WebDAV |
WebDAV is an Internet Engineering Task Force working group. The abbreviation stands for Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning. The term is also used to refer to the protocol (more accurately, the extension to the HTTP protocol) which the group defined.
The WebDAV protocol s aim is to make the World Wide Web a readable and writable medium, in line with Tim Berners-Lee s original vision. It provides functionality to create, change and move documents on a remote server (typically a web server). This is useful, among other things, for authoring the documents which a web server serves, but can also be used for general web-based file storage, that can be accessed from anywhere. Most modern operating systems provide built-in support for WebDAV, making it easy to use files on a WebDAV server (almost) as if they were stored in a local directory.
=History of WebDAV=
WebDAV started life when Jim Whitehead convinced the W3C to host two meetings where people interested in the problem of distributed authoring on the World Wide Web could get together to discuss possible solutions. The original vision of the World Wide Web as expounded by Tim Berners-Lee was a both readable and writable medium. In fact Tim s first web browser, called WorldWideWeb, was capable of both viewing and editing remote pages. However as the web grew it turned itself into a read only medium. Jim and other like minded people wanted to fix that limitation.
The group of people meeting at the W3C decided that the best way to proceed was to form an IETF working group. The IETF seemed a natural choice as the HTTP protocol was being standardized there and it was assumed that the output of this effort would consist of extension (computing)s to that protocol.
As work began on the protocol it became clear that handling both distributed authoring and versioning was just too much and that the tasks would have to be separated. The WebDAV working group therefore decided to just focus on distributed authoring and leave versioning for the future. In fact members commonly joked that the group should properly be called WebDA.
=Documents produced by the WebDAV working group=
The WebDAV working group has to date produced several outputs:
The protocol consists of a set of new methods and headers for use in HTTP and has the distinction of almost certainly being the first protocol ever to use XML.
=Documents not produced by the WebDAV working group, but published through the IETF=
=Overview of the WebDAV protocol=
WebDAV added the following methods to HTTP:
.
The WebDAV working group is still working on a number of extension (computing)s to WebDAV including - redirection control and binding (computing) properties, and on progressing the base specification to the next maturity level in the Internet Standards track.
=Related work=
The WebDAV working group spawned other IETF working groups including the DAV Searching and Locating (DASL) working group and the Web Versioning and Configuration Management (DELTAV) working group.
DASL never produced any official standard although there are a number of implementations of its last draft (work continues as non-working-group activity, see [http://www.webdav.org/dasl DASL]).
DELTAV produced the Versioning Extensions to WebDAV [http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2353.txt RFC 3253] which put the V back into WebDAV.
[http://www.webdav.org The WebDAV Home Page] contains up-to-date information about implementations of WebDAV and WebDAV related standards efforts.
=Software supporting WebDAV=
=See also=
=External links=
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