WebDAV Publishing Directories (IIS 6.0)
WebDAV is an industry-standard set of extensions to HTTP 1.1. WebDAV is a good alternative to FTP if you need a secure solution for publishing resources because it enables the same strong authentication, encryption, proxy support, and caching capabilities as any other HTTP-based Web site. In addition, with WebDAV, you can send multiple file transfers through a single TCP connection, whereas FTP requires a new connection for each file transferred. For more information about the WebDAV standard, see WebDAV Resources.
WebDAV is integrated into IIS, but it is disabled by default. For step-by-step instructions for enabling WebDAV in IIS, see Web Authoring with WebDAV. For information about securing WebDAV, see Securing WebDAV Publishing Directories later in this section.
With WebDAV, you can create Web publishing directories where users can publish, lock, and manage resources. To set up a WebDAV publishing directory, enable WebDAV, and then set up a virtual directory using IIS Manager in the same way that you set up a virtual directory for a standard Web site. For security purposes and to configure DAV custom properties, which are special properties that users can search on, a WebDAV publishing directory must reside on an NTFS file system partition. For step-by-step instructions for setting up a WebDAV publishing directory, see Creating Publishing Directories.
Making the WebDAV Publishing Directory Available to Users
After you enable WebDAV and set up a publishing directory, users can use the directory on your server as a collaborative work environment. Users with the correct permissions can copy and move files, and they can search for and modify the content and the properties of files. Multiple users can read a file concurrently, but the WebDAV lock and unlock capabilities allow only one person to modify the file at a time.
Users can access a WebDAV publishing directory through clients running Microsoft® Windows® 2000 or Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional operating systems, Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5 and 6, Microsoft® Office 2000 or Office XP products, and through any other client that supports the industry-standard WebDAV protocol.
For more information about WebDAV clients, including how they can access your WebDAV publishing directory, see About WebDAV.
Enabling WebDAV Redirector
WebDAV Redirector is a remote file system that allows clients running Windows XP Professional or Windows Server 2003 to connect to your WebDAV publishing directory through the command line. Once the client is connected, a user can create, modify, and save files on the WebDAV publishing directory using any existing applications that are written for a Windows 32-bit operating system. WebDAV Redirector enables users to access files on the Web as though they are on a mapped network drive. When enabling the WebDAV Redirector, you must ensure that the WebClient service is started.
For the WebDAV Redirector to work, the site that contains the virtual directory that is mapped to your WebDAV publishing directory must be set up exclusively as a WebDAV site. Therefore, you must delete all custom headers on that site, including custom headers for the Microsoft® FrontPage® 2002 Server Extensions. If your WebDAV Web site is set up as both a WebDAV site and a site running FrontPage 2002 Server Extensions, IIS will send the FrontPage custom header and the WebDAV Redirector will assume that the server is not a proper WebDAV site.