OpenACS WebDAV Support

Introduction

This package implements a WebDAV interface to the OpenACS Content Repository. In addition to generic access to content items, there is a service-contract interface so packages can define custom handlers for WebDAV methods for objects that belong to that package.

Installation

Install through the APM. If you install file-storage, WebDAV support is installed automatically. In addition you should check the tDAV specific configuration parameters to the AOLserver configuration file. The default parameters work fine, they will create webdav URLs like yoursite/dav/*

You can visit the /webdav-support/ page to control webdav access on a per-folder basis. Packages that support WebDAV will add folders to this list and an administrator can then activate or deactivate the folders.

How it Works

OpenACS WebDAV Support requires the tDAV AOLserver module to implement most of the WebDAV protocol. OpenACS WebDAV Support just provides and interface between tDAV and the Content Repository

Each content_type that requires a custom handler much implement the dav service contract. Each content type should implement the dav service contract with the implementation name the same as the content_type. This includes operations for every WebDAV method. Some operations do not make sense for certain object types. Specifically, content_items, which are mapped to WebDAV resources, should not perform a MKCOL (make collection) method. Likewise, a content_folder, or WebDAV collection, should not allow a PUT method. In addition to the dav service contract is a helper contract to allow packages to set the initial content_type for new items created through WebDAV. Each package should implement the dav_put_type service contract with the implementation named the same as the package key.

Each package instance that will allow WebDAV access should register a package_id and folder_id for the root content_folder that corresponds with the URI of the package's mount point using oacs_dav::register_folder.

Dispatching Requests

A preauth filter is registered for all WebDAV methods. This calls oacs_dav::authorize which will set oacs_dav::conn user_id to the OpenACS user_id or 0 is the request is not authenticated. This filter also calls oacs_dav::setup_conn sets up the basic information needed to authorize the request. If authorization fails a 401 HTTP response is returned requesting authentication information. If authorization is successful the filter returns filter_ok and the tdav::filter* filter for the method is called.

The tdav::filter* commands setup global information for each method that is independent of the storage type. After this filter runs, the request is handled by the registered procedure for OpenACS oacs_dav::handle_request.

oacs_dav::handle_request determines the package_id that should handle the URI. This is based on the standard OpenACS site_node Tcl API. After the package is found, the root folder for that package is retrieved from the dav_package_folder_map table. Using the folder_id, and the URI of the request, the content_item__get_id pl/sql(plpgsql) procedure is called to find the item_id for the request. If no item_id is found and the requested method is PUT, a new item should be created. If the method is not PUT, a 404 error should be returned.

oacs_dav::handle_request will call the service contract implementation for the content_type of the item. If the request is a PUT, first the dav_put_type service contract for the package_key of the request is called. For file-storage this returns "file_storage_object" so items created by PUT are created as file_storage_objects instead of generic content_revisions.

The service contract implementation for each operation must return the response data in the format required by tDAV. The documentation for the tdav::respond::* procedures named for each method describe what is required.

Release Notes

Please file bugs in the Bug Tracker.