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Is there any good browser based WebDAV client? If not, is it possible to make one?

codefx
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7 Answers7

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Look at the AjaxFileBrowser from ITHit. Pretty slick, and has FireFox & Chrome PUT support for uploading. IE, drag-and-drop from your desktop to the browser. They have a fully functional demo site up at http://www.ajaxbrowser.com.

jklemmack
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  • Well, without hashing the benefits of open-source software, they did put a lot of time & effort into it and should be compensated. Alternatively, it's 100% pure JavaScript.... not sure how they'd enforce any type of DRM ... – jklemmack Feb 10 '15 at 23:45
  • Gonna split a hair and correctyou - *free software. Open source is not necessarily free of either price nor legal encumberments. – Wyatt Ward Feb 11 '16 at 04:37
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There's a plugin for Firefox which handles WebDAV.

Webfolders is a firefox extension that gives you the ability to view the contents of WebDAV servers in the browser and use the full functionality of the WebDAV protocol.

ire_and_curses
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  • Checked in 2020, the plugin 'Webfolders' is not available in the list of extensions anymore > https://addons.mozilla.org – mathijsuitmegen Nov 04 '20 at 11:05
  • The plugin is still available for Thunderbird but it useless: it just creates ActiveX Object with Explorer and this won't work anymore in Windows. I created my own extension based on webdav-js https://github.com/stokito/webdav-browser-extension – Sergey Ponomarev Mar 11 '23 at 18:09
  • https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/open-as-webfolder/ – Sergey Ponomarev Mar 11 '23 at 19:24
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There is webdav-js which can be used as a browser extension, as a bookmarklet or served by the WebDAV server itself as an HTML page.

It supports the regular listing of files and directories, file upload, directory creation, renaming, as well as in-page display of images and other media.

Sergey Ponomarev
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chrysn
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Depends on what you expect the client to do, and whether you're looking for a cross-browser "web application", or a browser extension.

The main issue with doing this in a "web application" (as opposed to a browser extension) is (1) the lack of binary data support in Javascript, and (2) the lack of access to the local file system (which of course is a security feature).

Julian Reschke
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    Firefox 3.5, Chrome 4 and Safari 4 now provide access to local file system. You can upload files files using pure JavaScript/XHR via PUT as WebDAV specification requires. We have implemented this support in IT Hit Ajax File Browser. Unfortunately IE still does not support upload via PUT, hope they will fix this in IE 9. Moreover, implementations or CORS in Firefox, Safati and Chrome allow cross-domain access to WebDAV servers. –  Sep 04 '10 at 10:36
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    Update to my above comment, since IE 9 and IE 10 were released: IE 10 supports WebDAV upload via PUT verb. IE 9 does not support PUT upload. So now you can build a fully-functional WebDAV client that runs in IE 10, Firefox, Chrome and Safari. – IT Hit WebDAV Apr 03 '13 at 23:03
  • No Julian, IE 9 and earlier can upload files only via form submission. That is using POST request. Upload via PUT became possible only when File API was introduced in IE 10. – IT Hit WebDAV Apr 07 '13 at 05:25
  • PUT has been supported for ages. What's new is the file API, not support for PUT. – Julian Reschke Apr 07 '13 at 09:31
  • We now also have support for binary handling with `Uint8Array` and family. – 0xcaff Aug 15 '16 at 01:31
  • "the lack of binary data support in Javascript," what? The `ArrayBuffer` infrastructure exists just for that. – tripulse Jan 11 '22 at 04:18
  • Yes, but it wasn't shipping when that answer was written. – Julian Reschke Jan 12 '22 at 05:35
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If by browser based you mean that it runs in html (ie you don't want your users to install a plugin) then the answer is partly yes and mostly no.

Partly yes, because I have built and used one. It uses the jquery jtree plugin to display folders, and selecting a folder node populates a file list in the right hand panel. Panels are done with another jquery plugin, and the file list is made dynamic with the jquery datatables plugin.

But I think for you the answer is probably "no". Thats because for the browser to use webdav is must user webdav "methods" like PROPFIND and MKCOL. These methods just arent supported in most browsers, so your javascript can't use them directly. I have a server-side mapping in my webdav server project which allows my javascript to use normal GET and POST methods, and these requests are transformed on the server to webdav methods.

I said "probably no" for you since this serve side mapping isnt standard, its a part of milton. But if you happen to use milton, or you can use milton, then its all good.

Brad at Kademi
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Try SMEStorage.com. They turn any WebDav back-end into a personal cloud file solution. As well as a rich browser desktop and mobile client, there are clients for Mac,Windows, Linux and Mobile clients for Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry.

Colin Carrow
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Not directly from a browser but there is a nice Chrome App File Management - WebDav. It's not fully translated from Chinese so here is hint: Press Add+ and in Service Provider select the last item 自定义 e.g. configure a custom WebDAV server. Everything else should be clear

Sergey Ponomarev
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