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However, as GroupDAV employs a subset of the commands that WebDAV uses, Apache2 with WebDAV is apparently a fully compatible GroupDAV server. However, I have no idea how to get this capability going. I've tried pointing Kontact at the groupdav server, but it fails to list any of my folders.
Has anyone tried this, and got it working? If so, how?
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I could be wrong, but I always understood that GroupDAV was rather a super set of WebDAV, i.e. it contained everything in WebDAV, plus a few extras that differentiates it from WebDAV. So in essence, you probably need some more code in there somewhere, but I haven't a clue from where.
Cheers.
:wq
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Could be. A GroupDAV server doesn't have to be a WebDAV server, its a
very small subset - just one query in the simplest case (no folder
discovery).
A complete GroupDAV client on the other side is always 100%
compatible with a fullfeatured WebDAV server (indeed a generic WebDAV
server like Apache WebDAV is automatically a conforming GroupDAV
server, no additional support required!).
That is the paragraph that got me interested in this possibility :)
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Cool! That means I've had a fully compatibile GroupDAV server running for months, and never new it -- I guess all I have to do is figure out what I'd really do with GroupDAV...
Now, if only the same held true for CalDAV. I've been looking for a nice CalDAV server to set up for ages, so that I could finally begin moving staff away from Exchange calendars, and on to something accessible by more than one horrible client app. My trouble is that I really don't want to one that uses Java or PHP (Java because we don't use it on any of our servers and don't really want to start now, and PHP because, well, none of us here really like it that much, so if we can get away without using it, that's great). The closest I've come to is the Apple calendar-server that's Python based, but as of when I last looked (few weeks back) it still doesn't install and run particularly nicely on anything other than OSX, and we don't have any X-Serves.
Now, if there were a mod-caldav for apache, I'd be a happy man ;-)
Cheers.
:wp
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
And yeah, CalDAV uses some WebDAV commands (AFAIK), but some added, unique CalDAV commands. OTOH, GroupDAV has some calendaring functionality. I'm guessing that with GroupDAV though, most of the magic is in the clients, rather than the server, so GroupDAV may evolve.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Right now there are four (relevant) GroupDAV clients:
a) Noodle Evolution Plugin
b) Kontact
c) SOGo Connector
d) ZideOne Outlook Plugin
Hm, a) seems to be dead. b) is currently in the Akonadi rewrite, the existing implemention is buggy as hell. We need to wait for Akonadi. c) chances are good that this one will work, but I didn't try. Well and d) is tested against mod_dav as a primary backend.
> And yeah, CalDAV uses some WebDAV commands (AFAIK), but some added, unique CalDAV commands.
CalDAV adds plenty of REPORTs (protocol specific extensions), and it builds not only on WebDAV, but also on WebDAV ACL (separate spec) and more. Its quite complex (if you implement everything).
The basic difference between CalDAV and GroupDAV is that the former puts the burder on the server, while the latter puts all the work on the client.
> OTOH, GroupDAV has some calendaring functionality.
Not sure what you mean by 'functionality'. GroupDAV is just a storage for iCalendar and vCard files, it doesn't have any 'functionality'. The basic idea is that the clients will do all the work anyways, because they can't rely on the server being online. (if they are in offline mode, they need to do all the work anyways)
> I'm guessing that with GroupDAV though, most of the magic is in the clients, rather than the server, so GroupDAV may evolve.
Its not really 'magic', but yes ;-)
Greets,
Helge
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
Yeah. On my Etch box, Kontact just sits there, and on my Lenny one, it crashes! I should really see if there's a ticket for that :)
> The basic difference between CalDAV and GroupDAV is that the former puts the burden on the server, while the latter puts all the work on the client.
Ah, so it looks like GroupDAV will be the best option for me anyway :) My WebDAV server is already running several virtualhosts, and my client hardware is pretty powerful anyway.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
As mentioned, GroupDAV works out of the box with mod_dav, but then there are currently few clients which can fallback to GroupDAV if CalDAV operations are unavailable.
Anyways, if you are fine with ObjC, http://www.scalableogo.org/ might do as a GroupDAV/CalDAV server ...
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]
CalDAV is a quite a big superset of WebDAV, with plenty of calendaring specific REPORTs, plus WebDAV ACL and other stuff.
[ Parent | Reply to this comment ]