Chapter 30. WebDAV

The WebDAV protocol enables you to use the third party tools to communicate with hierarchical content servers via HTTP. It is possible to add and remove documents or a set of documents from a path on the server. DeltaV is an extension of the WebDav protocol that allows managing document versioning. Locking guarantees protection against multiple access when writing resources. The ordering support allows changing the position of the resource in the list and sort the directory to make the directory tree viewed conveniently. The full-text search makes it easy to find the necessary documents. You can search by using two languages: SQL and XPATH.

In eXo JCR, we plug in the WebDAV layer - based on the code taken from the extension modules of the reference implementation - on the top of our JCR implementation so that it is possible to browse a workspace using the third party tools (it can be Windows folders or Mac ones as well as a Java WebDAV client, such as DAVExplorer or IE using File->Open as a Web Folder).

Now WebDav is an extension of the REST service. To get the WebDav server ready, you must deploy the REST application. Then, you can access any workspaces of your repository by using the following URL:

Standalone mode:

http://host:port/rest/jcr/{RepositoryName}/{WorkspaceName}/{Path}

Portal mode:

http://host:port/portal/rest/private/jcr/{RepositoryName}/{WorkspaceName}/{Path}

When accessing the WebDAV server with the URLhttp://localhost:8080/rest/jcr/repository/production, you might also use "collaboration" (instead of "production") which is the default workspace in eXo products. You will be asked to enter your login and password. Those will then be checked by using the organization service that can be implemented thanks to an InMemory (dummy) module or a DB module or an LDAP one and the JCR user session will be created with the correct JCR Credentials.

Note

If you try the "in ECM" option, add "@ecm" to the user's password. Alternatively, you may modify jaas.conf by adding the domain=ecm option as follows:

exo-domain {
     org.exoplatform.services.security.jaas.BasicLoginModule required domain=ecm;
};

30.3. Configuration

<component>
  <key>org.exoplatform.services.webdav.WebDavServiceImpl</key>
  <type>org.exoplatform.services.webdav.WebDavServiceImpl</type>
  <init-params>

    <!-- this parameter indicates the default login and password values
         used as credentials for accessing the repository -->
    <!-- value-param>
      <name>default-identity</name>
      <value>admin:admin</value>    
    </value-param -->

    <!-- this is the value of WWW-Authenticate header -->
    <value-param>
      <name>auth-header</name>
      <value>Basic realm="eXo-Platform Webdav Server 1.6.1"</value>
    </value-param>

    <!-- default node type which is used for the creation of collections -->
    <value-param>
      <name>def-folder-node-type</name>
      <value>nt:folder</value>
    </value-param>

    <!-- default node type which is used for the creation of files -->
    <value-param>
      <name>def-file-node-type</name>
      <value>nt:file</value>
    </value-param>

    <!-- if MimeTypeResolver can't find the required mime type, 
         which conforms with the file extension, and the mimeType header is absent
         in the HTTP request header, this parameter is used 
         as the default mime type-->
    <value-param>
      <name>def-file-mimetype</name>
      <value>application/octet-stream</value>
    </value-param>

    <!-- This parameter indicates one of the three cases when you update the content of the resource by PUT command.
         In case of "create-version", PUT command creates the new version of the resource if this resource exists.
         In case of "replace" - if the resource exists, PUT command updates the content of the resource and its last modification date.
         In case of "add", the PUT command tries to create the new resource with the same name (if the parent node allows same-name siblings).-->

    <value-param>
      <name>update-policy</name>
      <value>create-version</value>
      <!--value>replace</value -->
      <!-- value>add</value -->
    </value-param>

    <!--
        This parameter determines how service responds to a method that attempts to modify file content.
        In case of "checkout-checkin" value, when a modification request is applied to a checked-in version-controlled resource, the request is automatically preceded by a checkout and followed by a checkin operation.
        In case of "checkout" value, when a modification request is applied to a checked-in version-controlled resource, the request is automatically preceded by a checkout operation.
    -->         
    <value-param>
      <name>auto-version</name>
      <value>checkout-checkin</value>
      <!--value>checkout</value -->
    </value-param>

    <!--
        This parameter is responsible for managing Cache-Control header value which will be returned to the client.
        You can use patterns like "text/*", "image/*" or wildcard to define the type of content.
    -->  
    <value-param>
      <name>cache-control</name>
      <value>text/xml,text/html:max-age=3600;image/png,image/jpg:max-age=1800;*/*:no-cache;</value>
    </value-param>
    
    <!--
        This parameter determines the absolute path to the folder icon file, which is shown
        during WebDAV view of the contents
    -->
    <value-param>
      <name>folder-icon-path</name>
      <value>/absolute/path/to/file</value>
    </value-param>

    <!-- 
        This parameter is responsible for untrusted user agents definition.
        Content-type headers of listed here user agents should be
        ignored and MimeTypeResolver should be explicitly used instead 
    -->
    <values-param>
      <name>untrusted-user-agents</name>
      <value>Microsoft Office Core Storage Infrastructure/1.0</value>
    </values-param>


  </init-params>
</component>

30.4. Screenshots

At present, eXo JCR WebDav server is tested by using MS Internet Explorer, Dav Explorer, Xythos Drive, Microsoft Office 2003 (as client), and Ubuntu Linux.

30.4.1. MS Internet Explorer

(File -> Open as Web Folder)

30.4.2. Dav Explorer

30.4.3. Xythos Drive

30.4.4. Microsoft Office 2003

(as client) (File->Open with typing http://... href in the file name box)

30.4.5. Ubuntu Linux

30.5. Comparison table of WebDav and JCR commands

Table 30.1.

WebDav	JCR
COPY	Workspace.copy(...)
DELETE	Node.remove()
GET	Node.getProperty(...); Property.getValue()
HEAD	Node.getProperty(...); Property.getLength()
MKCOL	Node.addNode(...)
MOVE	Session.move(...) or Workspace.move(...)
PROPFIND	Session.getNode(...); Node.getNode(...); Node.getNodes(...); Node.getProperties()
PROPPATCH	Node.setProperty(...); Node.getProperty(...).remove()
PUT	Node.addNode("node","nt:file"); Node.setProperty("jcr:data", "data")
CHECKIN	Node.checkin()
CHECKOUT	Node.checkout()
REPORT	Node.getVersionHistory(); VersionHistory.getAllVersions(); Version.getProperties()
RESTORE	Node.restore(...)
UNCHECKOUT	Node.restore(...)
VERSION-CONTROL	Node.addMixin("mix:versionable")
LOCK	Node.lock(...)
UNLOCK	Node.unlock()
ORDERPATCH	Node.orderBefore(...)
SEARCH	Workspace.getQueryManager(); QueryManager.createQuery(); Query.execute()