Deployment: Connection Tab

Use this tab to choose the way to access the Web server and specify the connection settings. The set of controls depends on the chosen server access type.

Common settings for all server types

Item	Description
Visible only for this project	Use this checkbox to enable reuse of this server access configuration or server group in other projects. Select the checkbox to restrict the use of the configuration or server group to the current project. Such configuration or server group cannot be reused outside the current project. It does not appear in the list of available configurations in other projects. The server configuration settings are stored in the .idea directory together with the project, which allows sharing them between team members through a VCS. In the list of server access configurations in the left-hand pane, the configurations visible only in the current project are marked with the icon. When the checkbox is cleared, the configuration or server group is visible in all WebStorm projects. Its settings can be reused across several projects. For more information about setting up interpreters, refer to Node.js via SSH.
Type	In this list, choose the way to access the server. The available options are: FTP: choose this option to have WebStorm access the server via the FTP file transfer protocol. SFTP: choose this option to have WebStorm access the server via the SFTP file transfer protocol. FTPS: choose this option to have WebStorm access the server via the FTP file transfer protocol over SSL (the FTPS extension). WebDAV: choose this option to have WebStorm access the server via the WebDAV file transfer protocol (the WebDAV extension).
Web server URL	In this field, specify the URL address that corresponds to the server document directory as specified in the server configuration file. Click in the field to make sure the specified server root URL address is accessible and points at the correct web page. Both HTTP and HTTPS are supported.

Item

Description

Visible only for this project

Use this checkbox to enable reuse of this server access configuration or server group in other projects.

Select the checkbox to restrict the use of the configuration or server group to the current project. Such configuration or server group cannot be reused outside the current project. It does not appear in the list of available configurations in other projects.
The server configuration settings are stored in the .idea directory together with the project, which allows sharing them between team members through a VCS.
In the list of server access configurations in the left-hand pane, the configurations visible only in the current project are marked with the icon.
When the checkbox is cleared, the configuration or server group is visible in all WebStorm projects. Its settings can be reused across several projects.

For more information about setting up interpreters, refer to Node.js via SSH.

Type

In this list, choose the way to access the server. The available options are:

FTP: choose this option to have WebStorm access the server via the FTP file transfer protocol.
SFTP: choose this option to have WebStorm access the server via the SFTP file transfer protocol.
FTPS: choose this option to have WebStorm access the server via the FTP file transfer protocol over SSL (the FTPS extension).
WebDAV: choose this option to have WebStorm access the server via the WebDAV file transfer protocol (the WebDAV extension).

Web server URL

In this field, specify the URL address that corresponds to the server document directory as specified in the server configuration file. Click in the field to make sure the specified server root URL address is accessible and points at the correct web page.

Both HTTP and HTTPS are supported.

FTP and FTPS settings

Item	Description
Host	In this field, specify the host name of the server to upload the files to.
Port	In this field, specify the port to use. The default value is 21.
Root path	In this field, specify the folder used as the remote directory root for browsing the remote file system and setting the server path mappings and excluded paths. Do one of the following: Accept the default `/` path, which points at the root folder on the server. Type the path manually or click and select the desired folder in the Choose Root Path dialog that opens. Click Autodetect. WebStorm detects the user home folder settings on the FTP/SFTP server and sets up the root path according to them. The button is only enabled when you have specified your credentials.
Autodetect	Click this button to have WebStorm detect the user home folder settings on the server and set up the root path accordingly.
User name	In this field, type your username for authentication to the server.
Password	In this field, type your password for authentication to the server.
Login as anonymous	Select this checkbox to enable anonymous access to the server with your email address as password.
Save password	Select this checkbox to have WebStorm remember the specified password.
Test Connection	Click this button to check that the specified settings ensure successful connection. The button is only enabled when you have specified your user credentials.

FTP and FTPS advanced settings

In the Advanced area, customize upload/download by specifying additional protocol-specific options for the FTP/FTPS server configurations.

Item	Description	Available for
TLS	Choose the method to invoke client security: Explicit: the explicit (active) security is applied. Immediately after establishing connection, the FTP client on your machine sends a command to the server to establish secure control connection through the default FTP port. Implicit: the implicit (passive) security is applied. In this case, security is provided automatically upon establishing connection to the server which appoints a separate port for secure connections. Note that the Implicit method is considered deprecated, and using it is discouraged.	FTPS
Data channel protection level	From this list, set the protection level for the PROT command: <default>: the default server policy is applied. Clear: raw data is transferred without applying security. Private: the Transport Layer Security (TLS) or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) applied. For more information, refer to the articles on TLS, SSL 2.0, and SSL 3.0.	FTPS
Reuse SSL session	Select this checkbox to connect to a server that requires SSL session reuse between the control and data connections.	FTPS
Disable TLS 1.3	Select to disable TLS 1.3 features and have WebStorm fall back to connecting via TLS 1.2. Use this option if you experience issues with establishing a connection to a server or uploading certain files. WebStorm supports connecting to servers via TLS 1.2 and later. Using TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1 is not supported, since these protocols are deprecated and considered insecure.	FTPS
Passive mode	Select this checkbox to set the client on your machine to passive mode, when it connects to the server to inform about being in the passive mode, receives the port number to listen to, and established data connection through the port with the received number. This mode is helpful when your machine is behind a firewall.	FTP, FTPS
Show and process hidden files	When this checkbox is selected: Hidden files and directories are shown in the Remote Host Tool Window. Hidden files and directories are involved in diff and synchronization operations. The name of a hidden file or directory starts with a dot ..	FTP, FTPS
Use LIST command	Use the options in this area to configure the LIST command usage. Compatible with old version of listing children: Select this checkbox to ensure compatibility in child file naming with your FTP server. This option is helpful if the remote FTP server reports the following error: Invalid descendant file name <file name> Selecting this option may slow down synchronization with the server. Instead of MLSD: Select this checkbox to use the standard `LIST` command for listing instead of the `MLSD` command. This lets you avoid problems, for example, failure during upload with the Invalid descendent file name exception if the FTP server supports `MLSD` and returns `cdir`.	FTP, FTPS
Number of connections	In this field, specify the maximum number of connections to be supported simultaneously.	FTP, FTPS
Send keep alive messages each	In this field, specify how often you want WebStorm to send commands to the server to reset the timeout and thus preserve the connection.	FTP, FTPS
Keep alive command	From this list, choose the commands to be sent to the server to reset the timeout and thus preserve the connection.	FTP, FTPS
Encoding for client-server communication	In this field, specify the encoding that matches the encoding used by your server. Accept the default value if you are not sure that it supports UTF-8 encoding.	FTP, FTPS

SFTP settings

Item	Description
SSH configuration	From this list, choose one of the created SSH configurations from the list, or click and create a new configuration as described in Create SSH configurations.
Test Connection	Click this button to check that the specified settings ensure successful connection. The button is only enabled when you have specified your user credentials.
Root path	In this field, specify the folder used as the remote directory root for browsing the remote file system and setting the server path mappings and excluded paths. Do one of the following: Accept the default `/` path, which points at the root folder on the server. Type the path manually or click and select the desired folder in the Choose Root Path dialog that opens. Click Autodetect. WebStorm detects the user home folder settings on the FTP/SFTP server and sets up the root path according to them. The button is only enabled when you have specified your credentials.
Use Rsync for download / upload / sync	Select this checkbox to use Rsync to synchronize your deployment configuration. Rsync is used for download and upload (including auto-upload) of files and synchronization between the deployed files and folders and their local versions. Deletion and navigation by files on a remote host is still done via SFTP.
Rsync Settings	Click this link to configure Rsync settings in the dialog that opens: Provide the paths to the `rsync` and `ssh` executables. On macOS and Linux, the `rsync` and `ssh` tools are preinstalled and their paths are filled automatically. On Windows, you need to manually install Cygwin with the `rsync` and `openssh` packages first. The tools' executables are commonly located in the <Cygwin installation>\bin folder. If necessary, override the Rsync command-line parameters in the Rsync options field. By default, the `-zar` options are used, so that Rsync will compress the transferred data (`z`), preserve permissions, ownership, and timestamps of transferred files and folders (`a`), and recurse into subdirectories (`r`). For the complete list of available options, refer to the Rsync documentation.

SFTP advanced settings

In the Advanced area, customize upload/download by specifying additional protocol-specific options for the SFTP server configurations.

Item	Description
Number of connections	In this field, specify the maximum number of connections to be supported simultaneously.
Send keep alive messages each	In this field, specify how often you want WebStorm to send commands to the server to reset the timeout and thus preserve the connection. For SFTP, this option is disabled. You can configure the keep alive interval for SFTP in the SSH Configurations settings.
Encoding for client-server communication	In this field, specify the encoding that matches the encoding used by your server. Accept the default value if you are not sure that it supports UTF-8 encoding.

WebDAV settings

Item	Description
Host	In this field, specify the host name of the server to upload the files to.
Port	In this field, specify the port to use. The default value is 6180.
User name	In this field, type your username for authentication to the server.
Password	In this field, type your password for authentication to the server.
Login as anonymous	Select this checkbox to enable anonymous access to the server.
Save password	Select this checkbox to have WebStorm remember the specified password.
Test Connection	Click this button to check that the specified settings ensure successful connection.

Local or mounted folder settings

Item	Description
Folder	In this field, specify the absolute path to the server document root as defined in your server configuration file. Besides the document root itself, any other existing folder under the document root can also be specified. The document root is the folder from which the web server serves files to the web server URL. Examples: `/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/` for a MAMP package installed in the Applications folder for macOS or `C:\xampp\htdocs` for a XAMPP package installed in the root of the `C:\` drive on Windows (or `/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/deployment_demo` or `C:\xampp\htdocs\deployment_demo`, if you choose to establish a more complicated folder structure under the server document root and use only one of the subfolders in the current configuration). `/var/www/html` or `/usr/local/apache/htdocs` for a standalone locally installed Apache server.

Item

Description

Folder

In this field, specify the absolute path to the server document root as defined in your server configuration file. Besides the document root itself, any other existing folder under the document root can also be specified.

The document root is the folder from which the web server serves files to the web server URL.

Last modified: 11 October 2024