What is Webdav:

Webdav is an internet technology that attempts to allow people to connect their home and office computers to web based file and data storage. Webdav is an "open protocol" which means that it is the set of rules which software developers and technology implementers should follow in order to be compatible with each other. Just as HTTP ("the internet" as we know it) is an open protocol which web browser developers and web site developers follow in order to provide users with nearly identical web site experiences regardless of operating system and browser choice, webdav attempts to provide web based file system access regardless of operating system choice. Successful implementation of webdav gives the user seamless access and control over their files; the webdav folder will behave as if it were located on the users' own computer.

The webdav server is the computer and software that accepts user requests for file and folder operations. The server communicates over the internet similar to www or web site requests. The webdav client is the software that runs on the users' computer that communicates with the webdav server and integrates with the users' computer's file system. Operating systems usually come with webdav clients built in whose functions and support for webdav vary. Third party webdav clients also exist that provide varied levels of functionality.

School Web Lockers uses a custom webdav server whose goal is to provide integration with the web site, specialized file and folder permissioning, fast database driven operation, web based account management and automated data imports, which include the creation and retirement of classes and class folders.

How to use your webdav drive:

In order to access your weblockers files and folders via webdav, you must first "mount" the webdav drive to your computer. Instructions on mounting webdav drives for various operating systems follow. Note, "mounting a drive" and "mapping a network drive" are synonymous in this context.

Some operating systems allow you to "unmount" or disconnect your webdav drive when you are finished using it. Doing so prevents other people who may have access to your computer from accessing your remote files. Windows however, does not allow you to explicitly "log out" of a webdav drive once you've mounted it. You must log out of Windows in order to disconnect the drive.

Once a webdav drive is mounted, you can access files by use of the operating system file browser such as Explorer in Windows or Finder in OSX. Files may be directly opened by double clicking on them, changes made to the file and then saved directly back to the webdav drive. New folders may be created, files and folders moved, copied, deleted, etc. Windows Vista, unfortunately, may not have double click access enabled and may instead require the user to Right Click then select an action.

Operating systems often create and use temporary files when a user opens a file. Temporary files may be named the same, but with prefixes or suffixes such as a "._" character or a "#", "~", etc. These temporary files may show up in webdav or weblockrz and should not be opened or modified by the user. These files cannot always be filtered out of display lists due to the operating system making requests for these files; filtering out these files may result in the user's computer recreating the file over and over, failure to recognize the original file as valid and/or total failure to recognize the entire file and folder system. While an operating system may filter it's own temp files in display, temp files from other operating systemss may not be.

Windows has webdav file system limits enabled by default that restricts both webdav file sizes and total file/folder properties. Instructions for modifying those values follow.

Webdav clients may not all function properly. Common problems include: files may seem to upload, but fail and then don't show up, uploads may fail, but actually succeed (when you get the failed message press F5 to reload the folder and see if the file now shows up for you), Office documents that are opened may instead get deleted, file saves may cause errors in the file. When connecting to webdav for the first time, test functionality by uploading, downloading, opening and saving back with test files first!

Users are required to log in to the webdav server in order to access their files. User log ins are the same as their School Web Lockers log in because the webdav server shares user information with the web site.

All changes made to a user's web locker are reflected in both webdav and the web site. So, a user can upload files, make folders, delete files, etc via webdav and the changes will be displayed on the web site. Similarly, file and folder changes made via web site will be shown in the webdav drive.

Files and folders are "locked" when a user is making changes. A locked file may be opened in read-only mode whereby changes may not be made to a file except by the user that initiated the lock. Locks expire over time as well as when a user closes the file. Please Note: Lock support is not entirely reliable as some operating systems seem to ignore them. Best practice is to rename shared files with some kind of versioning label.

Back ups of files are always a prudent idea. While webdav may seem like the ideal back up solution to protect against personal computer failure, webdav itself runs on a computer that can be subject to failures. Also, webdav client software may not be fully compatible with undesireable results.

School Web Lockers does not actually delete files when delete requests are made. Only the file record is deleted. So file recovery is possible in the event of accidental deletion. However, overwriting files is permanent so be careful when saving over existing files.

Files and folders that have special characters (/, \, ", ', :, etc) may cause problems with connection, browsing and upload/download. Use the web site to rename or delete problem resources.

Webdav errors may not be reported in any useful fashion by the webdav client. Trying to connect to webdav in OSX without first being connected to the Internet, for instance, gives an ambiguous error. Incorrect log in and passwords in Windows do not report errors. A server error may cause the drive to completely disappear. Conversely, an Operating System may pretend the server error does not exist and displays the webdav drive based on cached (previously stored) data.

The "top level" directory view that you see when you connect and open your webdav drive includes your home folder, class folders, shared folders, etc. This view is only for organizational purposes; you cannot copy files or folders into the top level because it's not an actual directory. You must use the web site to create top level class or shared folders. You can only copy items into existing folders or create new folders in existing ones. Please be sure to open a folder before attempting to drag and drop files to your account.

Files and Naming:

Files and folders that have special characters (/, \, ", ', :, etc) may cause problems with connection, browsing and upload/download. Download and run this utility on Windows to replace spaces, commas, single quotes with underscores and apostrophe's. The utility program is written in vbscript and may require permission changes to allow downloading and execution.
Download File Name Fix.

School Web Lockers Webdav Drive For Windows:

XP:
Windows XP has two different webdav clients on it, three if you have Microsoft Office installed. To mount and use the webdav folder, you must first add the webdav drive to your Network Places and then open it. You will be required to log in multiple times: Once to mount it, once to open it and once every time you open an Office document when you do not already have Office open and logged in.

Office 2003 on XP may open files as read-only. You may be prompted to change the file name before saving it back to the dav drive.

If you are working on multiple files and are using a private computer, dragging and dropping the desired files/folders to your computer and working on them from there will avoid the annoyance of Office constantly requesting logins and opening files read-only.

Don't forget to log out of Windows if you're on a shared computer! Do not select "Remember my password" on shared computers!

The recommended and most reliable method of accessing webdav drives in XP:

1. Click Start
2. Click My Network Places
3. Click Add Network Place
4. Click Next
5. Select "Choose..." and click Next
6. Enter your web lockers site with a ":80/dav/", ie, if you are a member of Kennedy School District and your web lockers site address is ksd.schoolweblockers.com, you would enter: http://ksd.schoolweblockers.com:80/dav/
7. Don't omit the "http://" or the ending "/dav/". The colon 80 after ".com" forces Windows to use the Web Folders webdav client instead of the default Mini-Redirector.
8. If you are not prompted for a login and get an error message "This is not a webdav folder" or if the login prompt just keeps reappearing, then try one of the alternative methods below or see the Trouble Shooting section below.
9. Once the drive is mounted, click Finish. You will be prompted again for login to access the folder. If the folder doesn't open properly with all your folders, check underneath any open windows for a hidden log in prompt.

Alternative methods that may work:

Alternate Method 1:

1. Click Start
2. Click My Network Places
3. Click Add Network Place
4. Click Next
5. Select "Choose..." and click Next
6. Enter your web lockers site with a "/dav/", ie, if you are a member of Kennedy School District and your web lockers site address is ksd.schoolweblockers.com, you would enter: http://ksd.schoolweblockers.com/dav/
7. Don't omit the "http://" or the ending "/dav/". Unlike the recommended method, this method omits the ":80".
8. If you are not prompted for a login and get an error message "This is not a webdav folder" or if the login prompt just keeps reappearing, then see the Trouble Shooting section below.
9. Login prompts may have the machine or domain name inserted into the log in area. Delete the text then enter your login.
10. Multiple log in attempts may be required.
11. Once the drive is mounted, click Finish. You will be prompted again for login to access the folder. If the folder doesn't open properly with all your folders, check underneath any open windows for a hidden log in prompt.

Alternate Method 2:

1. Open terminal: Click Start, click run, type "cmd" and hit Enter.
2. Type "net use * http://[site].schoolweblockers.com/dav" (without the surrounding quotes) and hit Enter. Replace "[site]" with your site name (ie., "ksd").
3. Enter login and password at the prompts.
4. If mounting succeeded without any error messages, open Explorer (right click Start, select Explorer) and the weblockers webdav drive should be listed in the left pane.

Vista/Windows 7:

Vista and Windows 7 "only" have 2 webdav clients, the operating system client and Office. Mounting and opening the webdav drive is straight forward with the exception that Vista's file browser may require you to right click on files/folders and select an action rather than allowing double clicks. Office requires you to login (again) when opening files.

If you are working on multiple files and are using a private computer, dragging and dropping the desired files/folders to your computer and working on them from there will avoid the annoyance of Office constantly requesting logins.

Don't forget to log out of Windows if you're on a shared computer! Do not select "Remember my password" on shared computers! While you can manually disconnect the webdav drive in Vista/Win 7, it does not clear your log in or password. Remounting will automatically use the most recent log in!

Mounting instructions:

Primary Method:

1. Click Start
2. Right Click on Computer
3. Click Map Network Drive
4. Enter your web lockers site in the Folder text box. If you are a member of Kennedy School District and your web lockers site address is ksd.schoolweblockers.com, you would enter: http://ksd.schoolweblockers.com/dav/
5. Don't omit the "http://" or the ending "/dav/".
6. Click Finish.
7. If you are not prompted for a login and get an error message "This is not a webdav folder" or if the login prompt just keeps reappearing, then see the Trouble Shooting section below.

Alternate Method (works):

1. Open terminal: Click Start, type "cmd" in the Search/Run box and hit Enter.
2. Type "net use * http://[site].schoolweblockers.com/dav" (without the surrounding quotes) and hit Enter. Replace "[site]" with your site name (ie., "ksd").
3. Enter login and password at the prompts.
4. If mounting succeeded without any error messages, open Explorer (right click Start, select Explorer) and the weblockers webdav drive should be listed in the left pane.

Trouble Shooting:

The following steps may need to be completed prior to attempting to connect to your webdav drive. They are changes to the Windows Webdav clients that enable "Basic" authentication and increase limits on files. (Basic authentication is required due to incompatibilities in some versions of Windows and Office with Digest Authentication and SSL).

Modify the Registry: Please Note: you must have administrative access to make these registry modifications. Detailed explanations of the Windows registry system may be found on the internet.

The easy method: Click the following file link, save the file to your computer and run it. Then reboot your computer and proceed with mounting instructions.
Registry Mod File

Manually modifying the Windows registry:

1. XP: Click Start, Run, type "regedit" into the text box and hit Enter.
   Vista/Win 7: Click Start, type "regedit" into the Search/Run box and hit Enter. When prompted for permission, click Yes.
2. In the left pane of the registry browser, drill down the listing to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters
3. Click on Parameters in the left pane, the right pane will show current items and values.
4. Look for the following items:
   XP: UseBasicAuth=1 (hexidecimal)
   Vista/Windows 7: BasicAuthLevel=2 (hexidecimal)
   All Windows Versions:
   FileAttributesLimitInBytes= (decimal)
   FileSizeLimitInBytes= (decimal)
5. If they do not exist, right click in the right pane and select New DWORD.
6. Type in the appropriate key exactly as shown, upper/lower case and no spacing and hit Enter.
7. Double click on the new entry and enter the appropriate value. The value will appear with leading zeros added automatically.
   For the file parameters, enter numbers in bytes. If you have less than 20,000 files in the entire dav system and you want to upload/download files of 500MB, you could use these values: FileAttributesLimitInBytes=20000000 FileSizeLimitInBytes=500000000
8. Now restart the computer to enable the changes.

Make sure webclient service is running:

1. Click Start, Settings, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services.
2. Scroll down the list of services until you find WebClient.
3. Check the status and make sure it's running.

Windows 7/Vista slow webdav performance:
Open internet explorer. Open tools/internet options. Click on Connections tab. Click on Lan settings button. Uncheck the "Automatic detection" option. Close IE. You should see a vast improvement in webdav speeds...

sources:
http://oddballupdate.com/2009/12/18/fix-slow-webdav-performance-in-windows-7/
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itpronetworking/thread/600a9825-0ba1-4c15-93f6-fc99c64b4930/

Update Windows:
Click Start, Click Windows Update, follow the directions on the windows update website.

Reinstall webdav on XP:

1. Click on the "Start" menu in the lower left corner, and select "Run..."
2. Type in "webfldrs.msi" and click the "OK" button.
3. Click on the "Select reinstall mode" button.
4. Select *ALL* of the checkboxes *except* for the second one ("Reinstall only if file is missing").
5. Click on the "OK" button.
6. Click on the "Reinstall" button.
7. After the reinstallation is complete, reboot the computer.

Additional Notes:
"Remember password" checkbox does not pass login between the Operating System and Office or Explorer.
"Remember password" stores password for login dialog but does not automatically log you in

School Web Lockers For MS Office:

If you're having issues with files opening as "Read-Only" or with files not opening at all, try the following registry changes depending on the version of Office you have. Registry mod applies to the current user only so shared computers must apply the registry mod to all user accounts.

Office 2003:

1. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate and then click to select the following registry key:
3. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Word\Options
4. After you select the key, point to New on the Edit menu (or right click the mouse in the right window pane), and then click DWORD.
5. Type UseTempCopyForNonLocDoc, and then press ENTER.
6. Right-click UseTempCopyForNonLocDoc, and then click Modify.
7. In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
8. On the File menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.

Possible fix for opening files in Read-Only mode:
Add OpenDocumentsReadWriteWhileBrowsing DWORD Value on a client machine under the key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\[version]\Common\Internet. Replace [version] with the appropriate version number.
Set the Value data to 1.

Office 2010:

On the client computer, add the BasicAuthLevel registry key and appropriate value (Required for Office 2010 applications)

1. Start Registry Editor.
   In Window Vista/Windows 7, click Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and then press ENTER.
   If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or click Continue.
   In Windows XP, click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
2. Locate and click the following key in the registry:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\14.0\Common\Internet
3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
4. Type BasicAuthLevel, and then press ENTER.
5. Right-click BasicAuthLevel, and then click Modify.
6. In the Value data box, type 2, and then click OK.

Exit Registry Editor, and then restart the computer.

Office may not appear to save files XP/2003:

If a file is opened as Read-Only, use Save As in the Office File menu with a new file name, subsequent saves to the open file work fine, but closing then reopening the file causes the read only problem (must Save As again).

School Web Lockers Webdav for OSX:

OSX has a variety of issues depending on version (10.4, 10.5, 10.6). They should all connect, but the behaviours may vary. Files may not open properly over webdav and must be copied to your computer first. File incompatibilities between Microsoft Office versions and Mac OSX Office versions may prevent opening files. Spaces and url encoding of spaces may also break things.

All versions of OSX make redundant requests for file and folder properties which causes slow response or in some cases, failed connection attempts.

To connect to your webdav drive in OSX:

1. Start Finder
2. Open the Go menu
3. Click Connect to Server
4. Enter your site address as follows: http://[mysite].schoolweblockers.com/dav/
5. Replace "[mysite]" with your school's site, ie., if you are a member of Kennedy School District and your web lockers site address is ksd.schoolweblockers.com, you would enter: http://ksd.schoolweblockers.com/dav/
6. Do not omit the "http://" or the "/dav/"
7. Save the address by clicking on the "+" (plus) sign next to the address box.
8. Click Connect.

School Web Lockers Webdav for Linux:

Install davfs2. Mount and unmount via terminal commands. User id (uid) must be passed to the mount command in order to allow write/modify permissions.

KDE/Dolphin browser works well with webdav with the exception that all files are opened with Kate. Gnome/Nautilus does not work unless the webdav drive is first mounted via davfs.

Additional Notes:

cannot null out data connection before aborting request
account for single quotes in file and folder names
cannot have file / folders with consecutive periods, ".."