ITinfo: WebDAV Eases Website Development

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WebDAV Eases Website Development

by Dave Murphy
ISSN 1535-3613

WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) may make it easier for website authors to upload their site's webpages to the hosting computer.

The Internet Engineering Task Force, IETF, moved WebDAV from draft status to a proposed standard. Formal comments are now requested. This is a major step forward in the creation of a new Internet standard.

WebDAV is a set of extensions to the hypertext transfer protocol. The extensions will standardize the manner in which website authoring tools upload or post files to the webservers. Currently most professional designers create the webpages on a local computer and transfer the files to the webserver using FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software such as WS_FTP Pro or CuteFTP.

Many amateur site designers use Microsoft's FrontPage to create websites. FrontPage, when used in conjunction with an accommodating webhosting ISP will automatically upload the webpage files to the webserver. However, the website hosting ISP must install special files, called FrontPage extensions, on the webserver computer for the automatic uploads to work.

WebDAV would eliminate the need for those proprietary extensions and FTP uploads.

WebDAV consists of three main parts. "Propfind" is a way of storing and retrieving metadata--information included in an HTML document that describes it, such as the names of authors and documents and their dates. "Locking" prevents multiple parties from accessing a document simultaneously. "Collections" pulls together various Web pages components--such as image files--that may be located in different places.

FrontPage users as well as website designers looking for ultra-fast webservers to host their websites should review the HostMaster service at dgl.com/host.

A complete list of criteria to use when evaluating website hosting services is posted at dgl.com/host/provider.html.

DGL's website hosting service utilizes state-of-the-art equipment in a specially-controlled environmental chamber to ensure ultra-fast website hosting for e-commerce and business websites. There is no additional charge for FrontPage extensions. A list of specific features of this service is at dgl.com/host/features.html.

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http://itrain.org/itinfo/1998/it981209.html
updated December 9, 1998