowed down to the lines you care about, such as one file or one person's name.

Why it is opt-in

The log is a file in the site's root folder on the server. That is how every person's copy of the app can add to it and read it, wherever they work. But writing a file to someone's server is not something an FTP client should do on its own initiative, so the log is off until you turn it on for a site. If you are the only person who ever touches a site, you may not need it at all.

A guide, not an audit trail

It is important to be clear about what this log is. It keeps a limited number of the newest lines, so very old activity drops off. It only records what copies of FTP by Zaweba do; a change made through a hosting control panel, another FTP client or the website's own admin pages will not appear. And because it is an ordinary file, anyone with access to the server could change it. Treat it as a helpful record of everyday work, not as evidence.

Using it in a team

The best time to set it up is when a second person starts working on a site. Turn the log on in that site's settings, ask everyone to set their name in Options, and from then on Site Activity becomes the first place to look when something changes unexpectedly.

It pairs well with Get Recent from Server. Get Recent tells you which files changed on the server in the last hour, day or week, and the activity log tells you who uploaded them. Together they turn a catch-up at the start of the day into a quick read rather than a round of messages asking who did what.

When you find a change you want to understand, right-click the file and use Compare with Server Copy to see the changed lines, then decide whether to keep it, discuss it, or put back your version from the local history.

Things to keep in mind

The log lives in the site's root folder, so make sure that is somewhere sensible for a small text file. Exclusion patterns and protected paths have their own jobs and do not replace it, and it does not replace them either.

Remember that the log records what the app does, which is uploads, deletes and renames. Editing a file in the code editor writes a line only when that change is uploaded, whether by Put, Put Newer, Put Recent or Upload on Save. Your local edits stay your own business until they go to the server.

Small teams rarely need heavy tools. A shared, readable list of who changed what and when, written automatically as people work, answers most of the questions that come up, and it does so without anyone having to remember to write anything down.