WebDAV in PicApport

With the release of version 10.4 a new feature was introduced in PicApport to configure a WebDAV server optionally.

This has significantly enhanced the possibilities of client-side photo management:

• Create / delete directories, photos and videos.
• Copying of photos / videos via operating system commands (copy, or drag/drop into folders)
• Integration into PicApport's internal permission management
• Easy configuration of WebDAV shares
• Almost all current operating systems offer today the possibility to access a WebDAV server

Configuration

The WebDAV shares are easily done during the configuration of the PicApport photo directories (see parameter robot.root.n.webdavmount in the PicApport-Server Guide).

A user group is automatically created for each configured WebDAV share. Only users who are members of this group have access to this directory and all subdirectories.
 IMPORTANT A user always has full access to the WebDAV shares assigned to him. This includes update or deletion of files.

In the about-dialog (About PicApport) of the web interface the  WebDAV-Control shows which WebDAV shares are available for the currently logged in user.
The WebDAV-Control is only visible if at least one WebDAV mount has been defined.

Configuration Reference

A detailed description of the configuration parameters for the WebDAV server can be found in the PicApport-Server Guide.

• robot.root.n.webdavmount

• webdav.n.webdavmount

• webdav.n.path

• user.log.webdav

Examples of embedding the WebDAV server for different clients

To make the following examples work, the user picapport with the password picapport was added to the PicApport user group WebDAV.main.

As server address we use the German PicApport Demo https://onlinedemo.picapport.de/dav/main in our examples.
Replace in each case onlinedemo.picapport.de by your server address e.g. mypicapportserver.de

The German PicApport Demo can also be used for testing. Userid and password is picapport. The Demo-WebDAV server runs in read-only mode. Updates are not possible.

The following examples all refer to the following configuration (Windows, all images on D:\Photos):

Windows

Use as a network drive (net use)

• Make sure that the webclient service is running (net start webclient)
• net use p: https://onlinedemo.picapport.de/dav/main /user:picapport picapport

Use with Total Commander

• The Total Commander WebDAV plugin is required for this: https://www.ghisler.com/dplugins.htm

Linux

• Installation of the DAVfs file system:
  sudo apt-get install davfs2
  
  
• Mounting the WebDAV server (see: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/bionic/en/man8/mount.davfs.8.html
  sudo mount -t davfs -o username=picapport https://onlinedemo.picapport.de/dav/main /mnt/picapport
  

Android

• Total Commander (also here the WebDAV plugin from the Playstore must be installed)
  
  
• App WebDAV Nav:Use the following server address  https://onlinedemo.picapport.de/dav/main
• CX File Explorer
  
  
• All file explorers that support WebDAV

iOS

• App WebDAV Nav:Use the following server address  https://onlinedemo.picapport.de/dav/main
  
  
• All file explorers that support WebDAV

Technical information

PicApport implements a Class 1 WebDAV server. For more information see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebDAV
Locking, as required in Class 2, is therefore not supported, because it is not necessary for PicApport.

HTTP Basic Authentication is used for authentication. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_access_authentication
Therefore we strongly recommend to use the encrypted SSL protocol for the WebDAV functionality.
See also parameters server.ssl.* in the PicApport-Server Guide.