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Web DAV support in LiSA Live

Starting with version 6.6, LiSA Live includes a Web DAV server.  By using a Web DAV client, such as the "Map network drive" functionality in Windows, users can simply map their LiSA installation to a network drive.  LiSA exposes various functionality via Web DAV:

  • Item Gallery
  • Page Templates
  • Support Files
  • XSLT templates

This enables users to browse those parts of the system and manipulate data as if it were a regular folder/file on their computer.  For regular users of LiSA, the greatest benefit is to be able to browse the Item Gallery and easily work with images and files, just as if they were stored in a folder on their computer, instead of having to use the LiSA web-based file uploading dialog.

Power users and/or developers can go even further, they can easily work with Page Templates, Support files and XSLT templates using their favorite IDEs, and even add those files to source control systems.

Configuration

To use Web DAV in LiSA, first make sure that you are running version 6.6 (or newer).  Then you need to make sure that the Web DAV support has been enabled in your LiSA installation.  It is turned off by default.  You need FTP access to your website to make the required configuration changes, or you can contact Advania or your hosting provider.

Enabling Web DAV by editing the /web.config file

If you are running IIS 6, make sure that the following line is present in the <system.web><httpModules> section:

<add name="WebDavModule" type="WebDavServer.Module,WebDavServer" /> 


Also you must disable "Integrated Windows authentication" (IIS -> *website* properties -> Directory Security -> Authentication and access control -> Edit)

If you are running IIS 7 or newer, you need to make sure that the following line is present in the <system.webServer><modules> section:

<add name="WebDavModule" type="WebDavServer.Module,WebDavServer" />

Make sure that the following key has been added to the appSettings section in your web.config file:

<add key="WebDavProvider" value="Lisa.Domain.Web.RootWebDavProvider,Lisa.Domain"/>

Using "Map network drive" in Windows

The LiSA Web DAV server uses basic authentication.  By default, Windows does not allow basic authentication over unencrypted connections (i.e without SSL).  If your website has SSL configured, you can skip to step 2.

1. Allowing basic authentication for non-SSL connections

A simple change in the registry needs to be made to allow basic authentication on unencrypted connections.  Download the following registry script file and run it.

LiSA WebDav support for Win.reg

When prompted, click "yes" to merge the contents of this script to your registry. NOTE:  You will have to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.

2. Map the drive

Go to my computer and click "Map network drive" and you should see the following dialog (Win7/Vista)

Type in the URL of your website and append "/Lisa/WebDav" to it. Note that the /Lisa/WebDav part is case-sensitive.

If your website is hosted at http://www.mywebsite.is/, you need to type in http://www.mywebsite.is/Lisa/WebDav

Make sure to include http://. (Note if your website has SSL and you skipped step 1, make sure you type https://)

Check "Connect using different credentials" and click "Finish".

After a few seconds you should be prompted with this dialog:

Type in your LiSA user name and password and click "OK".

If you typed your user name and password correctly, you should now be connected and a window showing the contents of your new network drive should open up.

The items displayed will depend on the permissions your LiSA user has.  If your user does not have permissions to the Page template system in LiSA, then you will not see "PageTemplates".  Same goes for the other folders.

You can now browse those folders and edit the files as if they were stored locally on your computer.  You can copy/cut/delete multiple files at once, and do all standard file manipulations that are possible in Windows.

Note:  Any changes made to the contents of "PageTemplates", "SupportFiles" and "Xslt" will show up as unpublished in LiSA.  If you make modifications to an XSLT template and save it, you must publish those changes from within LiSA to make those changes appear on the front end.

The Item Gallery does not use versioning and publishing, therefore any changes done in there are immediately reflected on your website.

List of Web DAV clients that have been tested and confirmed to work

  • The "Map network drive" functionality in Windows (As described above)
  • The native Web DAV client in MacOS X - More information here.
  • Web Dav Nav for iOS devices, available on the App Store (Enables users to take photos and upload directly to the website)
  • Web Dav Nav Lite for Android devices, available on Google Play (Enables users to take photos and upload directly to the website)
  • NetDrive

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