WebDAV Server - Quick Start Guide

Get your WebDAV server up and running in 5 minutes!

🚀 Instant Setup

Option 1: Automated Installation (Recommended)

# Download and run the setup script
chmod +x setup.sh
./setup.sh

The script will:

  • ✅ Check system requirements
  • ✅ Install dependencies
  • ✅ Create virtual environment
  • ✅ Set up configuration
  • ✅ Initialize database
  • ✅ Create default admin user

Option 2: Manual Installation

# 1. Create project directory
mkdir webdav-server && cd webdav-server

# 2. Create virtual environment
python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate

# 3. Install dependencies
pip install aiohttp aiofiles aiohttp-session cryptography python-dotenv lxml gunicorn

# 4. Copy the main.py file from the artifacts

# 5. Create .env file
cat > .env << 'EOF'
HOST=0.0.0.0
PORT=8080
DB_PATH=./webdav.db
WEBDAV_ROOT=./webdav
AUTH_METHODS=basic,digest
JWT_SECRET_KEY=$(python -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex(32))")
SESSION_TIMEOUT=3600
EOF

# 6. Create directory structure
mkdir -p webdav/users logs backups

# 7. Run the server
python main.py

Option 3: Docker (Fastest)

# 1. Create docker-compose.yml and Dockerfile from artifacts

# 2. Start with Docker Compose
docker-compose up -d

# 3. Check logs
docker-compose logs -f webdav

🎯 First Steps

1. Access the Server

Default Credentials:

  • Username: admin
  • Password: admin123
  • URL: http://localhost:8080/

⚠️ IMPORTANT: Change the default password immediately!

2. Connect with Windows Explorer

Method 1: Map Network Drive

  1. Open File Explorer
  2. Right-click "This PC" → "Map network drive"
  3. Enter: http://localhost:8080/
  4. Enter credentials: admin / admin123

Method 2: Add Network Location

  1. Right-click "This PC" → "Add a network location"
  2. Choose custom network location
  3. Enter: http://localhost:8080/
  4. Enter credentials when prompted

Windows Troubleshooting:

  • If connection fails, restart WebClient service: 
    net stop webclient
net start webclient

3. Connect with macOS Finder

  1. Press Cmd+K (Go → Connect to Server)
  2. Enter: http://localhost:8080/
  3. Click "Connect"
  4. Enter credentials: admin / admin123

4. Connect with Linux

# Install davfs2
sudo apt-get install davfs2

# Mount WebDAV share
sudo mount -t davfs http://localhost:8080/ /mnt/webdav

# Enter credentials when prompted

👥 User Management

Create Users via CLI

# Activate virtual environment
source venv/bin/activate

# Create a new user (interactive)
python webdav_cli.py user create john

# Create with all details
python webdav_cli.py user create jane \
    --email jane@example.com \
    --role user

# List all users
python webdav_cli.py user list

# Change password
python webdav_cli.py user password john

# Deactivate user
python webdav_cli.py user deactivate john

# Delete user
python webdav_cli.py user delete john --force

Create Users Programmatically

import asyncio
from main import Database

async def create_user():
    db = Database('./webdav.db')
    user_id = await db.create_user(
        username='john',
        password='SecurePass123!',
        email='john@example.com',
        role='user'
    )
    print(f"Created user ID: {user_id}")

asyncio.run(create_user())

🔧 Common Operations

Upload Files

Using curl:

curl -u admin:admin123 -T myfile.txt http://localhost:8080/myfile.txt

Using Python:

import requests

with open('myfile.txt', 'rb') as f:
    response = requests.put(
        'http://localhost:8080/myfile.txt',
        data=f,
        auth=('admin', 'admin123')
    )
print(response.status_code)

Download Files

curl -u admin:admin123 http://localhost:8080/myfile.txt -o downloaded.txt

Create Directories

curl -u admin:admin123 -X MKCOL http://localhost:8080/newfolder/

List Directory Contents

curl -u admin:admin123 -X PROPFIND http://localhost:8080/ \
    -H "Depth: 1" \
    -H "Content-Type: application/xml" \
    --data '<?xml version="1.0"?><D:propfind xmlns:D="DAV:"><D:allprop/></D:propfind>'

Copy Files

curl -u admin:admin123 -X COPY \
    http://localhost:8080/source.txt \
    -H "Destination: http://localhost:8080/destination.txt"

Move Files

curl -u admin:admin123 -X MOVE \
    http://localhost:8080/old.txt \
    -H "Destination: http://localhost:8080/new.txt"

Delete Files

curl -u admin:admin123 -X DELETE http://localhost:8080/myfile.txt

🔒 Security Setup

Change Default Password

python webdav_cli.py user password admin
# Enter new password when prompted

Enable HTTPS (Production)

  1. Get SSL Certificate (Let's Encrypt):
sudo certbot certonly --standalone -d webdav.example.com
  1. Update .env:
SSL_ENABLED=true
SSL_CERT_PATH=/etc/letsencrypt/live/webdav.example.com/fullchain.pem
SSL_KEY_PATH=/etc/letsencrypt/live/webdav.example.com/privkey.pem
  1. Restart server

Use Nginx Reverse Proxy (Recommended)

  1. Install Nginx:
sudo apt-get install nginx

  1. Copy nginx.conf from artifacts to /etc/nginx/conf.d/webdav.conf

  2. Update domain name in config

  3. Reload Nginx:

sudo nginx -t
sudo systemctl reload nginx

📊 Monitoring

View Statistics

python webdav_cli.py stats

Check Active Locks

python webdav_cli.py lock list

View Logs

# Application logs
tail -f logs/webdav.log

# Access logs
tail -f logs/access.log

# If using systemd
sudo journalctl -u webdav -f

🐳 Docker Deployment

Start Service

docker-compose up -d

View Logs

docker-compose logs -f

Stop Service

docker-compose down

Update and Restart

docker-compose pull
docker-compose up -d --build

Backup Data

# Backup database
docker exec webdav-server python webdav_cli.py backup

# Backup files
docker cp webdav-server:/app/webdav ./backup-webdav/

⚙️ Production Deployment

Using Gunicorn (Recommended)

# Start with Gunicorn
gunicorn main:init_app \
    --config gunicorn_config.py \
    --bind 0.0.0.0:8080 \
    --workers 4

# With systemd (after setup)
sudo systemctl enable webdav
sudo systemctl start webdav
sudo systemctl status webdav

Environment Configuration

Development:

DEBUG=true
LOG_LEVEL=DEBUG
WORKERS=1

Production:

DEBUG=false
LOG_LEVEL=INFO
WORKERS=4
SSL_ENABLED=true
RATE_LIMIT_ENABLED=true

🔥 Common Issues

Issue: Connection Refused

Solution:

# Check if server is running
ps aux | grep python

# Check port
sudo netstat -tlnp | grep 8080

# Check firewall
sudo ufw allow 8080/tcp

Issue: Permission Denied

Solution:

# Fix directory permissions
chmod -R 755 webdav/
chown -R $USER:$USER webdav/

Issue: Database Locked

Solution:

# Stop all instances
pkill -f "python main.py"

# Check for locks
lsof webdav.db

# Restart server
python main.py

Issue: Windows Explorer Won't Connect

Solutions:

  1. Restart WebClient service
  2. Enable Basic Auth in registry: 
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters
BasicAuthLevel = 2
  3. Use HTTPS instead of HTTP
  4. Ensure URL ends with /

📚 Next Steps

  1. Read the full README.md for comprehensive documentation
  2. Configure SSL/TLS for production use
  3. Set up automated backups
  4. Configure monitoring and alerts
  5. Review security settings
  6. Set up user quotas and permissions
  7. Configure rate limiting
  8. Enable caching with Redis

🆘 Getting Help

  • Documentation: Check README.md and inline comments
  • Logs: Always check logs first (logs/webdav.log)
  • CLI Help: python webdav_cli.py --help
  • Test Connection: curl -v http://localhost:8080/

🎉 You're All Set!

Your WebDAV server is now ready to use. Start by:

  1. Changing the default admin password
  2. Creating user accounts
  3. Connecting with your favorite WebDAV client
  4. Uploading some files

Happy file sharing! 🚀