Help me understand WebDAV and Autoversioning

Question

I just read the WebDAV Appendex in the O'Reilly Subversion book. I don't quite understand it. It talked about users being able to "mount" WebDAV directories (trees) and manipulate the files like they would normally and on saves the server would automagically create a new revision.

The way it explained it, it sounded like it would work for any program, but then at the end of the appendix, it listed a series of programs that worked with WebDAV servers, which leads me to think that maybe it doesn't work like it originally described it.

My question is this: How exactly do you interact with a WebDAV repository?

Can I do this for example: Copy a file locally via ftp, edit it with notepad++, and then upload it via ftp to the server and have the server do a commit and create a new revision with the file I just edited and uploaded.

Also, if that is possible, what happens if two people edit the file locally (on their machines) and uploaded two reversions to the server?

With webDAV will I be able to replace Dreamweaver's "Oops, someone edited this before you" with simple ftp uploads and subversion conflict resolutions?

Answer 1

To write to a WebDAV repository, you need either a WebDAV client, or a program that includes WebDAV functionality. Examples of clients are the WebDAV filesystem drivers in Windows and MacOS. An example of a program that has direct WebDAV support is MS Office (you can open a document with a http URL and edit it in place).

And no, you wouldn't use FTP. WebDAV is HTTP. So from the command line, you could use CURL to send a PUT request.