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Posted to dev@subversion.apache.org by Sam Halliday <sa...@gmail.com> on 2009/02/17 20:24:35 UTC

Fuller WebDAV support

Dear all,

I was just checking the roadmap for SVN development and I was  
delighted to see that fuller WebDAV support is pegged as one of the  
long term goals! (once the 1.6 release is out)

Full WebDAV support in SVN would be incredible... I'm imagining at  
least Windows, Linux and Apple machines all being able to subscribe to  
an SVN repository as a network drive over WebDAV, with full write  
access. Obviously this is possible today with standard WebDAV from  
Apache, but to have the power of a version control system behind that  
is just incredible. For me, version control is essential behind any  
"network cloud".

Really looking forward to help test the betas! (I hope copy and move  
will be properly supported in order to retain the version histories)

-- 
Sam

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Re: Fuller WebDAV support

Posted by Julian Reschke <ju...@gmx.de>.
Mark Phippard wrote:
> ...
> I am not sure what Class 2 means, but it probably has something to do
> with locking and WebDAV autoversioning.  This has been in the product
> since 1.2 and it works.  I use it from the Apple Finder, although it
> has some annoying behaviors such as doing a LOT of commits.
> ...

For the record, "class 2" means locking support: 
<http://www.webdav.org/specs/rfc4918.html#rfc.section.18.2>.

BR, Julian

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Re: Fuller WebDAV support

Posted by Mark Phippard <ma...@gmail.com>.
On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 3:49 PM, Sam Halliday <sa...@gmail.com> wrote:

> My hope was that Apple Finder, Windows Explorer and the various Linux
> FS mount systems would be able to subscribe to an SVN WebDAV location
> and use them as a read/write network drive (i.e. Class 2 WebDAV). When
> I tried this on Apple Finder, I noted that modifying anything (or
> attempting to create new files) resulted in an error. Are you saying
> this *should* work? Apple Finder only works with Class 2 WebDAV.

I am not sure what Class 2 means, but it probably has something to do
with locking and WebDAV autoversioning.  This has been in the product
since 1.2 and it works.  I use it from the Apple Finder, although it
has some annoying behaviors such as doing a LOT of commits.

> If SVN WebDAV worked in this way, you could imagine a network drive
> that could be accessed like any normal WebDAV folder, yet with full
> version support behind the scenes (although admittedly less quality
> with the interim versions, and no logs). There are many situations
> where this is favourable.

As I said, this has existed for years and lots of people use it.
Especially for things like graphic designers that just need to be able
to copy in new versions of files, but also people using Microsoft
Office etc. which has WebDAV functionality built-in.

See: http://svnbook.red-bean.com/en/1.5/svn.webdav.html

-- 
Thanks

Mark Phippard
http://markphip.blogspot.com/

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Re: Fuller WebDAV support

Posted by Sam Halliday <sa...@gmail.com>.
Oh fantastic! I feel both silly and overjoyed at the same time.

I'll take my questions to the user list/IRC from here. Thank you for  
adding this support for 1.5! I'd really like to see Class 2 and this  
Delta support in upcoming releases.

-- 
Sam




On 17 Feb 2009, at 21:00, Erik Huelsmann wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 9:49 PM, Sam Halliday  
> <sa...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Oh dear, I seem to have completely misunderstood your goals. The page
>> at http://subversion.tigris.org/webdav-usage.html suggests
>>
>> "Version 2.0 of Subversion will address WebDAV interoperability
>> (Class 1, Class 2, and DeltaV features). Each of the custom features
>> expected by the client actually has an alternate mechanism available
>> in DeltaV, but in a much less efficient form.
>> It is expected that Version 1.0 will support read-only, Class 1  
>> WebDAV
>> clients. Any "low-hanging fruit" to increase DeltaV interoperability
>> will be considered."
>>
>> My hope was that Apple Finder, Windows Explorer and the various Linux
>> FS mount systems would be able to subscribe to an SVN WebDAV location
>> and use them as a read/write network drive (i.e. Class 2 WebDAV).  
>> When
>> I tried this on Apple Finder, I noted that modifying anything (or
>> attempting to create new files) resulted in an error.
>
> Did you enable "Autoversioning"? If you didn't, that's probably your  
> answer.
>
>
> HTH,
>
> Erik.

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Re: Fuller WebDAV support

Posted by Erik Huelsmann <eh...@gmail.com>.
On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 9:49 PM, Sam Halliday <sa...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Oh dear, I seem to have completely misunderstood your goals. The page
> at http://subversion.tigris.org/webdav-usage.html suggests
>
>  "Version 2.0 of Subversion will address WebDAV interoperability
> (Class 1, Class 2, and DeltaV features). Each of the custom features
> expected by the client actually has an alternate mechanism available
> in DeltaV, but in a much less efficient form.
> It is expected that Version 1.0 will support read-only, Class 1 WebDAV
> clients. Any "low-hanging fruit" to increase DeltaV interoperability
> will be considered."
>
> My hope was that Apple Finder, Windows Explorer and the various Linux
> FS mount systems would be able to subscribe to an SVN WebDAV location
> and use them as a read/write network drive (i.e. Class 2 WebDAV). When
> I tried this on Apple Finder, I noted that modifying anything (or
> attempting to create new files) resulted in an error.

Did you enable "Autoversioning"? If you didn't, that's probably your answer.


HTH,

Erik.

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Re: Fuller WebDAV support

Posted by Sam Halliday <sa...@gmail.com>.
Oh dear, I seem to have completely misunderstood your goals. The page  
at http://subversion.tigris.org/webdav-usage.html suggests

  "Version 2.0 of Subversion will address WebDAV interoperability  
(Class 1, Class 2, and DeltaV features). Each of the custom features  
expected by the client actually has an alternate mechanism available  
in DeltaV, but in a much less efficient form.
It is expected that Version 1.0 will support read-only, Class 1 WebDAV  
clients. Any "low-hanging fruit" to increase DeltaV interoperability  
will be considered."

My hope was that Apple Finder, Windows Explorer and the various Linux  
FS mount systems would be able to subscribe to an SVN WebDAV location  
and use them as a read/write network drive (i.e. Class 2 WebDAV). When  
I tried this on Apple Finder, I noted that modifying anything (or  
attempting to create new files) resulted in an error. Are you saying  
this *should* work? Apple Finder only works with Class 2 WebDAV.

If SVN WebDAV worked in this way, you could imagine a network drive  
that could be accessed like any normal WebDAV folder, yet with full  
version support behind the scenes (although admittedly less quality  
with the interim versions, and no logs). There are many situations  
where this is favourable.

-- 
Sam


On 17 Feb 2009, at 20:40, Mark Phippard wrote:

> On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 3:24 PM, Sam Halliday  
> <sa...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I was just checking the roadmap for SVN development and I was
>> delighted to see that fuller WebDAV support is pegged as one of the
>> long term goals! (once the 1.6 release is out)
>
> The goal is actually less WebDAV, not more.  At least in terms of
> changing the SVN client to stop using it.  The server would still
> support what it does today.
>
>> Full WebDAV support in SVN would be incredible... I'm imagining at
>> least Windows, Linux and Apple machines all being able to subscribe  
>> to
>> an SVN repository as a network drive over WebDAV, with full write
>> access.
>
> This has existed since SVN 1.2 and for the most part it works well.
> The problems that do exist are in the clients not supporting it right.
> This has mainly been an issue with Windows.
>
>> Obviously this is possible today with standard WebDAV from
>> Apache, but to have the power of a version control system behind that
>> is just incredible. For me, version control is essential behind any
>> "network cloud".
>
> This is all a bit of a head scratcher.  What is it you are looking for
> that is not done today?  The only thing that was always on the long
> term roadmap was more support of the DeltaV extensions for WebDAV.  I
> believe there are no longer any plans to pursue that, definitely not
> in our own client.  AFAIK, there are no plans for any general purpose
> DeltaV clients in the works either, such as the OSX Finder.  Basic
> WebDAV seems as far as any of these plan to go and that works today.
>
> -- 
> Thanks
>
> Mark Phippard
> http://markphip.blogspot.com/

------------------------------------------------------
http://subversion.tigris.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=462&dsMessageId=1180976

Re: Fuller WebDAV support

Posted by Mark Phippard <ma...@gmail.com>.
On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 3:24 PM, Sam Halliday <sa...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I was just checking the roadmap for SVN development and I was
> delighted to see that fuller WebDAV support is pegged as one of the
> long term goals! (once the 1.6 release is out)

The goal is actually less WebDAV, not more.  At least in terms of
changing the SVN client to stop using it.  The server would still
support what it does today.

> Full WebDAV support in SVN would be incredible... I'm imagining at
> least Windows, Linux and Apple machines all being able to subscribe to
> an SVN repository as a network drive over WebDAV, with full write
> access.

This has existed since SVN 1.2 and for the most part it works well.
The problems that do exist are in the clients not supporting it right.
 This has mainly been an issue with Windows.

> Obviously this is possible today with standard WebDAV from
> Apache, but to have the power of a version control system behind that
> is just incredible. For me, version control is essential behind any
> "network cloud".

This is all a bit of a head scratcher.  What is it you are looking for
that is not done today?  The only thing that was always on the long
term roadmap was more support of the DeltaV extensions for WebDAV.  I
believe there are no longer any plans to pursue that, definitely not
in our own client.  AFAIK, there are no plans for any general purpose
DeltaV clients in the works either, such as the OSX Finder.  Basic
WebDAV seems as far as any of these plan to go and that works today.

-- 
Thanks

Mark Phippard
http://markphip.blogspot.com/

------------------------------------------------------
http://subversion.tigris.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=462&dsMessageId=1180936