WebDAV is an IETF working group. The abbreviation stands for Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning. The term is also used to refer to the protocol (more accurately, the extension to the HTTP protocol) which the group defined.

The WebDAV protocol's aim is to make the World Wide Web a readable and writable medium, in line with Tim Berners-Lee's original vision. It provides functionality to create, change and move documents on a remote server (typically a web server or "web share"). This is useful, among other things, for authoring the documents which a web server serves, but can also be used for general web-based file storage, that can be accessed from anywhere. Most modern operating systems provide built-in support for WebDAV, making it as easy to use files on a WebDAV server (almost) as if they were stored in a local directory.

History

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WebDAV started life when Jim Whitehead convinced the W3C to host two meetings where people interested in the problem of distributed authoring on the World Wide Web could get together to discuss possible solutions. The original vision of the World Wide Web as expounded by Tim Berners-Lee was a both readable and writable medium. In fact Tim's first web browser, called WorldWideWeb, was capable of both viewing and editing remote pages. However as the web grew it turned itself into a read only medium. Jim and other like-minded people wanted to fix that limitation.

More on [ WebDAV ]

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