Using WebDAV

WebDAV

WebDAV is an extension to the HTTP protocol that allows accessing properties of resources provided by the web server, such as files and directories. The Hazaar WebDAV client handles protocol specifics and provides a simple API for common WebDAV operations.

For more information on WebDAV, see RFC 4918.

PROPFIND

The first method that WebDAV provides is called PROPFIND. This method does as advertised and find properties for available resources. By default the PROPFIND method will return properties for the requested resource only. However if the depth argument is supplied and is 1, any resources contained in the requested collection resource will also be returned. In the context of a file browser, this is sort of like doing a "dir()" call to get a list of files and directories.

The WebDAV class in Hazaar will perform the PROPFIND request on the target web server and return the result.

For example:

$dav = new \Hazaar\HTTP\WebDAV(['url' => 'http://localhost/dav']);
$dir = $dav->propfind('/', [
    'displayname',
    'creationdate',
    'getcontenttype'
], 1);

In the above example, $dir will be an array where the keys are the resource paths (for example, /images/myimagefile.png) and the value is an array containing the requested properties. If null or an empty array is provided as the second argument, the WebDAV client requests all properties using the DAV:allprop element.

PROPPATCH

The Hazaar WebDAV class also exposes the PROPPATCH method which is used to update properties on resources.

For example:

$dav = new \Hazaar\HTTP\WebDAV(['url' => 'http://localhost/dav']);
$ok = $dav->proppatch('/myimagefile.png', ['displayname' => 'My Image File']);

This call updates the displayname property of the myimagefile.png resource.

MKCOL

The MKCOL method is used to create collections, ie: directories. Once a collection has been created then resources can be stored inside the collection.

$dav = new \Hazaar\HTTP\WebDAV(['url' => 'http://localhost/dav']);
$dav->mkcol('/images');

This example creates an images collection on the root collection.

PUT

The PUT method is used to create a new resource at the specified URI. This can be used to effectively 'upload' a file to the web server.

$dav = new \Hazaar\HTTP\WebDAV(['url' => 'http://localhost/dav']);
$file = file_get_contents('/path/to/imagefile.png');
$dav->put('/images/myuploadedimage.png', $file, 'image/png');

In the above example we upload a file to the images collection that we previously created.

Alternatively, to simplify the process a little, the putFile() method has been provided to allow using a \Hazaar\File object. The advantage of this is that it takes care of reading the file contents and the content type argument.

$dav = new \Hazaar\HTTP\WebDAV(['url' => 'http://localhost/dav']);
$file = new \Hazaar\File('/path/to/imagefile.png');
$dav->putFile('/images/myuploadedimage.png', $file);

If the above resource exists, then it will be overwritten.

DELETE

The last method that is provided is the DELETE method which is used to, you guessed it, delete resources.

So to delete the resource we just created you can do this:

$dav = new \Hazaar\HTTP\WebDAV(['url' => 'http://localhost/dav']);
$dav->delete('/images/myuploadedimage.png');

Keep in mind that if the resource you are deleting is a collection then all resources contained in the collection are deleted as well.