The DAV protocol is an extension for usual web sites to work files and shared documents. It's like a shared network folder but that can be accessed from internet.
The protocol was developed in early times of internet bt didn't get much popularity because of some problems:
- It's not so easy to implement it. E.g. it's based on XML format which is botched and not convenient.
- It's too abstract: this is not something bad by itself but it's not clear for newcomers why a command to get a directory list is
PROPFIND
and why creating a folder isMKCOL
. - Many features are missing: no deletion to trash bin, not photo thumbnails, file permissions etc.
- To complicated to create a WebDAV share: you have to configure a plugin for a web server. And it's really only a few of them mainly Apache and IIS. Today we have many good file sharing programs.
- Many problems with interoperability between servers and clients. During a long time most of the problems were solved.
- There wasn't really such a big need in the protocol. The Windows Share (SMB), or FTP or SFTP solve basic needs good enough.
The protocol development is stalled so only we as a community of developers and users can move forward and negotiate additions to the protocol.
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