【SVNBook学习笔记】WebDAV之Window Web文件夹历史

  作者:zhanhailiang 日期:2012-12-8

详情请见SVNbook附录C.3.2.1. Microsoft Web 文件夹

Microsoft was one of the original backers of the WebDAV specification, 
and first started shipping a client in Windows 98, which was known as 
Web Folders. This client was also shipped in Windows NT 4.0 and Windows
2000.

The original Web Folders client was an extension to Explorer, the main 
GUI program used to browse filesystems. It works well enough. In Windows
98, the feature might need to be explicitly installed if Web Folders 
aren't already visible inside My Computer. In Windows 2000, simply add
a new “network place,” enter the URL, and the WebDAV share will pop up 
for browsing.

With the release of Windows XP, Microsoft started shipping a new 
implementation of Web Folders, known as the WebDAV Mini-Redirector. The
new implementation is a filesystem-level client, allowing、WebDAV shares
to be mounted as drive letters. Unfortunately, this implementation is 
incredibly buggy. The client usually tries to convert HTTP URLs 
(http://host/repos) into UNC share notation(\\host\repos); it also often
tries to use Windows Domain authentication to respond to basic-auth HTTP
challenges, sending usernames as HOST\username. These interoperability 
problems are severe and are documented in numerous places around the Web, 
to the frustration of many users. Even Greg Stein, the original author of
Apache's WebDAV module, bluntly states that XP Web Folders simply can't 
operate against an Apache server.

Windows Vista's initial implementation of Web Folders seems to be almost
the same as XP's, so it has the same sort of problems. With luck, Microsoft
will remedy these issues in a Vista Service Pack. However, there seem to 
be workarounds for both XP and Vista that allow Web Folders to work against
Apache. Users have mostly reported success with these techniques, so we'll 
relay them here.

On Windows XP, you have two options. First, search Microsoft's web site for 
update KB90730, “Software Update for Web Folders.” This may fix all your 
problems. If it doesn't, it seems that the original pre-XP Web Folders 
implementation is still buried within the system. You can unearth it by
going to Network Places and adding a new network place. When prompted, enter
the URL of the repository, but include a port number in the URL. For example,
you should enter http://host/repos as http://host:80/repos instead. Respond 
to any authentication prompts with your Subversion credentials.

On Windows Vista, the same KB90730 update may clear everything up. But there
may still be other issues. Some users have reported that Vista considers all
http:// connections insecure, and thus will always fail any authentication 
challenges from Apache unless the connection happens over https://. If you're
unable to connect to the Subversion repository via SSL, you can tweak the 
system registry to turn off this behavior. Just change the value
of the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient
\Parameters\BasicAuthLevel key from 1 to 2. A final warning: be sure to set up
the Web Folder to point to the repository's root directory (/), rather than 
some subdirectory such as /trunk. Vista Web Folders seems to work only against
repository roots.

In general, while these workarounds may function for you, you might get a better
overall experience using a third-party WebDAV client such as WebDrive or NetDrive.