Forum OpenACS Q&A: webDAV

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Posted by Tom Mizukami on
I was wondering if somebody could post an update to the status of webDAV integration into OpenACS and the interoperability with Windows clients. Does it work with My Network Places? Has anybody used WebDrive http://www.southrivertech.com/products/webdrive/index.html with our implementation of webDAV. Thanks for any info.
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2: Re: webDAV (response to 1)
Posted by C. R. Oldham on
Tom,

I'm wondering why someone would choose to purchase WebDrive when Windows already has a WebDAV client built in.  Is WebDrive more standards compliant?  I've heard the AOLserver WebDav implementors complain a great deal about the multiple incarnations of WebDav support in Windows...

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3: Re: webDAV (response to 1)
Posted by Dave Bauer on
The work I have been doing with WebDAV for AOLserver and OpenACS does work with Microsoft Windows webdav clients. It should work with WebDrive but I haven't tested it.

If the TIP gets approved, I will be adding the code to OpenACS next week.

You can see the file-storage support of WebDAV running at:

http://tdav.museatech.net/file-storage/

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5: Re: webDAV (response to 1)
Posted by Dave Bauer on
Webdrive is generally more compatible with various webdav implementations. Microsoft's clients all work in slightly different ways, and rely on unique behavior of the other Microsoft implementations.
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4: Re: webDAV (response to 1)
Posted by Tom Mizukami on
Hi,

I'm working with an analytical chemistry laboratory and I want to send instrument data directly to the system. It would be easiest if I could map a drive letter. Do you think there are better options than webDrive. Thanks.

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6: Re: webDAV (response to 4)
Posted by Andrew Piskorski on
Tom, you mean you've got some third party analytical chemistry software running on Windows boxes, and you to upload data from it into OpenACS? Who initiates that data transfer, the Windows users push it to OpenACS, or OpenACS is connecting to and pulling something from the Windows software?

If push, then WebDAV sounds cool, but I don't see why that would be any better than just having the Windows machines dump files into the filesystem of the server via Samba or whatever, and then have OpenACS parse them and read them in.

Or do you have control over the client end Windows box software too, aka you're writing it yourself or the like? Ah, or perhaps the OpenACS server is not on the LAN but is far away on the Internet somewhere?