WebDAV Access

Glenn Golden

Dav server is built into Sakai, right out of the box. Point your dav client at http(s)://<your server dns name and port>/dav/group/<some site id> to see that site's resources. Or to see a person's resources from a my workspace, use /dav/user/<user id>.

WebDAV issues (particularly with Windows 7)

• Run Sakai over HTTPS!  Sakai's WebDAV only allows HTTP Basic Authentication and not Digest Authentication.  Windows 7 will not do Basic Authentication over HTTP.
• Receive WebDAV commands at the root context ( / ).  Win 7 native WebDAV will check the root context to make sure it responds to WebDAV commands (OPTIONS, PROPFIND).

WebDAV issues (particularly with native XP client)

UCT has set up a page to track a number of issues.

http://sakaiwiki.cet.uct.ac.za/index.php5/WebDAV_Notes

David Horwitz:

"One of the problems with windows is the large number of drivers you might have. It
seems that if you have MS office installed the windows drivers work.
Alan Berg identified the possibility that some versions of the native
driver don't work. So if you don't have MS office installed you may well
have a problem"

Lyndon Tiu:
"From our experience, you will need to install a Windows XP WebDAV patch: "Webfldrs-KB892211-ENU.exe".

Research on Google or MS's website to find out more about this patch."

Sean DeMonner:

• "the user credentials are persistent such that you have to log all the
  way out of Windows to access the same folder with a different ID. To
  the best of my knowledge you can't log in to the same WebDAV folder
  with a different ID in the same Windows session."

• "the authentication system for WebDAV is different than for the Sakai
  front door (at least in our instance where we use CoSign for identity
  management). We've noticed that the WebDAV authentication system chokes
  on certain extended characters in passwords (e.g. #@&%) so if you have
  one or more of those characters in your password you may see some
  weirdness."