HTTP The Definitive Guide (Publishing Systems)

Publishing Systems

FrontPage Server Extensions for Publishing Support
FrontPage Server Extensions
Our primary interest lies in the publishing protocol between the FP clients and FPSE. This protocol provides an example of designing extensions to the core services available in HTTP without changing HTTP semantics.

FrontPage Vocabulary

• Virtual server - A web server that supports virtual servers is called a multi-hosting web server. A machine that is configured with multiple IP addresses is called a multi-homed server
• Root web - The default, top-level content directory of a web server, or, in a multi-hosting environment, the top-level content directory of a virtual web server. 
• Subweb - A named subdirectory of the root web or another subweb that is a complete FPSE extended web.

The FrontPage RPC Protocol

FrontPage Security Model

WebDAV and Collaborative Authoring
Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) adds an extra dimension to web publishing—collaboration.
WebDAV Methods

• PROPFIND - Retrieves the properties of a resource.
• PROPPATCH - Sets one or more properties on one or many resources.
• MKCOL - Creates collections.
• COPY - Copies a resource or a collection of resources from a given source to a given destination. The destination need not be on the same machine.
• MOVE - Moves a resource or a collection of resources from a given source to a given destination. The destination need not be on the same machine.
• LOCK - Locks a resource or multiple resources.
• UNLOCK - Unlocks a previously locked resource.

WebDAV and XML

XML provides WebDAV with:

• A method of formatting instructions describing how data is to be handled
• A method of formatting complex responses from the server
• A method of communicating customized information about the collections and resources handled
• A flexible vehicle for the data itself
• A robust solution for most of the internationalization issues

WebDAV Headers

• DAV
• Depth
• Destination
• If
• Lock-Token
• Overwrite
• Timeout

WebDAV Locking and Overwrite Prevention

WebDAV supports two types of locks:

• Exclusive write locking of a resource or a collection - An exclusive write lock guarantees write privileges only to the lock owner. This type of locking completely eliminates potential conflicts.
• Shared write locking of a resource or a collection - A shared write lock allows a group of people to work on a given document. This type of locking works well in an environment where all the authors are aware of each other’s activities.

The LOCK Method

The UNLOCK Method

Properties and META Data
The PROPFIND Method
The PROPPATCH Method

Collections and Namespace Management
The MKCOL Method
The DELETE Method
The COPY and MOVE Methods
Overwrite header effect
COPY/MOVE of properties
Locked resources and COPY/MOVE

Enhanced HTTP/1.1 Methods
The PUT method
The OPTIONS method
Using the OPTIONS method, the client tries to establish the capability of the WebDAV server.

Version Management in WebDAV

Future of WebDAV