WebDAV: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|HTTP Extension for collaborative editing}}

{{Multiple issues|

{{Primary sources|date=September 2020}}

{{External links|date=November 2024}}

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{{Infobox networking protocol

| name = WebDAV

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}}

'''WebDAV''' ('''Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning''') is a set of extensions to the [[Hypertext Transfer Protocol]] (HTTP), which allows [[user agent]]s to collaboratively author contents ''directly'' in an [[Web_serverWeb server|HTTP web server]] by providing facilities for [[concurrency control]] and [[Namespace|namespace operations]], thus allowing the [[World Wide Web|Web]] to be viewed as a ''writeable, collaborative medium'' and not just a read-only medium.{{sfn|Whitehead|Goland|1999|p=293}} WebDAV is defined in {{IETF RFC|4918}} by a [[working group]] of the [[Internet Engineering Task Force]] (IETF).{{sfn|Whitehead|1998|p=34}}

The WebDAV protocol provides a framework for users to create, change and move documents on a [[Server (computing)|server]]. The most important features include the maintenance of properties about an author or modification date, [[namespace]] management, collections, and overwrite protection. Maintenance of properties includes such things as the creation, removal, and querying of file information. Namespace management deals with the ability to copy and move web pages within a server's namespace. Collections deal with the creation, removal, and listing of various resources. Lastly, overwrite protection handles aspects related to the locking of files. It takes advantage of existing technologies such as [[Transport Layer Security]], [[digest access authentication]] or [[XML]] to satisfy those requirements.{{sfn|Whitehead|Goland|1999|p=294}}

Many{{which|date=August 2024}} modern [[operating system]]s provide built-in [[client-side]] support for WebDAV.{{whichcn|date=JulyAugust 20232024}}

== History ==

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=== Properties ===

The properties of WebDAV protocol are [[name–value pair]], in which a "name" is a [[Uniform Resource Identifier]] (URI) and the "values" are expressed through XML elements. Furthermore, the [[Hypertext_Transfer_ProtocolHypertext Transfer Protocol#Request_methodsRequest methods|methods]] to handle the properties are '''PROPFIND''' and '''PROPPATCH'''.{{sfn|Whitehead|Goland|1999|p=299}}

== Documents produced by the working group ==

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| {{Free|[[GNU Lesser General Public License|LGPL]]}}

| [[Command line interface|CLI]]

|-

! [https://github.com/phpbg/easysync/ EasySync]

| Samuel CHEMLA

| Android

| [[MIT License|MIT]]

| Service

|-

! [https://github.com/bitfireAT/davx5-ose DAVx⁵]

| BitfireAT

| Android

| {{Free|[[GNU General Public License|GPL]]}}

| Service

|-

! [https://www.lonelycatgames.com/apps/xplore X-plore]

| Lonely Cat Games

| Android

| {{Nonfree|Proprietary}}

| [[GUI]]

|-

! scope="row" | [[GVfs]]

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== Alternatives to WebDAV ==

* [[File Transfer Protocol]] (FTP), a simple and widely adopted network protocol based on [[Internet Protocol|IP]], allows users to transfer files between network hosts. [[FTPS]] extends FTP for secure traffic.

* [[SSH File Transfer Protocol]] (SFTP), an extension of the Secure Shell protocol (SSH) version 2.0, provides secure file-transfer capability ; and scp, a form of SFTP that runs as a single command similar to a regular cp (copy) command in the shell.

* [[Rsync]], a protocol and a command similar to scp, that can also skip rewriting identical files and portions of files, or skip newer files, etc.

* A [[distributed file system]] such as the [[Server Message Block]] (SMB) protocol allows [[Microsoft Windows]] and open-source [[Samba (software)|Samba]] clients to access and manage files and folders remotely on a suitable [[file server]]. Commonly used for multimedia streaming over [[Ethernet]] and widely supported by [[Smart TV]]s.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Rau|first=Thomas|date=2017-10-19|title=Filme, Musik & Bilder im Heimnetzwerk streamen|url=https://www.pcwelt.de/ratgeber/Media-Streaming-im-Heimnetz-8814285.html|access-date=2020-11-05|website=PC-WELT|language=de-DE}}</ref>

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* [[Wiki software]], such as [[MediaWiki]].

* [[Linked Data Platform]] (LDP), a Linked Data specification defining a set of integration patterns for building RESTful HTTP services that are capable of read-write of RDF data.

* [[Object storage]] such as [[OpenStack#Object_storage_Object storage (Swift)|OpenStack Swift]] or [[Amazon S3]]

== See also ==

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*[[Comparison of WebDAV software]]

* [[Distributed file system]]

* [[Filing Open Service Interfaceservice Definition|Filinginterface OSIDdefinition]]

* [[Information and Content Exchange|ICE]]

* [[Data portability]]

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== References ==

{{Reflist}}

* {{cite book|isbn=978-94-011-4441-4|doi=10.1007/978-94-011-4441-4_16|first1=E. James|last1=Whitehead|first2=Yaron Y.|last2=Goland|title=Ecscw' 99 |chapter=WebDAV |pages=291–310 |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-011-4441-4|publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media]]|year=1999|___location=Neatherlands|langlanguage=en-US}}

* {{cite journal|journal=[[IEEE Internet Computing]]|year=1998|doi= 10.1109/4236.722228|issn=1941-0131|volume=2|issue=5|title=WebDAV: IEFT standard for collaborative authoring on the Web|first=E.J|last=Whitehead|pages=34–40 |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/722228|access-date=12 October 2021}}

== External links ==