WebDAV Client Setup

Windows

There are two ways to mount a webdav drive natively in Windows. Microsoft calls these methods a) a Network Drive, or b) a Web Folder. If possible, you should use the Network Drive method, as it will enable the clients to interact with Confluence more comprehensively. However, there are several environmental constraints that must be met. If you cannot configure your instance to meet these requirements, then you should try the Web Folder method or use third-party WebDAV client software.

Microsoft Network Drive

Note: To be able to map the Confluence WebDAV Plugin as a network drive, Confluence must be configured so that is it:

• Running on HTTP, not HTTPS.
• Listening on port 80.
• Have no context root.

Note: This is the result of the limitations in Microsoft's Mini-Redirector component. For more information, please see its server discovery issue.

Troubleshooting

Unable to authenticate while mapping?

If you get the login prompt over and over again despite having specified the correct (Confluence) credentials, you will need to enable basic authentication for the Windows Mini Redirector component by editing the Windows registry. Here's what you need to do to make the authentication to work.

Once you have completed the steps above, you can then map the WebDAV plugin as a network drive by repeating the mapping steps.

WebDAV share not found, no authentication prompt?

If Windows can't find the WebDAV share and you are sure the location is right, Windows might be denying mapping of non-secure (http) WebDAV locations. To enable mapping of non-secure WebDAV locations by Windows, you will need to edit the Windows registry. Here's what you need to do to correct this problem.

Unable to map /webdav as a network drive and seeing connection refused errors in the logs?

When you try to map /webdav as a network drive, the request is processed by a component (Servlet Filter) called ReverseProxyFilter. It's a simplistic reverse proxy embedded into the plugin which proxies HTTP requests to /webdav to /plugins/servlet/confluence/default. When it makes connections to /plugins/servlet/confluence/default, it uses the value of the Host HTTP request header as the host name. So if the value is myhostname, the proxy will make requests to http://myhostname/plugins/servlet/confluence/default. Therefore, it's important that the value of the Host header is resolvable by the machine hosting Confluence.

If you're affected by this problem, you should see an error trace similar to the one below:

2009-01-20 23:06:22,370 ERROR [http-8180-Processor25] [[Catalina].[localhost].[/].[default]] invoke Servlet.service() for servlet default threw exception
java.net.ConnectException: Connection refused
        at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.socketConnect(Native Method)
        at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.doConnect(PlainSocketImpl.java:333)
        at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connectToAddress(PlainSocketImpl.java:195)
        at java.net.PlainSocketImpl.connect(PlainSocketImpl.java:182)
        at java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(SocksSocketImpl.java:366)
        at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:519)
        at java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:469)
        at java.net.Socket.<init>(Socket.java:366)
        at java.net.Socket.<init>(Socket.java:240)
        at org.apache.commons.httpclient.protocol.DefaultProtocolSocketFactory.createSocket(DefaultProtocolSocketFactory.java:79)
        at org.apache.commons.httpclient.protocol.DefaultProtocolSocketFactory.createSocket(DefaultProtocolSocketFactory.java:121)
        at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpConnection.open(HttpConnection.java:706)
        at org.apache.commons.httpclient.MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager$HttpConnectionAdapter.open(MultiThreadedHttpConnectionManager.java:1321)
        at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpMethodDirector.executeWithRetry(HttpMethodDirector.java:386)
        at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpMethodDirector.executeMethod(HttpMethodDirector.java:170)
        at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient.executeMethod(HttpClient.java:396)
        at org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient.executeMethod(HttpClient.java:324)
        at com.atlassian.confluence.extra.webdav.servlet.filter.ReverseProxyFilter.doFilter(ReverseProxyFilter.java:449)

Some users got around the problem by manipulating the network routing tables, as what Robert Dahlborg has done:

Apparantly the ReverseProxyFilter fail to connect locally. Now, since I have a redirect for (incoming port 80 to 8180) which doesn't include local traffic it won't work for the ReverseProxyFilter. The solution was to add the second iptables rule as below.

root@wiki:/etc/network/if-pre-up.d# cat tomcat5-port80

#!/bin/sh
[ "$IFACE" = "eth0" ] || exit 0;
#Redirecting incoming traffic
iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth0 -p tcp -d 172.16.0.12 --dport http -j REDIRECT --to-ports 8180
#Redirecting locally generated packets
iptables -t nat -I OUTPUT --src 0/0 -p tcp -d 172.16.0.12  --dport http -j REDIRECT --to-ports 8180

Please note that you may have to set the kernel parameter CONFIG_IP_NF_NAT_LOCAL=y if not already set.

Microsoft Web Folders

Mac OS X Finder

Note: It is recommended to disable .DS_Store file creation using the DSDontWriteNetworkStores. The WebDAV plugin is smart enought to discard these temporary files, so they won't clutter up your Confluence installation even if you don't set this preference. However it would be more efficient not to create them at all

KDE Konqueror on Linux

You should be able to click to load many, but not all files. In general you'll want to save a modified file locally, then drag it to the Konquror window to upload it to Confluence.

Other Clients

There are several other WebDAV clients for Windows provided by third-parties, as well as numerous options for Linux and other Unixes. We have not tested these clients, but they may work. We invite you to leave any information you learn about alternate client compatibility here.

Data Freeway

To connect clients which are not mentioned by this page, point them to the URI http://my.confluence.server.com/plugins/servlet/confluence/default.