User manual

Chapter 3 Managing Websites 45
Using WebDAV to Share Files
You can use WebDAV to allow authorized users to connect to a website on the server
and to share files on that site. The steps below provide a brief example of setting up
and using shared files using WebDAV.
• Turn on WebDAV for the site in Server Admin.
See “Enabling WebDAV on Websites” on page 44 for details.
• Set up Realms for the site in Server Admin to control access to the site.
See “Setting Access for Websites” on page 43 for details.
For example, you could create a folder for shared documents inside the website’s folder
and give specific people browse and author access to that folder.
• Tell authorized users how to connect to the site using the WebDav client built into
Mac OS X (or Mac OS X Server).
Users can connect to the website using a WebDAV-enabled application, such as the
Finder in Mac OS X, Adobe GoLive, Macromedia Dreamweaver, or Microsoft Explorer.
Browsers are not generally WebDAV-enabled. But a browser can access a WebDAV-
enabled site and do read operations (limited only by realm permissions configured on
the web server), because WebDAV is a superset of HTTP. Write operations cannot be
performed by a web browser; they require a WebDAV client, such as Goliath, or the one
built into the Mac OS X file system and typically used via the Finder.
Note: To connect from another platform, see the platform-specific documentation for
the appropriate WebDAV client. Microsoft platforms use an authentication mechanism
that may make it difficult or impossible to mount WebDAV volumes from Mac OS X.
The URL for connecting through such an application is http://<serverURL>:<server
port>/<folder or directory where collaborative files are stored>.
WebDAV and Web Content File and Folder Permissions
Mac OS X Server imposes the following constraints on web content files and folders
(which are located by default in /Library/WebServer/Documents):
• For security reasons, web content files and folders should not be writable by world.
• Web content files and folders are owned by user root and group admin by default, so
they are modifiable by any administrator but not by user or group www.
• To use WebDAV, web content files must be readable and writable by user or group
www, and folders must be readable, writable, and executable by user or group www.
• If you need to modify web content files and folders while you are logged in as an
administrator, those files or folders need to be modifiable by the administrator.