1 Introduction

The Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning Protocol (WebDAV), as specified in [RFC2518], extends the standard Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) mechanisms specified in [RFC2616] in order to provide file access and content management over the Internet. The WebDAV Protocol enables an Internet-based file system. However, some types of files—for example, files with programmatically derived content—are not easily managed by WebDAV. Also, some protocol interactions, such as the separation of properties and content, are less than optimal for file system usage.

This specification, Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) Protocol: Microsoft Extensions, documents extensions to the WebDAV Protocol specified in [RFC2518]. Extensions include a new verb and new headers, and properties that enable previously unmanageable file types and optimize protocol interactions for file system clients. These extensions introduce new functionality into WebDAV, optimize processing, and eliminate the need for special-case processing.

Sections 1.5, 1.8, 1.9, 2, and 3 of this specification are normative. All other sections and examples in this specification are informative.