Avalaible releases

Project license

GNU general public license, version 2 and later.

What it is ?

This module target to add WebDAV access to Drupal content management. It is basically a WebDAV server pumping it's data from a specialized WebDAV API. It has been developed for tree years now and all this time I tried to improved it in order to get speed, compliance and security.

This module can be seen in three parts :

• A WebDAV server integrated in Drupal using the URL /webdav/.... It is using PEAR WebDAV server for low level protocol processing. I think at one point I'll be tired of hacking it and I'll just remove it all.
• A WebDAV API which offers high level hooks to handle WebDAV exposed data and allows modules to interact with WebDAV commands.
• A set of sub-modules using the WebDAV API in order to manage drupal content using a webdav client. This includes nodes, file attachements and a first, read-only, file system support.

Managing Drupal content

From a user point of view, only the third part is interesting. By activating the WebDAV for nodes module, you can :

• Browse nodes, first by content-types, after you have a folder using the node title as name, and inside you have a file representing the node body.
• Create a new node when creating a new folder.
• Read/Write node content (body) with any WebDAV compliant client (ex. gedit). You can set-up the module to create a new revision each time you save the "file".
• Changing the node title by simply renaming its folder.
• Deleting a node by deleting its folder (only with true webDAV clients like cadaver or DAVExplorer).

If you enable WebDAV for attachements module, you also be able to :

• Browse the attachements folder in the node folder.
• Create a new file that will be a new attachement.
• Copy an attachement from one node to another.
• Delete an atachemnt.
• Move an attachement from one node to another.

If you enable WebDAV for filesystems module, you will be able to :

• Declare a new file system given its name and absolute path.
• Allow user to browser this file system and download files.

Every of those operations can be done using Gnome/Nautilus (specially with the new GVFS layer), KDE/Dolphin, DavFS2, Cadaver, MacOS and Windows Web shares, etc. You can also edit a node content with OpenOffice 3.0, gedit (as I'm doing right now) or event MS-Word.

It is also possible to use a simple web browser like firefox by just pointing to http://my_server/webdav. It's now fully integrated with Drupal so you can use this feature to allow users to browse some files in order to download them (ex. here).

WebDAV API

From a developer point of view, this module give the ability to expose any kind of Drupal data using a simplified WebDAV API. Originally this was not the case. It was Nick Vahalik who gave me this idea to turn this monolithic module in WebDAV framework. He also wrote the first draft of this hooking system.

A year later, I rewrote the all module in order to make it compatible with Drupal 6.x. I also tried to improve this API by trimming as much as possible the WebDAV complexity. Now, making a module using this API to, for example, manage comments, take me something like an hour of work.

The current version is still under development but is close to release. I use it on an every day base for a month now without any noticeable problem.

You can find a documentation for this API here.

How to connect ?

With a simple WEB browser by using the address http://my_server/webdav/. After authentication you should be able to browse your content.

For Gnome/Nautilus and any GIO/GVFS compliant applications (Gnome 2.24 and later), you can directly enter the url like this dav://my_server/webdav (davs if it is secured).

For KDE/Dolphin and any KIO compliant application, you can directly enter the url like this webdav://my_server/webdav (webdavs if it is secured).

With Cadaver you just have to entre cadaver http://my_server/webdav.

With DavFS and DavFS2 you have to mount like this mount -t davfs http://my_server/webdav/ /mnt/disk/ -o username=gaston. You can also use display names by setting use_displayname 1 in /etc/davfs2/davfs2.conf.

For MacOS, you can connect to a webdav folder using GO/Connect to server. Now you can add your server url : http://my_server/webdav (https if it is secured).

For Windows, you can connect to a webdav folder by opening Networks and clicking on Add a favorite network. Now you can add your server url : http://my_server/webdav (https if it is secured).

How to test ?

The best option for testing is cadaver as it is plain and simple. The only problem with cadaver is it don't support display names; So for those tests, to use NID and FID.

First be sure you set debug level to "verbose" in WebDAV server settings. Be careful with your data, never do this on a production server as the module has not been fully tested.

Now you can follow my testing path :

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