A WebDAV client written in JavaScript for NodeJS and the browser.

About

WebDAV is a well-known, stable and highly flexible protocol for interacting with remote filesystems via an API. Being that it is so widespread, many file hosting services such as Box, ownCloud/Nextcloud and Yandex use it as a fallback to their other interfaces.

This library provides a WebDAV client interface that makes interacting with WebDAV enabled services easy. The API returns promises and resolve with the results. It parses and prepares directory-contents requests for easy consumption, as well as providing methods for fetching things like file stats and quotas.

This library is compatibale with NodeJS version 6 and above (for version 4 support, use versions in the range of 1.*). Version 1.x is now in maintenance mode and will receive no further feature additions. It will receive the odd bug fix when necessary.

Please read the contribution guide if you plan on making an issue or PR.

Usage in the Browser

No transpiled package is provided, however it should be fine to transpile it with Webpack and Rollup (tested with Webpack in external projects). You must make sure to transpile/bundle all necessary WebDAV client dependencies, including NodeJS built-ins like path.

Installation

Simple install as a dependency using npm:

npm install webdav --save

Usage

Usage entails creating a client adapter instance by calling the factory function createClient:

const { createClient } = require("webdav");

const client = createClient(
    "https://webdav.example.com/marie123",
    {
        username: "marie",
        password: "myS3curePa$$w0rd"
    }
);

// Get directory contents
const directoryItems = await client.getDirectoryContents("/");
// Outputs a structure like:
// [{
//     filename: "/my-file.txt",
//     basename: "my-file.txt",
//     lastmod: "Mon, 10 Oct 2018 23:24:11 GMT",
//     size: 371,
//     type: "file"
// }]

Make sure to read the API documentation for more information on the available adapter methods.

Authentication & Connection

webdav uses Basic authentication by default, if username and password are provided (if none are provided, no Authorization header is specified). It also supports OAuth tokens and Digest auth.

Basic or no authentication

You can use the client without authentication if the server doesn't require it - simply avoid passing any values to username, password, token or digest in the config.

To use basic authentication, simply pass a username and password in the config.

webdav also allows for overriding the built in HTTP and HTTPS agents by setting the properties httpAgent & httpsAgent accordingly. These should be instances of node's http.Agent and https.Agent respectively.

OAuth tokens

To use a token to authenticate, simply pass the token data to the token field:

createClient(
    "https://address.com",
    {
        token: {
            "access_token": "2YotnFZFEjr1zCsicMWpAA",
            "token_type": "example",
            "expires_in": 3600,
            "refresh_token": "tGzv3JOkF0XG5Qx2TlKWIA",
            "example_parameter": "example_value"
        }
    }
);

Digest authentication

If a server requires digest-based authentication, you can enable this functionality by setting digest to true:

createClient(
    "https://address.com",
    {
        username: "someUser",
        password: "myS3curePa$$w0rd",
        digest: true
    }
);

Methods

copyFile

Copy a file from one remote location to another:

await client.copyFile("/sub/item.txt", "/destination/item.txt");

createDirectory

Create a new directory:

await client.createDirectory("/completely/new/path");

createReadStream

Create a read stream targeted at a remote file:

client
    .createReadStream("/video.mp4")
    .pipe(fs.createWriteStream("~/video.np4"));

createWriteStream

Create a write stream targeted at a remote file:

fs.createReadStream("~/Music/song.mp3")
    .pipe(client.createWriteStream("/music/song.mp3"));

deleteFile

Delete a remote file:

await client.deleteFile("/tmp.dat");

getDirectoryContents

Get the contents of a remote directory. Returns an array of item stats.

// Get current directory contents:
const contents = await client.getDirectoryContents("/");
// Get all contents:
const contents = await client.getDirectoryContents("/", { deep: true });

Files can be globbed using the glob option (processed using minimatch). When using a glob pattern it is recommended to fetch deep contents:

const images = await client.getDirectoryContents("/", { deep: true, glob: "/**/*.{png,jpg,gif}" });

getFileContents

Fetch the contents of a remote file. Binary contents are returned by default (Buffer):

const buff = await client.getFileContents("/package.zip");

It is recommended to use streams if the files being transferred are large.

Text files can also be fetched:

const str = await client.getFileContents("/config.json", { format: "text" });

getFileDownloadLink

Return a public link where a file can be downloaded. This exposes authentication details in the URL.

const downloadLink = client.getFileDownloadLink("/image.png");

Not all servers may support this feature. Only Basic authentication and unauthenticated connections support this method.

getFileUploadLink

Return a URL for a file upload:

const uploadLink = client.getFileUploadLink("/image.png");

See getFileDownloadLink for support details.

getQuota

Get the quota information for the current account:

const quota = await client.getQuota();
// {
//     "used": 1938743,
//     "available": "unlimited"
// }

moveFile

Move a remote file to another remote location:

await client.moveFile("/file1.png", "/file2.png");

putFileContents

Write data to a remote file:

// Write a buffer:
await client.putFileContents("/my/file.jpg", imageBuffer, { overwrite: false });
// Write a text file:
await client.putFileContents("/my/file.txt", str);

Handling Upload Progress (browsers only):
This uses the axios onUploadProgress callback which uses the native XMLHttpRequest progress event.

// Upload a file and log the progress to the console:
await client.putFileContents("/my/file.jpg", imageFile, { onUploadProgress: progress => {
    console.log(`Uploaded ${progress.loaded} bytes of ${progress.total}`);
} });

stat

Get a file or directory stat object:

const stat = await client.stat("/some/file.tar.gz");

Returns an item stat.

Custom requests

Custom requests can be made to the attached host:

const contents = await client.customRequest("/alrighty.jpg", {
    method: "PROPFIND",
    headers: {
        Accept: "text/plain",
        Depth: 0
    },
    responseType: "text"
});

Returned data structures

Directory contents items

Each item returned by getDirectoryContents is basically an item stat. If the details: true option is set, each item stat (as mentioned in the stat documentation) will also include the props property containing extra properties returned by the server. No particular property in props, not its format or value, is guaranteed.

You can request all files in the file-tree (infinite depth) by calling getDirectoryContents with the option deep: true. All items will be returned in a flat array, where the filename will hold the absolute path.

Detailed responses

Requests that return results, such as getDirectoryContents, getFileContents, getQuota and stat, can be configured to return more detailed information, such as response headers. Pass { details: true } to their options argument to receive an object like the following:

| Property | Type | Description | |--------------|-----------------|----------------------------------------| | data | * | The data returned by the procedure. Will be whatever type is returned by calling without { details: true } | | headers | Object | The response headers. |

Item stat

Item stats are objects with properties that descibe a file or directory. They resemble the following:

{
    "filename": "/test",
    "basename": "test",
    "lastmod": "Tue, 05 Apr 2016 14:39:18 GMT",
    "size": 0,
    "type": "directory",
    "etag": null
}

or:

{
    "filename": "/image.jpg",
    "basename": "image.jpg",
    "lastmod": "Sun, 13 Mar 2016 04:23:32 GMT",
    "size": 42497,
    "type": "file",
    "mime": "image/jpeg",
    "etag": "33a728c7f288ede1fecc90ac6a10e062"
}

Properties:

| Property name | Type | Present | Description | |---------------|---------|--------------|---------------------------------------------| | filename | String | Always | File path of the remote item | | basename | String | Always | Base filename of the remote item, no path | | lastmod | String | Always | Last modification date of the item | | size | Number | Always | File size - 0 for directories | | type | String | Always | Item type - "file" or "directory" | | mime | String | Files only | Mime type - for file items only | | etag | String / null | When supported | ETag of the file | | props | Object | details: true | Props object containing all item properties returned by the server |

Compatibility

This library has been tested to work with the following WebDAV servers or applications:

• ownCloud ¹
• Nextcloud ¹
• Yandex.ru
• jsDAV
• webdav-server

¹ These services will work if CORS is correctly configured to return the proper headers. This may not work by default.

CORS

CORS is a security enforcement technique employed by browsers to ensure requests are executed to and from expected contexts. It can conflict with this library if the target server doesn't return CORS headers when making requests from a browser. It is your responsibility to handle this.

It is a known issue that ownCloud and Nextcloud servers by default don't return friendly CORS headers, making working with this library within a browser context impossible. You can of course force the addition of CORS headers (Apache or Nginx configs) yourself, but do this at your own risk.