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WebDAV Evaluation - Spring 2002 - Client Testing

• Testing parameters
• Third-party WebDAV client applications
  • cadaver (command-line client)
  • DAV Explorer (Java GUI client)
  • Goliath
  • Dreamweaver 4
  • GoLive 5
  • Microsoft Office 2000
  • DAVFS (Linux file system)
• Clients built into operating system
  • Mac OS X 10.1.3 (Client, Server)
  • Windows 2000 Professional
  • Windows XP
• WebDAV client APIs
  • PerlDAV
  • Python
  • neon

Testing parameters

• Any web browser should be able to have read access to documents on the server, any of which might or might not end up having been modified by a client
• Clients must test different authentication and encryption methods
• A WebDAV client should have the following behavior, once connected:
  • registered user may access and modify the common directory
  • registered user may access and modify his or her personal subdirectory
  • registered user may not access and modify others' personal subdirectories
  • registered user may unlock and lock a file in the common or personal directory
  • while a file is locked, no other registered user should be allowed to modify that file (though read-only access should be granted)
  • registered user should be able to view file properties
• Any odd behavior should be mentioned in the test results

Third-party WebDAV client applications

These applications are command-line (CLI) or GUI third-party applications that provide access to WebDAV realms, with varied support for authentication and SSL encryption options.

cadaver 0.19.1

Description:

cadaver is a free command-line WebDAV client for Unix. It supports file upload, download, on-screen display, namespace operations (move/copy), collection creation and deletion, and locking operations.

Download:

http://www.webdav.org/cadaver/ (requires OpenSSL for compilation of SSL support)

Testing results:

		server
		Mac OS X 10.1.3 Apache 1.3.23 mod_dav	Solaris 8 Apache 1.3.24 mod_dav	Windows 2000 Server IIS 5
Mac OS X 10.1.3	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
Red Hat Linux 7.2	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
Solaris 8	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
		will not work
		unknown
		works
		NA

Notes

• cadaver (Mac OS X) client connects to IIS 5 server via Digest with 403 file errors

DAV Explorer 0.81

Description:

DAV Explorer provides a free GUI WebDAV client written in Java. All WebDAV methods are supported (PUT, GET, COPY, MOVE, DELETE, MKCOL, PROPPATCH, PROPFIND, LOCK and UNLOCK).

Download:

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~webdav/

Testing results:

		server
		Mac OS X 10.1.3 Apache 1.3.23 mod_dav	Solaris 8 Apache 1.3.24 mod_dav	Windows 2000 Server IIS 5
Mac OS 9.1 (+MRJ, +Swing)	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
Mac OS X 10.1.3	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
Windows 98/ME (+current JVM)	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
Windows 2000 Professional (+current JVM)	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
Red Hat Linux 7.2	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
Solaris 8	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
		will not work
		unknown
		works
		NA

Goliath 0.9

Description:

Goliath is a free GUI WebDAV client written for the Mac OS platform.

"Goliath is an application that creates and edits websites. It uses a technology called WebDAV (frequently called Web Folders) to make changes to the files stored on web servers. It was the first application to implement WebDAV on the Macintosh. Goliath exposes functionality similar to that found in the Windows version of Internet Explorer 5 plus many other features that are unique to the Mac."

Download:

http://www.webdav.org/goliath/

Testing results:

		server
		Mac OS X 10.1.3 Apache 1.3.23 mod_dav	Solaris 8 Apache 1.3.24 mod_dav	Windows 2000 Server IIS 5
Mac OS 9.1	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
Mac OS X 10.1.3	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
		will not work
		unknown
		works
		NA

Macromedia Dreamweaver 4.01

Description:

Macromedia Dreamweaver is a widely-used, commercial GUI website management and publishing tool. A WebDAV client is built into the application for connecting to remote WebDAV shares that contain web documents, images, etc. The whole suite of WebDAV methods is provided for opening, closing, modifying, renaming and locking files.

Testing results:

		server
		Mac OS X 10.1.3 Apache 1.3.23 mod_dav	Solaris 8 Apache 1.3.24 mod_dav	Windows 2000 Server IIS 5
Mac OS 9.1	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
Mac OS X 10.1.3 (Classic)	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
Windows 98/ME	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
Windows 2000 Professional	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
		will not work
		unknown
		works
		NA

Adobe GoLive 5

Description:

Adobe Golive is a commercial GUI website management and publishing tool. A WebDAV client is built into the application for connecting to remote WebDAV shares that contain web documents, images, etc. The whole suite of WebDAV methods is provided for opening, closing, modifying, renaming and locking files.

Testing results:

		server
		Mac OS X 10.1.3 Apache 1.3.23 mod_dav	Solaris 8 Apache 1.3.24 mod_dav	Windows 2000 Server IIS 5
Mac OS 9.1	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
Mac OS X 10.1.3 (Classic)	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
Windows 98/ME	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
Windows 2000 Professional	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
		will not work
		unknown
		works
		NA

Microsoft Office 2000

Description:

Office 2000 is a commercial productivity suite that provides WebDAV access through Microsoft's web folders option.

Link:

http://www.newarchitectmag.com/documents/s=5429/new1013637463/sidebar2.htm

Testing results:

		server
		Mac OS X 10.1.3 Apache 1.3.23 mod_dav	Solaris 8 Apache 1.3.24 mod_dav	Windows 2000 Server IIS 5
Windows 98/ME	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
Windows 2000 Professional	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
Windows XP	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
		will not work
		unknown
		works
		NA

Linux (DAVFS)

Description:

DAVFS is a free WebDAV client for Linux, which provides file system access to the WebDAV share. All WebDAV methods are supported (PUT, GET, COPY, MOVE, DELETE, MKCOL, PROPPATCH, PROPFIND, LOCK and UNLOCK).

Download:

http://dav.sourceforge.net/

Testing results:

		server
		Mac OS X 10.1.3 Apache 1.3.23 mod_dav	Solaris 8 Apache 1.3.24 mod_dav	Windows 2000 Server IIS 5
Red Hat Linux 7.2	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
		will not work
		unknown
		works
		NA

Notes

• davFS (Linux) connects to Mac OS X server via Basic + SSL (no file locking, slow)
• davFS (Linux) connects to Solaris server via RADIUS + SSL (some read/write issues)

Clients built into operating system

These clients are embedded in the operating system and provide GUI access to WebDAV shares through the same file and directory interface used to display, for example, the contents of the hard drive. HTTP commands are sent to the WebDAV server when performing actions such as deletion, filename modification, editing, viewing properties, etc.

Mac OS X 10.1.3 (Client, Server)

Testing results:

		server
		Mac OS X 10.1.3 Apache 1.3.23 mod_dav	Solaris 8 Apache 1.3.24 mod_dav	Windows 2000 Server IIS 5
Mac OS X 10.1.3	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
		will not work
		unknown
		works
		NA

Windows 2000 Professional

Testing results:

		server
		Mac OS X 10.1.3 Apache 1.3.23 mod_dav	Solaris 8 Apache 1.3.24 mod_dav	Windows 2000 Server IIS 5
Windows 2000 Professional	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
		will not work
		unknown
		works
		NA

Notes

• Windows 2000 native client connects to IIS 5 server via Basic + SSL (no file modification allowed)

Windows XP

Testing results:

		server
		Mac OS X 10.1.3 Apache 1.3.23 mod_dav	Solaris 8 Apache 2.0.35 mod_dav	Windows 2000 Server IIS 5
Windows XP	Digest
	Basic + SSL
	RADIUS + SSL
	NTLM
	X.509
		will not work
		unknown
		works
		NA

Notes

• Windows XP native client connects to IIS 5 server via Digest (no file modification allowed)

WebDAV client APIs

These clients are not fleshed out applications, but rather libraries that provide that functionality for those writing applications that need to provide DAV access. Links are provided for informational purposes.

PerlDAV

Description:

PerlDAV is a Perl library for modifying content on webservers using the WebDAV protocol. Now you can LOCK, DELETE and PUT files and much more on a DAV-enabled webserver. The PerlDAV library consists of:

• HTTP::DAV - an object-oriented Web-DAV client API
• dave - the DAV Explorer, an end-user Unix console program for interacting with WebDAV servers. dave looks and feels like a standard Unix ftp program

Links:

http://www.webdav.org/perldav/

Python DAV client libraries

Description:

This module provides client-side access to a DAV server. DAV is a protocol for remote web-site authoring and management. This module provides full access to Class 1 services. In the near future, it will offer access to Class 2 services and the expanded DAV services such as DASL, versioning, and Advanced Collections.

Links:

http://www.lyra.org/greg/python/davlib.py

neon (C libraries)

Description:

neon is an HTTP and WebDAV client library, with a C interface. Featuring:

• High-level interface to HTTP and WebDAV methods (PUT, GET, HEAD etc)
• Low-level interface to HTTP request handling, to allow implementing new methods easily
• persistent connections
• RFC2617 basic and digest authentication (including auth-int, md5-sess)
• Proxy support (including basic/digest authentication)
• SSL/TLS support using OpenSSL (including client certificate support)
• Generic WebDAV 207 XML response handling mechanism
• XML parsing using the expat or libxml parsers
• Easy generation of error messages from 207 error responses
• WebDAV resource manipulation: MOVE, COPY, DELETE, MKCOL
• WebDAV metadata support: set and remove properties, query any set of properties (PROPPATCH/PROPFIND)
• autoconf macros supplied for easily embedding neon directly inside an application source tree

Links:

http://www.webdav.org/neon/

Please note: This material is no longer current and appears online for archival purposes only. Use the search and navigation tools above to locate more up-to-date materials, if they exist.