Subject: WebDAV Compliance Case Studies

From: Frank Lowney <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 19:26:43 -0400

Julian Reschke <[email-masked]> said:

>First of all, you are absolutely on the right mailing list. There's also a
>special WebDAV interop list, but that one is mainly used to organize and
>exchange interop test results.
>
>You didn't mention exactly *what* problems you see. In general, there are
>quite a few vendors that advertise WebDAV compliance, but test their servers
>only with the Microsoft webfolder client, therefore having lots of problems
>with other clients. On the other hand, you may also see client issues.

Excellent!

Then let me present our findings as separate, server-specific case 
studies starting with the 4D WebSTAR V server (MacOS X, see: 
http://www.4d.com/products/webstar.html) as reported by Cathy Locks 
of our staff followed by results of the Litmus test and commentary by 
Luke van der Westhuyzen, Product Coordinator 4D, Inc - 
http://www.4d.com/

At 3:19 PM -0400 8/13/03, Cathy Locks wrote:
>I've gone back over the previous problems we noted with WebDav in 
>regards to trying to transfer files from a Windows machine to a 
>WebStar server.
>
>Our biggest problem is that we cannot drag and drop files, either 
>html or graphic files into the webdav folder. We can get around this 
>by dragging and dropping folders containing files, but we should not 
>have to do this.
>
>A second continuing problem concerns deleting files from the webdav 
>folder.  At one point we could simply drag the items to be deleted 
>to the recycling bin and they would be gone.  We noted on 7-1-03 
>that this had changed after an update was installed on the server. 
>Now if we drag files to the recycling bin, a message window appears 
>warning that moving  items to the Recucle bin will cause them to be 
>permanently deleted.  Are you sure you want to continue?  Clicking 
>yes should delete the files.  Instead the files remain in the webdav 
>folder.
>
>I've tested these problems on a Windows XP laptop. In our previous 
>tests, the results were identical for the XP laptop and the Windows 
>2000 desktop.

At 9:53 AM -0700 8/11/03, Luke van der Westhuyzen wrote:
>Here are the test results:
>
>  0. init.................. pass
>  1. begin................. pass
>  2. options............... pass
>  3. put_get............... pass
>  4. put_get_utf8_segment.. pass
>  5. mkcol_over_plain...... pass
>  6. delete................ pass
>  7. delete_null........... pass
>  8. mkcol................. pass
>  9. mkcol_again........... pass
>10. delete_coll........... pass
>11. mkcol_no_parent....... WARNING: MKCOL with missing intermediate 
>gave 403, should be 409
>     ...................... pass (with 1 warning)
>12. mkcol_with_body....... FAIL (MKCOL with weird body must fail 
>(RFC2518:8.3.1))
>13. finish................ pass
><- summary for `basic': of 14 tests run: 13 passed, 1 failed. 92.9%
>-> 1 warning was issued.
>
>Of the two failures/warnings, 11 is most likely to give you problems 
>(wrong response code when trying to create a subfolder in a folder 
>that does not exist), although even that does not ring a bell. Most 
>of your issues seem to be in the initial authentication phase.
>
>It's a pity the test is not more comprehensive.

-- 
=====================================================================
Dr. Frank Lowney  [email-masked]
     Director, Electronic Instructional Services, a unit of the
     Office of Information and Instructional Technology,
     Professional Pages: http://www.gcsu.edu/oiit/eis/
     Personal Pages: http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~flowney
Voice: (478) 445-5260
=====================================================================
We don't make instruction effective, we make effective instruction 
more accessible.

---

From: "Julian Reschke" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 10:04:39 +0200

> From: [email-masked]
> [mailto:[email-masked]]On Behalf Of Frank Lowney
> Sent: Thursday, August 14, 2003 1:27 AM
> To: [email-masked]
> Subject: WebDAV Compliance Case Studies
>
>
>
> ...
>

It is. However by default it stops running if the basic tests fail. See the
command line option "-k" ("keep going").

Julian

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