(Powershell) Loop to delete files from an FTP Location - powershell

Question

Good morning!
I have made it to the last (and rather pivotal) stage in my script, which is looping to delete files from a directory. I'm not going to pretend I'm knowledgeable at Powershell (far from it), so I'm sort-of chopping up blocks of code I find on the net, improvising and hoping it works.
I'm hoping someone can decipher what I'm trying to do here and see what I'm doing wrong!
# Clear FTP Directory
$DelLoop=1
$server = "www.newsbase.com"
$dir = "/usr/local/tomcat/webapps/newsbasearchive/monitors/asiaelec/"
"open $server
user Canttell Youthis
binary
cd $dir
" +(
For ($DelLoop=1; $DelLoop -le 5; 5)
{
$FileList[$DelLoop] | %{ "delete ""$_""`n" }
$DelLoop++
})| ftp -i -in
I know that the 'Open Connection' portion works, it's just the loop. It just keeps complaining about misplaced operators, and when I fix those, it doesn't throw up any errors - but it doesn't do anything either.
I spent the best part of 4 hours researching this yesterday, and I'm hoping one of you guys can help me.
Thanks in advance!
ADDENDUM:
Here is more of the code, as requested:
# Clear existing .htm file to avoid duplication
Get-ChildItem -path ".\" -recurse -include index.jsp | ForEach-Object {
Clear-Content "index.jsp"
}
# Set first part of .JSP Body
$HTMLPart1="</br><tr><td colspan=9 align=center><p style=""font-family:Arial"">Here are the links to the last 3 AsiaElec PDFs:</br><ul>"
# Recurse through directory, looking for 3 most recent .PDF files 3 times
$Directory="C:\PDFs"
$HTMLLinePrefix="<li><a style=""font-family:Arial""href="""
$HTMLLineSuffix="</a></li>"
$HTMLLine=#(1,2,3,4)
$Loop=1
$PDF=#(1,2,3,4)
Get-ChildItem -path $Directory -recurse -include *.pdf | sort-object -Property LastWriteTime -Descending | select-object -First 3 | ForEach-Object {
$PDF[$Loop]=$_.name
$HTMLLine[$Loop]=$HTMLLinePrefix + $_.name + """>" + $_.name + $HTMLLineSuffix
$Loop++
}
# Final .JSP File Assembly
Get-Content "header.html" >> "index.jsp"
$HTMLPart1 >> "index.jsp"
$LineParse=""
$Loop2=1
For ($Loop2=1; $Loop2 -le 3; 3)
{
$HTMLLine[$Loop2] >> "index.jsp"
$Loop2++
}
Get-Content "tail.html" >> "index.jsp"
# Prepare File List
$FileList=#(1,2,3,4,5)
$FileList[2]=$PDF[2]
$FileList[3]=$PDF[3]
$FileList[4]="index.jsp"
# Clear FTP Directory
$DelLoop=1
$server = "www.newsbase.com"
$dir = "/usr/local/tomcat/webapps/newsbasearchive/monitors/asiaelec/"
"open $server
user derek bland1ne
binary
cd $dir
" +(
For ($DelLoop=1; $DelLoop -le 5; 5)
{
$FileList[$DelLoop] | %{ "delete ""$_""`n" }
$DelLoop++
})| ftp -i -in
This isn't all of it, but I believe it contains all the relevant info.

Answer 1

Your $dir path looks like you're on a unix system so this may be a little different, but all you need to do is change your final loop a little bit:
For ($DelLoop=1; $DelLoop -le 5; $DelLoop++)
{
$FileList[$DelLoop] | % { rm $FileList[$DelLoop] }
}
This is assuming that $FileList contains the files you want to delete and not only (what I'm guessing are dummy) numbers. I also suggest that you download the Module that #Graimer mentions and then put it in WindowsPowerShell > Modules > %ModuleFolder% > %Module.psm1% and import it from your profile.
You can then just use PS> Remove-FTPItem -Path "/myFolder" -Recurse to remove your FTP stuff. Making your life easier.
Tweaking the solution to this post may also help Upload files with FTP using PowerShell
e.g:
Using $ftp.Method = [System.Net.WebRequestMethods+Ftp]::DeleteFile to delete the file,
and $response = $ftp.GetResponse() to find out if things went smoothly.
EDIT
Wrote this function after doing a little bit of research from here http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/netfxnetcom/thread/17a3abbc-6144-433b-aadd-1f776c042bd5 and adapting the code from the Accepted Answer in the above link as well as the module #Graimer talked about.
function deleteFTPSide
{
Param(
[String] $ftpUserName = "muUserName",
[String] $ftpDomain = "ftp.place.com", # Normal domains begin with "ftp" here
[String] $ftpPassword = "myPassword",
[String] $ftpPort = 21, # Leave as the default FTP port
[String] $fileToDelete = "folder.domain.com/subfolder/file.txt"
)
# Create the direct path to the file you want to delete
[String] $ftpPath = "ftp://"+"$ftpUserName"+":"+"$ftpPassword#$ftpDomain"+":"+"$ftpPort/$fileToDelete"
# create the FtpWebRequest and configure it
$ftp = [System.Net.FtpWebRequest]::Create($ftpPath)
$ftp.Method = [System.Net.WebRequestMethods+Ftp]::DeleteFile
$ftp.Credentials = new-object System.Net.NetworkCredential($ftpUserName,$ftpPassword)
$ftp.UseBinary = $true
$ftp.UsePassive = $true
$response = [System.Net.FtpWebResponse]$ftp.GetResponse()
$response.Close()
}
While, admittedly, not one of the most elegant solutions written, I've tested it and it works at deleting a specified file off an FTP server.