WebDAV: Next-Generation Collaborative Web Authoring

Praise for WebDAV: Next-Generation Web Authoring:

"WebDAV combines the ease of use of a file system with the global reach of the Web-and this is the book that will tell you how to use it."
—Clay Shirky, Internet technology consultant

"Lisa Dusseault has unparalleled WebDAV expertise and deep protocol implementation experience. This book is a critical resource for those seeking to understand and leverage WebDAV's potential, providing the most in-depth coverage of WebDAV available anywhere."
—Jim Whitehead, co-designer of WebDAV

"WebDAV extends the underlying communication framework of the Web, HTTP, to support the essential components of sharing. With an organized, clear style, this book explains not only what WebDAV is and how it works, but also its role in a wide variety of Internet applications. A tour de force."
—Larry Masinter, chair, HTTP Working Group, and principal scientist, Adobe Systems

"Until now, anyone who wanted to understand WebDAV had to wade through dozens of Web pages, several complicated standards, and messages from many mailing lists. This book gathers all the relevant information into one complete and easy-to-read reference."
—Greg Stein, author of mod_dav, Apache Foundation chairman

The definitive guide to WebDAV authoring, management, and publishing.

Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) is the IETF standard protocol for Web site authoring and wide area collaboration. WebDAV's document sharing and management services make it the ideal platform for Internet file and data management applications. This comprehensive book covers the WebDAV protocol from the bits on the wire all the way to custom application design and implementation.

Experienced WebDAV implementer Lisa Dusseault not only provides a complete description of WebDAV but also illustrates that behavior with numerous examples and protocol traces from real clients and servers. The author covers each protocol feature, first explaining how it works and then illustrating its use in a live implementation. In each case, the author describes not only how the protocol was supposed to work, but how it actually does, with attention to the steps required to make a working implementation.

This book delivers crucial details needed by application designers, software engineers, and information managers:

• Complete coverage of the protocol and popular implementations
• Practical design rules for quickly designing and deploying any WebDAV-based application
• Real-world application case studies, including online calendaring and photo albums
• Two chapters on building custom WebDAV applications, including ready-to-run examples compatible with Internet Explorer®
• Coverage of the new Versioning and Access Control standards