T&L Episode 9: Show Notes

OwnCloud and WebDAV

OwnCloud

http://owncloud.org
Requires a Web server like Apache or nginx
Needs PHP support
In nginx, this is handled through FastCGI
Native support is available in packages for Debian, Fedora, etc.
Easy-to-read installation instructions for standard installs
http://owncloud.org/support/setup-and-installation/linux-server/
Can be installed on Windows and MacOS X as well
Supports file sharing via the Web
Has built-in shared document editor (Google Docs)
Has built-in media player
Purported to be a Dropbox and Google Docs killer, or perhaps a proprietary cloud services killer
Most important piece of this puzzle is WebDAV and CalDAV

WebDAV (and CalDAV)

DAV = Distributed Authoring and Versioning
WebDAV = DAV for the WWW
CalDAV = DAV for calendar access
In a nutshell, DAV is an extension of HTTP which allows for write as well as read access
It’s a well implemented standard defined in RFC 4918. It is supported in some manner on all operating systems.

Windows
Support for WebDAV shares is built in, but only for Windows Vista and Windows 7. Windows 7 support is a bit flaky. I found help on getting it to work for me here:
http://shon.org/blog/2010/03/04/howto-fix-windows-7-64bit-webdav/
The important bit is the registry change. Once done, WebDAV shares worked perfectly on my system.

MacOS X
I tried this using Leopard (10.5) and Snow Leopard (10.6)
No matter what I tried, shares were read-only. Not good.
Third-party client called Cyberduck allowed me to access my OwnCloud via WebDAV. Not elegant, but usable.
http://cyberduck.ch/

Linux
I use Debian systems, including LMDE. YMMV when it comes to Fedora, RH, CentOS, Gentoo, Arch or other non-Debian systems.
GNOME 2 (and presumably 3) has built-in support for WebDAV shares via Nautilus.
Go to Places, select Connect to Server.
Select WebDAV or Secure WebDAV depending on whether or not you have set up your OwnCloud with http:// or https:// via your Web server.
Enter the server name in the appropriate field.
Under Folder enter “/files/webdav.php”
Create a bookmark if you wish.
Voila. You should now have a WebDAV share with RW access on your desktop and in your Places dropdown menu.
A slightly more elegant solution for my purposes was to use davfs2. You can install this on Debian systems (including Ubuntu) with a simple “apt-get install davfs2”
This allows you to create WebDAV mounts on your filesystem by including them in your /etc/fstab file.
(Explain fstab procedure including davfs2.conf, turning locking off, and the secrets file)