If you are looking for more information on configuring WebDAV clients, please refer to Using a WebDAV Client to Work with Pages.

On this page:

Introduction to Confluence's WebDAV Client Integration

WebDAV allows users to access Confluence content via a WebDAV client, such as 'My Network Places' in Microsoft Windows. Provided that the user has permission, they will be able to read and write to spaces, pages and attachments in Confluence. Users will be asked to log in and the standard Confluence content access permissions will apply to the equivalent content available through the WebDAV client.

By default, all WebDAV clients have permission to write to Confluence. Write permissions include the ability for a WebDAV client to create, edit, move or delete content associated with spaces, pages and attachments in a Confluence installation.

On the 'WebDAV Configuration' page, you can:

Restricting WebDAV Client Write Access to Confluence

In earlier versions of the WebDAV plugin, separate options for restricting a WebDAV client's write permissions (that is, create/move, edit and delete actions), were available. However, in the current version of this plugin, they have been simplified and combined into a general write permission restriction that covers all of these actions.

WebDAV clients are now denied write permission to your Confluence installation by setting a regex that matches specific content within the WebDAV client's user agent header. Upon setting a regex, it will be added to a list of restricted WebDAV clients. Any WebDAV clients whose user agent header matches a regex in this list will be denied write permission to your Confluence installation.

Example: A PROPFIND method header generated by a Microsoft Web Folder WebDAV client, showing the user agent header field:

PROPFIND /plugins/servlet/confluence/default HTTP/1.1
Content-Language: en-us
Accept-Language: en-us
Content-Type: text/xml
Translate: f
Depth: 1
Content-Length: 489
User-Agent: Microsoft Data Access Internet Publishing Provider DAV
Host: 127.0.0.1:8082
Connection: Keep-Alive

Unlike earlier versions of the WebDAV plugin which could only restrict write permissions for all WebDAV clients, the current version of this plugin allows you to restrict write permissions to specific WebDAV clients selectively.

To restrict a WebDAV client's write access permissions to your Confluence installation,

  2. Click 'WebDav Configuration' under 'Configuration' in the left panel. The 'WebDAV Configuration' page is displayed.
  3. Enter a regex that matches a specific component of the user agent header sent by the WebDAV client you want to restrict.
  4. Click the 'Add new regex' button. The regex is added to the list of restricted WebDAV clients.
    (info) You can repeat steps 3 and 4 to add a regex for each additional WebDAV client you want to restrict.
  5. Click the 'Save' button to save the configuration changes.

To restore one or more restricted WebDAV client's write access permissions to your Confluence installation,

  2. Click 'WebDav Configuration' under 'Configuration' in the left panel. The 'WebDAV Configuration' page is displayed.
  3. Select the regex(es) from the list that match(es) the user agent header sent by the restricted WebDAV client(s) you want to restore.
  4. Click the 'Remove selected regexes' button. The regexes you had selected are removed from the list of restricted WebDAV clients.
  5. Click the 'Save' button to save the configuration changes.

Screenshot: WebDAV configuration

Disabling Strict Path Checking

If you observe any idiosyncrasies with your WebDAV client, such as a folder that does exist on your Confluence site but is missing from the client, you can disable the WebDAV plugin's strict path checking option, which may minimise these problems.

To disable the WebDAV plugin's strict path checking option,

  2. Click 'WebDav Configuration' under 'Configuration' in the left panel. The 'WebDAV Configuration' page is displayed.
  3. Clear the 'Disable strict path check' check box.
    (info) You can re-enable this option at a later point in time by simply selecting this check box.
  4. Click the 'Save' button to save this configuration change.

Virtual Files and Folders

In the unlikely event that you observe any problems with the WebDAV client's performance or stability, you can enable access to automatically generated (that is, virtual) files and folders.

By default, these options are hidden on the 'WebDAV Configuration' page. To make them visible, you must append the parameter ?hiddenOptionsEnabled=true to the end of your URL and reload the page. For example:

<Confluence base URL>/admin/plugins/webdav/config.action?hiddenOptionsEnabled=true

Screenshot: The Hidden Virtual Files and Folders Option

To enable or disable access to virtual files and folders,

  2. Click 'WebDav Configuration' under 'Configuration' in the left panel. The 'WebDAV Configuration' page is displayed.
  3. Amend your URL as described in the note above and reload the 'WebDav Configuration' page.
  4. Select or clear the check box options in the 'Virtual Files and Folders' section as required.
  5. Click the 'Save' button to save the configuration changes.
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