How do I enable WebDAV for my SEAS account?

What is WebDAV?

Briefly: WebDAV stands for "Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning". It is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol which allows users to collaboratively edit and manage files on remote web servers.

WebDAV will allow you to access files in a folder in your home html directory from another computer that is not connected to SEASnet. You can control who has access to this folder using PennKey, SEAS password, or a password you assign.

To enable WebDAV in your ~username/html directory, you are going to have to do the following things:

1. Create a webdav subdirectory in your ~username/html directory
2. Set up authentication for your webdav directory
3. Configure your OS to directly access your webdav directory for easy file sharing

Create a webdav subdirectory in your ~username/html directory

1. Create a directory called "webdav" in your html directory using the command line or any FTP program.
2. Wait 10 minutes. it will take up to 10 minutes for the webserver to recognize your new webdav directory.
3. You can access your webdav directory via:
   
   https://webdav.seas.upenn.edu/~clifford/webdav/
   
   Replace "clifford" with your username (the tilde needs to stay).

Set up authentication for your webdav directory

You have two options for restricting access to your webdav directory:

1. If all of your users have PennKeys, you can follow these steps:
   
   1. Create a new file called ".htaccess" using your favorite text editor.
   2. The file should contain something similar to this:

      AuthType Kerberos
AuthName "PennKey Login"
Require user clifford@UPENN.EDU marilyn@UPENN.EDU

      Replace "clifford" and "marilyn" with the PennKeys of the people who should have access. Each item should be separated by a space

2. If some of your users do not have PennKeys, you will need to use Basic authentication using htpasswd.
   

A WebDAV specific htaccess option

To make the directory visible to everyone, but only editable by you, add this to your htaccess file:

<Limit PUT POST DELETE PROPFIND PROPPATCH MKCOL COPY MOVE LOCK UNLOCK>
Require user clifford
</Limit>

Replace "clifford" with your username.

Configure your OS to directly access your webdav directory for easy file sharing

1. Linux KDE WebDAV features
2. Windows WebDAV features
3. OSX WebDAV features

Note: There may be some issues for Gnome users. If you are having trouble, please contact cets@seas.