WebDAV

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WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) is an extension of the HTTP protocol that allows users to collaboratively edit and manage files stored on remote web servers. It provides a framework for users to create, delete, copy, move, and download files.

Examples of WebDAV Servers

Some platforms that implement WebDAV are:

  1. OwnCloud: A popular open-source platform for storing and sharing files, commonly used by organizations.
  2. NextCloud: A fork of OwnCloud that focuses on user-friendly interfaces and collaborative file-sharing features.
  3. mod_dav for Apache HTTP servers: Adds WebDAV support to the Apache web server.
  4. Microsoft SharePoint: Uses WebDAV for file management over the web.

Installation

Install the released version from CRAN:

install.packages("webdav")

Or the development version from GitHub:

# install.packages("remotes")
remotes::install_github("StrategicProjects/webdav")

Functions

Function WebDAV method Description
webdav_create_request() — Build an authenticated httr2 request for the server
webdav_list_files() PROPFIND List files and folders as a tibble
webdav_upload_file() PUT Upload a local file (streamed from disk)
webdav_download_file() GET Download a file (streamed to disk)
webdav_create_directory() MKCOL Create a collection (directory)
webdav_copy_file() COPY Copy a resource
webdav_move_file() MOVE Move or rename a resource
webdav_delete_resource() DELETE Delete a file or directory

Quick start

Credentials default to the WEBDAV_USERNAME and WEBDAV_PASSWORD environment variables (see vignette("env_variables")):

library(webdav)

base_url <- "https://cloud.example.com/remote.php/dav/files/user"

# List what's there
webdav_list_files(base_url, folder_path = "Documents")

# Upload, rename, download, clean up
webdav_upload_file(base_url, local_path = "report.pdf", server_path = "Documents")
webdav_move_file(base_url,
                 from_path = "Documents/report.pdf",
                 to_path = "Documents/report-2026.pdf")
webdav_download_file(base_url,
                     file_path = "Documents/report-2026.pdf",
                     destination_path = tempdir())
webdav_delete_resource(base_url, resource_path = "Documents/report-2026.pdf")

Invalid arguments raise an error; network or server failures issue a warning and return FALSE (NULL for webdav_list_files()), so scripts can test the return value instead of wrapping calls in tryCatch().