Frequently Asked Questions

What is WebDAV?

WebDAV is a network filesystem protocol. You can compare it to for windows networking, FTP, SFTP. The WebDAV protocol is supported natively by Microsoft Windows, OS/X and pretty much any Linux distribution.

WebDAV is a protocol that sits on top of the HTTP protocol, because of this it also works often through corporate firewalls.

See Wikipedia or webdav.org for more information.

What is sabre/dav?

sabre/dav is a WebDAV server completely built in PHP. This means all you need to enable WebDAV access to your Web server is PHP.

sabre/dav supports CalDAV, CardDAV and WebDAV as well as many other related specifications. See Standards Support for the full list.

Is sabre/dav stable?

sabre/dav has been deployed by live applications since 2007, and more than 98% of the code is covered by unittests. It is currently in use by multiple corporations. The largest installations manage addressbooks and calendars for millions of users.

No software is bug free though, but sabre/dav is actively maintained, so if anything pops up we're usually quick to respond.

Why would I use sabre/dav instead of Apache's mod_dav?

If mod_dav does what you need, you probably don't need sabre/dav. sabre/dav is intended as an easily programmable webdav server. sabre/dav supports more clients and also does Cal- and CardDAV, whereas mod_dav does not

If you don't have a need for those features, mod_dav is likely a better choice as it's not written in PHP, and likely faster.

I'm getting a 'File not Found error' after getting started

You may have a base uri problem.

It doesn't work!

DAV is tricky to debug, because unlike with building web applications, there is no browser that simply shows you useful error messages.

The first step you should make, is to use the browser plugin. This plugin creates directory indexes, and will allow you to browse around using your standard web browser. If you're already seeing errors there, it may give away quickly where your problem is.

It's also recommended to keep an eye on the error log.

Failing that, we highly recommend setting up Charles HTTP Proxy. This tool is pretty much running for us 24/7. Whenever we run into any issue this is where we start debugging.

If you're still running into issues, contact us on the mailing list, or open an issue on github.

Authentication doesn't work

There are several server configurations that can affect whether authentication will work. The Authentication and Webservers wiki pages have more info.

Which clients are supported?

Almost every client we've gotten our hands on fully work, but for some there may be some caveats, of you may be required to upgrade to a later version.

Check out the Client list to get more information about a specific client. If you're running into issues with a specific client, we would love to hear it so we can see if we can devise a workaround, or at least document the behavior.

Does sabre/dav pass the litmus test?

Litmus is a handy tool that helps you test your WebDAV server for all standard features. The current status of the litmus test can be found on the Litmus page.

Can sabre/dav work with large files?

Yes, read Working with large files.

Does sabre/dav work with Microsoft Outlook?

Outlook does not support CalDAV, and therefore it is also not possible to sync with sabre/dav (or any other CalDAV implementation).

However, there's an open source plugin called "Outlook Caldav Synchronizer" that adds support.

More information here: https://github.com/aluxnimm/outlookcaldavsynchronizer/

I'm getting 0-byte files on the server

Read 0 bytes.

I'm getting 405 errors

See the webservers documentation.

How can I extend sabre/dav functionality with my own classes?

Read extending-sabredav.

How can I help?

We're definitely short on people. If you'd like to contribute, here are some areas we could use some help with:

sabre/dav is now developed at fruux, for the last two items in this list it would be best to contact us to help you further.

I have a different question

Hit us up on the mailing list.

I'd like to get commercial support

sabre/dav is developed by fruux. If you're looking for enterprise-level support, we'd love to hear from you!