Subject: DAV4J Source Released on developerWorks

From: "Jim Amsden/Raleigh/IBM" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2000 14:00:46 -0500

IBM is pleased to announce the DAV4J source is now available on
developerWorks under the IBM Public License. Full details can be found at
the new DAV4J home site at
http://oss.software.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/dav4j. DAV4J will
eventually be moved off the alphaWorks site, so update you links to the new
developerWorks site.

Although DAV4J is hosted under the open source zone on developerWorks, IBM
is not creating an Open Source project for DAV4J at this time. We are only
making the source available to help support the WebDAV community through:

    - an offering to promote the development of the WebDAV grounded in the
      reality of an implementation
    - a platform for easily exploring the WebDAV protocol and
implementation
      options as it evolves
    - feedback to the WebDAV working groups based on real implementation
      experience
    - a client API that facilitates WebDAV client application development
    - a server architecture supporting multiple repository managers
    - an implementation based on the Java and servlet standards supporting
      WebDAV methods in many current Web servers

IBM is also participating in the Apache/mod_dav Open Source effort, and
includes mod_dav in the IBM HTTP server (which is Apache). See
www.webdav.org for details. I (Jim Amsden) will be monitoring the DAV4J
mailing list, and will consider updates, bug fixes, new features, etc.,
time permitting.

The DAV4J client API provides Java client applications with a simple, rich
interface for accessing resources managed by a WebDAV server. Using this
API, client applications are relieved from managing the details of the low
level HTTP communication protocol, constructing and parsing XML request and
response entity bodies, and the complexities of the WebDAV semantics. DAV4J
also provides a servlet that with WebSphere AppServer extends the Apache
Web server with the WebDAV Class 2 protocol.

DAV4J provides:

1. Protocol independent (not just WebDAV) communication between client and
server applications including support for http:, rmi:, and local access.
Support for iiop: may be provided in a future release. Local access is used
if the host name in the URL is the local host and no port is specified.\

2. A high-level, object-oriented interface capturing the WebDAV Class 2
semantics that can interface with any WebDAV Class 2 compliant server.

3. A Java servlet that along with WebSphere AppServer enables DAV Class 2
methods in the Apache Web server. The Apache Web server can be configured
so that some URLs can be handled either directly by the Apache server
without WebDAV methods while other URLs are handled by the DAV4J servlet
with WebDAV methods. This allows a single Apache server to be both a
production and authoring server on different partitions of the URL
namespace.

4. The ability to access multiple back end repository managers using a
single, common, standard, simple protocol: WebDAV. The DAV4J architecture
encapsulates low-level repository services required to implement the WebDAV
semantics into a number of simple Java interfaces. All that is required to
provide WebDAV access to a repository manager is to implement these
interfaces on the repository manager. DAV4J includes a repository manager
based on the local file system as a reference implementation and example of
how to integrate a repository manager.

5. Platform independent, 100% pure Java portability.

DAV4J consists of the DAV4J client API, the DAV4J servlet, and the file
system repository manager. By changing a few simple properties, Web servers
supporting servlets can be configured to support WebDAV methods. The
distribution includes configuration information for the Apache Web server
and IBM WebSphere AppServer. WebDAV is described in the IETF draft
specification RFC2518