[Zope] WebDAV Locks / 2.4.3/ MS Office 2000

[Joachim Werner]

Hi!

> 1. open the doc via WebDAV rather than normal HTTP (how can  make it not
do
> this?!)

It seems that Office 2000 (I tested with Word 2000) does an "OPTIONS"
request by default. I tried this with Zope and Apache. The "problem" is that
Zope will respond with:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Zope/(Zope 2.5.0b2 (binary release, python 2.1, linux2-x86), python
2.1.0, linux2) ZServer/1.1b1
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 18:24:57 GMT
DAV: 1,2
Ms-Author-Via: DAV
Connection: close
Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 18:24:57 GMT
Allow: GET, HEAD, POST, PUT, DELETE, OPTIONS, TRACE, PROPFIND, PROPPATCH,
MKCOL, COPY, MOVE, LOCK, UNLOCK
Etag:
Content-Length: 0

So now Word (or Excel) knows that Zope talks WebDAV and tries to LOCK.

I guess the only way to stop this is telling Zope not to disclose the
OPTIONS it has via the OPTIONS call. But that would break the HTTP 1.1
standard I guess.

We seem to need an option for Zope to start an HTTP-only (now WebDAV) server
for those purposes

> 2. lock the file (ug! these files are anonymously accessible, surely they
should
> not be lockable?!)

The should not, by Anonymous. But sure they should by an authorized content
editor ... (So Word's asking for a password makes sense, but it is a very
stupid default behaviour)

> Since Anonymous doesnt' have the WebDAV lock permission, it throws the
dialog
> up.

Yep.

> So, some questions:
>
> How can I make Office stop attempting to lock these resources?

Not that I'd know. And even IF there was some hidden option to switch
locking off, your average user will not have configured his Office suite
correctly for your server. And the default seems to be "LOCK IT!"

> How many people can simultaneously holda WebDAV lock on a file?

One I guess. But locking does not stop the file from being served, just from
being PUT (submitted) by somebody else than the LOCK's owner.

> What permission controls whether or not they can edit the file?

Look at all the WebDAV permissions. They are rather self-explaining (Access,
Lock, Unlock, etc.)

> When do WebDAV locks go away?

In Zope? I am not sure? Never? But you can release them manually here:
http://zopeserver:8080/Control_Panel/DavLocks/manage_workspace


Cheers

Joachim