Product category:
Embedded Software and Operating Systems
News Release from: Real Time Logic | Subject: WebDAV
Edited by the Electronicstalk Editorial
Team on 22 May 2006
Secure network file system for embedded
devices
WebDAV is a set of extensions to the HTTP(S) protocol that allows a server to appear as a standard network drive.
Real Time Logic has developed a secure network file system for embedded devices WebDAV is a set of extensions to the HTTP(S) protocol that allows a server to appear as a standard network drive
This article was originally published on Electronicstalk on 3 Sep 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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WebDAV clients are native to Windows XP, Mac OS X etc, and one can, therefore, simply mount a drive from one of these operating systems to one or several remote embedded devices.
WebDAV eliminates the typical problems encountered in a mixed Unix/Windows environment where a Windows machine cannot mount a NFS drive and vice versa.
A WebDAV drive is comparable in functionality to the Windows networking file system SMB and to the Unix networking file system NFS.
Further reading
Web server embeds real-time control
New from Real Time Logic is the Barracuda embedded web server for Embedded Linux.
Free multi-user secure web-based file manager
Real Time Logic announces the BarracudaDrive HTTPS file manager, a free multi-user secure web-based file manager, which eliminates the need for FTP access.
Unlike a FTP server, a WebDAV, SMB or NFS server works as a real network drive, and are, therefore, much more efficient at managing the remote files.
A WebDAV server benefits from the HTTP infrastructure in the following ways: it can use high-grade 256bit AES SSL encryption by using the SharkSSL plugin; it can use HTTP digest encrypted authentication; it can bypass firewalls and proxies; and it is faster than SMB and NFS over the Internet.
In addition, the Barracuda Embedded WebServer can authorise users without support from the underlying file system.
One can, on a file by file basis, give users access to do one or several of the following operations: read, write, delete, move, copy, make new directories, set and get properties.
It is common that embedded devices crash during development.
For example, it can be tedious to use FTP to upload data as the FTP connection must be re-established every time a device is restarted.
On the other hand, WebDAV is using a stateless connection - the remote drive can be used without reconnecting the client when a device is restarted.
This also works with authentication as the client will automatically renegotiate the user's credentials if the server requests such information.
WebDAV can automate and speed up the development process when volatile data must be uploaded to a device after being restarted.
The Barracuda WebDAV plugin is designed such that the plugin can also be used to access other devices than a file system.
Barracuda includes support for mounting ZIP files as read only file systems.
One can easily interface, for example, a database and access the database via a WebDAV drive.
There is no limit to the number of WebDAV instances that can be inserted into the Barracuda Virtual File System.
For example, one can mount 10 ZIP files, a database, and a regular file system and have the Barracuda Virtual File System combine the devices as one coherent file system.
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