How does OracleAS Portal work with WebDAV?

| Definition | Related Help Topics | Additional Information |

Definition

This topic is divided into the following sections:

| What is WebDAV? | Configuring OracleAS Portal for WebDAV |
Setting up a WebDAV client |  Using a WebDAV client | Viewing errors |

What is WebDAV?

OracleAS Portal supports the use of a Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning protocol (WebDAV). Using a WebDAV client, such as Web Folders, content contributors can seamlessly drag and drop content, files, and folders back and forth between the desktop and the page groups in the portal. They can also perform in-place opening, editing, and saving of file-type items using desktop applications, such as Microsoft Office 2000.

WebDAV also has Java clients (such as DAV Explorer), open source tools (such as Cadaver and Sitecopy), Apple GUI tools (such as Goliath), and commercial authoring tools (such as Macromedia Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop). Users can also use browsers such as Mozilla or Internet Explorer 5.5 to browse a portal's content in a hierarchical structure.

Setting up WebDAV requires some simple configuration on both the server side (in OracleAS Portal) and the client side.

Configuring OracleAS Portal for WebDAV

When Oracle Application Server is installed, all required OraDAV parameters are set with values that enable access to Oracle database content through a Web browser or a WebDAV client. If necessary, the portal administrator can modify parameter values if the default values do not meet your needs. For information about how to do this, refer to the Oracle Application Server Portal Configuration Guide on Portal Center.

Note: OraDAV refers to the capabilities available through the mod_oradav module. The mod_oradav module is the Oracle module that extends the implementation of mod_dav, and is integrated with the Oracle HTTP Server. The mod_oradav module enables WebDAV clients to connect to an Oracle database, read and write content, and query and lock documents in various schemas. See the Oracle HTTP Server Administration Guide on Oracle Technology Network for more information about WebDAV, OraDAV, and how to set up mod_oradav.

WebDAV configuration file

Similarly to the OracleAS Portal DAD configuration file, WebDAV has it own configuration file ($APACHE_HOME/oradav/conf/oradav.conf) that contains the OraDAV parameters. The contents of this file look something like the following:

<Location /dav_portal/portal>
  DAV Oracle
  DAVParam ORACONNECT dbhost:dbport:dbsid
  DAVParam ORAUSER portal_schema
  DAVParam ORAPASSWORD portal_schema_password
  DAVParam ORAPACKAGENAME portal_schema.wwdav_api_driver
  Options Indexes
</Location>

We recommend that portal administrators always use the DAD configuration utility (available as part of Portal Service Monitoring) to create new DADs and make changes to existing DADs, as this keeps these two files in sync. If an administrator manually edits the OracleAS Portal DAD, the oradav.conf file must also be edited to make the corresponding changes.

Note: Whenever the portal administrator makes changes to the oradav.conf file, the HTTP Server must be restarted before the new settings will take effect. For information about how to do this, refer to the Oracle HTTP Server Administration Guide on Oracle Technology Network.

Authentication

Due to the way some WebDAV clients behave, users might experience authentication requests multiple times. To avoid this, the portal administrator can enable the cookie option by adding the following line to the oradav.conf file:

DAVParam ORACookieMaxAge <seconds>

where seconds is the amount of time in seconds before the cookie expires.

For example a value of 28800 is 8 hours and means that once a user has logged on through a WebDAV client, he or she will not be prompted for a user name and password again until 8 hours has passed.

Note: Some WebDAV clients, for example, Dreamweaver, do not support cookies, so even if the cookie option is enabled, users may still be prompted for their passwords multiple times.

If you are using the SQL*Net Advanced Security Option (ASO), the ORACONNECT parameter in the oradav.conf file must be replaced with ORASERVICE dbhost as shown below:

<Location /dav_portal/portal>
  DAV Oracle
  DAVParam ORASERVICE dbhost
  DAVParam ORAUSER portal_schema
  DAVParam ORAPASSWORD portal_schema_password
  DAVParam ORAPACKAGENAME portal_schema.wwdav_api_driver
  Options Indexes
</Location>

This allows the database alias to be resolved by the tnsnames.ora file.

Setting up a WebDAV client

The steps required to set up a WebDAV client to connect to OracleAS Portal varies depending on the client. But all clients will eventually request a URL. The OracleAS Portal DAV URL is very similar to the URL you use to access the portal itself in your Web browser, and uses the following format:

http://<hostname>:<port>/<dav_location>

Where dav_location is the location as specified in the oradav.conf file, for example, the default OracleAS Portal DAV URL is:

http://<hostname>:<port>/dav_portal/portal

The dav_portal part of the URL is the default name of a virtual directory used to differentiate between portal access via a WebDAV client and portal access which uses the pls virtual directory. portal is the DAD of the portal installation. Administrators can also configure virtual hosts to provide a different, simpler, or easier to remember URL for WebDAV access, if need be.

Users connect to a portal in WebDAV clients using the same user name and password that they use to log in to the portal itself. If the portal is in a hosted environment, users also need to add their company information to their user name, as follows:

<username>@<company>

Tips:

• OracleAS Portal's Single Sign-On functionality does not apply for WebDAV clients. So, even if a user is logged in to the portal itself, he or she will still need to explicitly login from the client.

• If the WebDAV client has no explicit logout feature, users will need to logout from the operating system (like in Windows 2000 or NT) to logout from the portal.

• Users can also directly access a particular page group or page by adding its name to the OracleAS Portal DAV URL, for example:

  http://mymachine.mycompany.com:5000/dav_portal/portal/myportal/mypage

• Some WebDAV clients (e.g., Windows 2000 or NT) do not support multiple simultaneous log ins. If a user wants to log in as a new user, the user will need to clear his or her cookies, restart the computer to clear out the current login session, then log in as the new user.

WebDAV clients and SSL

Although OraDAV does support Secure Socket Layer (SSL), some WebDAV clients do not. Refer to the table below to see which clients support SSL:

Using a WebDAV client

OracleAS Portal supports the following set of actions using a WebDAV client. Since not all WebDAV clients behave the same way, users might be allowed only a subset of these actions depending on the client being used. For example, users can check items in and out only if the WebDAV client supports the WebDAV LOCK method (Web Folders do not currently support locking operations, Office 2000 clients support implicit locking operations, Cadaver and Dreamweaver support explicit locking operations). Performing any of the following actions has the same effect as performing it in the portal itself, and any change made from the WebDAV client is instantly visible in the portal.

Listing content

Once connected to the portal, all the page groups on which the user has privileges to see are visible as folders at the root level (the folders actually represent the root pages of the page groups).

To be able to see a page group, the user must be able to view the root page of the page group. All authenticated users should see at least the Corporate Pages page group. Additionally, if the user has a personal page in the Shared Objects page group, he or she should be able to see Shared Objects and access his or her personal page via the WebDAV client.

Drill into a page group to list all the pages inside the page group as folders. Drill into a page to list the page's sub-pages and all items (and sub-items) of the following types:

• File or Simple File
• Image, Simple Image, or Simple Image Map
• Zip File
• Custom types based on the Base File, Base Image, or Base Image Map item types

To see items in a WebDAV client, the user must have at least the View privilege. Users will see the current version of the item. Items will be available in the page group's default language only. Translations of items are not visible in WebDAV clients.

Users will see only the main file (i.e., the primary file or image) associated with each item. Any other files (i.e., secondary files or images) associated with the item (for example, the item image), are hidden in the WebDAV client. If users want to delete or change these files, they must do so in the portal itself.

Tips:

• In WebDAV clients there is no differentiation between items and sub-items.

• The file and folder names displayed in the WebDAV client are the actual names of the files or folders (not the internal names of the items or pages). The internal name will be similar to the actual name, except it will be all uppercase and may include additional characters (_0, _1, etc.) to ensure uniqueness.

• Although OracleAS Portal is case-sensitive for file and folder names (e.g., aaa.htm and AAA.htm are treated as different items), if your WebDAV client is not case-sensitive (e.g., Web Folders), aaa.htm and AAA.htm will be treated as the same file.

• Templates, regions, and tabs are not currently represented. Because these are not represented, their content is not represented. Users will not be able to see items that are contained within tabs or items that are inherited from page templates. This also means that if a file is placed on a tab in the portal itself, that item will not display in a WebDAV client. We recommend that tabs are not used in pages that are intended for use with WebDAV clients.

Viewing content

Most WebDAV clients allow users to view the content of a file by clicking on the name. In Windows 2000 or NT, the behavior is very similar to clicking a file on the local machine; the operating system opens it in the application associated with the file type.

Tip: Some desktop applications may have difficulty opening files that use special characters in the file name. We recommend that file names use only alphanumeric characters (A-Z, a-z, 0-9), spaces, and the following special characters: _ - . ( ) ! , ; = ~ @ [ ] { } ^ $ +.

Adding, editing, moving, and copying

To add, edit, move, or copy files, a user must have at least the Manage Items With Approval privilege.

The page designer can specify what item types to use for new files published to the portal via WebDAV. For example, the page designer might want any zip files published to the portal to be uploaded as Zip File items, so that their contents can be extracted into the page group. If the default item type includes the Category attribute, new items added via WebDAV clients are assigned to the General category.

When a content contributor edits or moves an existing item using WebDAV, that item retains its original item type and attribute settings. Similarly, when a contributor copies an item using WebDAV, the copy uses the item type and attribute settings of the original item. Contributors cannot edit an item's attributes in OracleAS Portal's DAV server. To do this they must edit the item in the portal itself.

OracleAS Portal's DAV server supports Audit versioning. If a page uses Audit versioning, when a content contributor uses a WebDAV client to edit an item on the page, a new version of the item is created. The new version will always be set to the current version. If the contributor does not want the new version to be the current version, he or she must edit the item in the portal itself.

Note: If a page uses Simple versioning, when a content contributor uses a WebDAV client to edit an item on the page, a new version of the item is created and set to the current version. The contributor does not have the choice of overwriting the previous version of the item. To overwrite the previous version of the item, the contributor must edit the item in the portal itself.

OracleAS Portal's DAV server also supports approvals. If a user with the Manage Items With Approval privilege on a page adds an item to the page using a WebDAV client, the approval process for the page or page group is triggered. The item does not become visible to other users until it has been approved.

Note: As soon as the contributor with the Manage Items With Approval privilege adds or changes an item, that item cannot be updated in the WebDAV client until it has been approved or rejected.

With WebDAV-enabled desktop applications, such as Microsoft Office 2000, content contributors can open a file, edit it directly, and then save it to the same location, using the same name. With other applications, the contributor can save the file to the local file system and drag and drop the new file to the portal. The next time the file is opened from the portal itself, the edited version will be displayed.

When content contributors move or copy a file, the whole item associated with that file is moved or copied, including associated files (for example, the item image) and any sub-items. If a sub-item is copied, the copy is created as a top-level item.

Tips:

• The target page must contain at least one item or one undefined region. If a page has more than one item region, the page designer can specify one of those regions as the default item region.

  • When a content contributor adds and item to the page using WebDAV, the item is placed in the page's default item region. If the target page is based on a page template, the default item region is determined by the default item region of the template (unless overridden by the page itself).

  • If a default item region has not been specified, the item is placed in the second item region on the page (or the first if there is only one item region). The second item region is used to avoid placing items in a region intended for navigation elements.

  • If there are no item regions, the item is placed in the first undefined region on the page (and that undefined region then becomes an item region).

  • All pages, including those with no item regions, are visible on the WebDAV side. Moving or copying an item into a page with no item or no undefined regions will produce an error.

• Pages created from a WebDAV client automatically include an item region.

• Content contributors cannot use WebDAV to add items to pages that are based on a seeded page template (those templates provided when you install OracleAS Portal).

• Content contributors cannot add files to tabs in pages. If a page consists entirely of tabs, content contributors will not be able to add items to the page even though it will be listed in the WebDAV client.

• Users can move and copy files and pages to other pages within the same page group. Copying files and pages across page groups is not supported in OracleAS Portal. To perform this action using WebDAV, users can copy the files or pages to the local file system, then copy them from the file system to the target page group.

• In Web Folders, depending on your operating system, you cannot copy a file into the same folder. For example, in Windows 2000, dragging an item from the right pane into the same folder in the left pane will raise an error. In Windows NT, using the copy and paste commands to copy a file into the same folder will have no effect.

Deleting content

When content contributors delete a file in a WebDAV client, the whole item associated with that file is deleted from the portal. This means that any other files that are associated with the item (for example, the item image) are also deleted, as well as all versions and translations of the item.

If deleted items are retained in the database, when contributors mark an item for deletion in the portal itself, the item will still be visible in WebDAV clients.

Checking content out and in

If the WebDAV client supports locking and unlocking (e.g., Dreamweaver), content contributors can lock a file, which in turn will check out the item (the OracleAS Portal equivalent of the WebDAV LOCK method) attached to the document. Once an item is locked from a WebDAV client, no-one else can make changes to the document until it is checked back in.

After the contributor has made the required changes to the file, he or she can unlock it, which in turn checks in the item (the OracleAS Portal equivalent of the WebDAV UNLOCK method) attached to the document. Other users will then be able to make their own changes to the file.

Notes:

• Users cannot check folders in or out, or recursively check out the contents of a folder.

• Users cannot move, copy, or delete a page if an item in that page, or in one of its sub-pages, has been locked via a WebDAV client by another user. Only the user who locked the item can perform these operations.

• If a user checks an item out in the portal itself, even the user that checked the item out will not be able to update the item in a WebDAV client. This is because OracleAS Portal uses a different locking model from WebDAV. OracleAS Portal locks items based on user names, whereas WebDAV locks resources based on specific lock-keys. When a user checks out an item in the portal, it is locked in the WebDAV domain with a specific key. Only the portal itself (not the individual user) has the key to unlock the item. Even the user who checked the item out needs to check the item in again before he or she can operate on it using a WebDAV client.

  For example, when Scott checks out File1 in the portal itself, the portal keeps a record that Scott has checked out File1 and the OracleAS Portal WebDAV server locks File1 and holds onto the related lock token. Scott can log on to the portal using any Web browser and check File1 back in but he cannot use a WebDAV client to unlock the item because the OracleAS Portal WebDAV server (not Scott's WebDAV client) has the lock token.

Creating portal pages and sub-pages

Using a WebDAV client, users can create and delete pages within existing page groups on which they have the appropriate privileges. For example, in Web Folders, in the folder for the page where the user wants to create a sub-page, he or she can right-click the mouse and choose New>Folder from the resulting menu. All new pages you create via WebDAV clients are Standard pages and contain an item region.

Tips:

• Page names can contain any alphanumeric character (A-Z, a-z, 0-9), spaces, and the following special characters: _ - . ( ) ! , ; = ~ @ [ ] { } ^ $ +. Consequently, to paste a folder from the file system into the portal, it and all sub-folders that it contains must use only these characters.
• The folder name displayed in the WebDAV client is the actual name of the folder (not the internal name of the page). The internal name will be similar to the actual folder name, except it will be all uppercase and may include additional characters (_0, _1, etc.) to ensure uniqueness within the page group.
• Because they are considered to be mount points like drives, users cannot create, edit, or delete page groups via WebDAV. These actions must be performed in the portal itself.
• Users cannot create tabs via WebDAV.
• To edit a page via WebDAV, the user must have at least the Manage privilege on the page.

Viewing errors

Any errors that occur when a user performs actions on a portal using a WebDAV client are recorded in an error log that is created in that user's personal page (as an item titled My Error Log) the first time an OracleAS Portal related WebDAV error occurs. This can be very helpful for interpreting the error messages reported in WebDAV clients, such as the message 'An error has occurred while trying to complete this operation' that is often displayed in Web Folders, or HTTP error numbers reported in Cadaver.

All errors are also recorded in the Apache error log file ($ORACLE_HOME/Apache/Apache/logs), so if the user does not have a personal page, or is a public user, the errors can still be examined.

For more verbose error reporting in the Apache error log file, add the following parameter to the oradav.conf file:

DAVParam ORATraceLevel 1

Note: Remember to the HTTP Server needs restarting whenever a change is made to the oradav.conf file. For information about how to do this, refer to the Oracle HTTP Server Administration Guide on Oracle Technology Network.

Tip: The error log is not truncated and may become quite a large file. We recommend that you periodically delete this file. The next time an error is encountered a new file will be created.

Related Help Topics

Next Steps:

• Edit Page: Regions
• Edit Page: Optional

Additional Information

On Portal Center:

For more information go to the documentation section of Portal Center.

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