WebDAV is an abbreviation for "Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning" (published as an open standard under RFC 2518). WebDAV is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol which allows users to collaboratively edit and manage files on a web server. Using a WebDAV compatible client, the user connects to the server and is able to browse and manage files in a similar way as with a network share or an FTP server. In other words, what this protocol does is that it makes it possible to browse, create, remove, upload, download, rename, etc. files and directories on a web server. One of the most important advantages of this technology is that it uses port 80 for network traffic. This means that if you are able to surf the site from your workstation, you can also use WebDAV to administer it.

Configuration

The first you need to do is to set up a virtualhost for your webserver.

Apache HTTPD

<VirtualHost 89.250.126.18>
ServerName webdav.lotto-kim.net
        <Directory /home/sites/lotto-kim.net/www>
                Options indexes FollowSymLinks
                AllowOverride None
                Order allow,deny
                Allow from All
        </Directory>
        DocumentRoot /home/sites/lotto-kim.net/www
        RewriteEngine On
        RewriteRule !\.(css|jar|js|html|php)$ 
/home/sites/lotto-kim.net/www/webdav.php
        CustomLog "|/usr/sbin/rotatelogs2
 /var/log/sites/www.lotto-kim.net/www 3600" combined
        ErrorLog "/var/log/sites/www.lotto-kim.net/error_log
        RewriteLog /var/log/sites/www.lotto-kim.net/rewrite_log
        RewriteLogLevel 0
        <Location />
                php_admin_value upload_tmp_dir /home/sites/lotto-kim.net/tmp
                php_admin_value open_basedir /home/sites/lotto-kim.net:
/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/imagemagick/bin:
        </Location>
</VirtualHost>

Lighttpd

$HTTP["host"] == "webdav.lotto-kim.net" {
 var.server_name = "webdav.lotto-kim.net"
 server.name = server_name
 server.document-root = server_root + "lotto-kim.net/www"
 accesslog.filename          = "/var/log/sites/lotto-kim.net/www"
 url.rewrite-once = ("^/.*$" => "/webdav.php")
}

Enable WebDav in eZ Publish

WebDav is disabled in eZ Publish as default, so we need to be enable it to get it working.

# echo -e "[GeneralSettings]\nEnableWebDAV=true\n" >> webdav.ini.append.php

Testing

I'm using cadaver to check if webdav is working on my domain, you can of course use other clients as well.

# cadaver webdav.lotto-kim.net
dav:/> ls site
Listing collection `/site/': Authentication required for eZ publish WebDAV
 interface on server `webdav.lotto-kim.net':
Username: admin
Password:
Retrying: succeeded.
Coll:   Content                                0  Aug 23 21:11
Coll:   Media                                  0  Aug 23 21:11
dav:/> ls
Listing collection `/': succeeded.
Coll:   eng                                    0  Aug 23 21:11
Coll:   site                                   0  Aug 23 21:11
Coll:   siteadmin                              0  Aug 23 21:11
dav:/> cd site
dav:/site/> ls
Listing collection `/site/': succeeded.
Coll:   Content                                0  Aug 23 21:11
Coll:   Media                                  0  Aug 23 21:11
dav:/site/> cd Content
dav:/site/Content/> ls
Listing collection `/site/Content/': succeeded.
Coll:   Blog                                   0  Aug 23 21:47
Coll:   Contact                                0  Aug 27 23:05
Coll:   Photos                                 0  Aug 27 23:06
Coll:   Projects                               0  Aug 27 23:07

New site is up and running, it will properly be a temporary project and will be dead within some few days