From: Aredridel <aredridel@...>
Date: 2004-08-28T10:00:03+09:00
Subject: Re: Ruby, WebDAV, and Mozilla Sunbird inquiry

> > FTP also lacks the one major weakness I've encountered with mod_dav:
> > it maintains its own permissions database, and files are all owned by
> > the apache process UID. That means that, if you're using mod_dav, you
> > can't offer WebDAV and direct (i.e., shell of FTP) access to the same
> > files. Very un-UNIX-y, IMHO.
> 
> Yes, this is a major problem. All the more reason for a WebDAV server 
> written in Ruby! If there is a framework available for handling the 
> requests, it appears it would be simple to write a server that handles 
> permissions in an appropriate unix-y way :) If I can find any extra 
> time, this would certainly be a project I would want to work on. I find 
> the mod_dav implementation to be somewhat lacking.

I, too, don't find joy in mod_dav. Its lack of unixy goodness is painful
to me, too.

> I've been on the lookout for a good webdav server for a long time now 
> (ever since I moved to MacOS X, which treats it as a first-class 
> filesystem). I have toyed with the idea of building my own, but never 
> actually tackled it full force to see how much work it would really be.

It'd be quite a bit of work, but perfectly doable (especially with good
tools like REXML -- thanks Sean!)

It's something I'd be quite willing to help with. I rather think that
WEBrick is a good place to start -- the basic method handling is there,
and a DAV implementation could just start life as a servlet. (In fact, a
servlet would make a great place to start in implementing custom
services with a DAV interface)

If someones else would want to pass some code around, I'd be more than
willing to work on the project, too. It's something I see as having a
long-term benefit to my business.

Ari