WebDAV killed my repository!

[macjaeger]

There are a number of WebDAV clients to choose from, I was looking for a free client to mount (a part of) the OpenKM 6.2 repository as a windows drive. I came across DirectNetDrive and at first it looked simple and sturdy. I connected drive letter K:\ to http://myserver:8080/OpenKM/webdav/okm_root and could upload files, download files, create folders, etc. in windows explorer - all was looking good. But then I did the horrible thing: I tried to move one file into a subfolder by drag&drop, and bang! the repository was broken! Then WebDAV access failed all the time, and the frontend complained "OKM-002015: Document path not found", I had to rebuild the OpenKM-installation from scratch (which was no problem, I'm just testdriving the system and employ a well organised set of backups...).

I could recreate the problem with different settings, e.g. enabling / disabling "system.webdav.fix", using "okm:root" as well as "okm_root", etc.; it makes no difference if the user is okmAdmin or some unprivileged jonDoe. I tried CarotDAV instead without this problem (it doesn't mount to windows drive letter, though!), and I'm gooing to testdrive other WebDAV-clients later.

I'm not sure if DirectNetDrive is to blame, or if it's windows 7, but in any case WebDAV should not be able to kill the repository in a single drag&drop operation... Would you please look into this? Right now I can not enable WebDAV without risk of breaking the whole server!

[update]
NetDrive (different application than DirectNetDrive!) doesn't cause the problem when drag&dropping files, so it seems the bug lies within DirectNetDrive. That's good news, but still NO single one webdav client should be able to kill the repository, as you can never be sure who's targetting what software at your server...

[jllort]

We suggest netdrive or webdrive ( works perfect ). Use direct Windows webdav support as your own risk, there're know bugs in webdav windows implementation ( for several years ) that Microsoft seems decided to be never corrected.

[pavila]

We usually work with NetDrive people to improve compatibility with OpenKM. Sadly WebDAV is a quite weird protocol and all the clients does not implement in the same way.

[macjaeger]

I understand that you suggest some specific WebDAV-clients, and i see the reasons. I can advise, but I can not control which clients my users (students and teachers in my case) will use. If ill behaved clients would only just fail, that would only be this users problem; but obviously "bad" clients can break the repository. So in order to protect the repository i have to disable WebDAV completely! It's not a show-stopper, but not very comfortable.

[macjaeger]

Is there a way to restrict which users can access the repository via WebDAV?

[pavila]

No, this is a global configuration property.

Anyway you should raise a bug to DirectNetDrive people.