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Apache2 TYPO3 WebDAV

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Configuring Apache2/WebDAV for TYPO3

This HowTo describes the installation and configuration for WebDAV usage on a Linux Debian (sarge) system. All software used and required is also available for Windows. So this tutorial should be pretty much the same.

What you get (after working through this)

When completing the steps below, you will be able to upload files into the file /typo3/fileadmin folder using the WebDAV protocol (Webfolders when we talk about Windows). It is possible to map the WebDAV root folder directly to the fileadmin folder (while allowing public access to some subfolders) or to some subfolder. The goal of this is to allow easy document exchange while (optionally) password protecting everything. The users, passwords and groups will be administred using TYPO3 users and groups. Access will be configured using Apache2 .htaccess files. Access can be granted to backend, frontend users or to groups using the names of the groups.

What you dont get

The WebDAV support comes from the apache webserver. So you will not get a clean and proper integration into TYPO3. Uploaded or modified files will not be recognized by TYPO3 (or not in any case). Also TYPO3 will not support versioning on the files. But the WebDAV protocol itself may offer enough versioning for you.

Requirements

  • (quite) some knowledge on configuring an Apache2 Webserver
  • some knowledge on MySQL (and SQL)
  • a working TYPO3 installation (tested on v4.0), but this installtation does mainly depend on everything else below
  • MySQL v5 (when using MySQL v4 you will not be able to use the group athentication)
  • Debian 3.1 (sarge), It may also run on Apache2 on Windows (try, tell me :) )
  • A running Apache2 Webserver (tested with 2.0.xx)

Apache2 configuration

Apache

You will have to install and configure the WebDAV modules and the MySQL-Auth module: First we will make sure we got the recent package list: 

# apt-get update

Then we will install the MySQL Auth modules: 

# apt-get install libapache2-mod-auth-mysql

The WebDAV modules are already around. We may need to activate them. Modules can be activated (installed into Apache2) using: 

# a2enmod auth_mysql
# a2enmod dav_fs 
# a2enmod dav

Just type a2enmod to get a list of available modules. Modules can be disabled using a2dismod. Restart Apache2: 

# apache2ctl configtest
# apache2ctl restart

Users for Apache 1.x may use the older modules like libapache-mod-auth-mysql (not tested). On Windows find the LoadModule line in the apache.conf file and remove the #.

Creating Additional MySQL Views

MySQL

Welcome to the tricky part. Later on this step will allow us to configure the apache2-auth_module to use the users and groups from Typo3. Typo3 stores its users and groups in different tables: be_users, fe_users, be_groups and fe_groups. Sadly the groups are referenced as unique ids within the users table. So if we want to grant acces for the group 'WebDAV-Members', we would have to remember the unique id, which is not the best solution - remembering numbers can be dangerous as well.

So we will create database-views. And this is the main reason MySQL v5 is required. Views are a new feature and not available in earlier versions.

Whats a view? Short version: it looks and behaves (almost) like a table. But in fact it's a SQL statement that dynamically fills the content. It allows simplified queries on complex data structures or in our case: the apache2-auth_module tool we use to authenticate users is not that flexible. So the view will represent a structure the module can use.

We will create three views:

  • a view for backend users and their group memberships,
  • a view for frontend users and their group memberships (We will encrypt the passwords so they look like backend passwords, so the view containing both looks smoother.) and
  • a view containing both (may not be perfect if you have backend and frontend users with the same username!)

Creating a view for backend users

Use a database tool (the phpMyAdmin extension, SQLYog, MySQLFront, DBVis... what ever you prefer) and create the following views into the same database where the Typo3 (be_users...) tables are located. Simply execute the following SQL statement:

SQL:
 CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW v_be_usergroups AS
 SELECT be_users.username, be_users.password, group_concat(be_groups.title SEPARATOR ',') AS groups, 
        1 AS be_user
 FROM be_groups, be_users
 WHERE FIND_IN_SET(be_groups.uid, be_users.usergroup) > 0
    AND be_users.deleted = 0
    AND be_groups.deleted = 0
 GROUP BY username, password;

Creating a view for frontend users

Very similar is the front end part: only the clear-text passwords will be encrypted too and the be_user flag is set to 0.

SQL:
 CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW v_fe_usergroups AS
 SELECT fe_users.username, md5(fe_users.password) as password, 
        group_concat(fe_groups.title SEPARATOR ',') AS groups, 0 AS be_user
 FROM fe_groups, fe_users
 WHERE FIND_IN_SET(fe_groups.uid, fe_users.usergroup) > 0
    AND fe_users.deleted = 0
    AND fe_groups.deleted = 0
 GROUP BY username, password;

Creating a view for both backend and frontend users

Merge both views to get a big family.

SQL:
 CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW v_merged_usergroups AS
 SELECT * FROM v_be_usergroups
 UNION
 SELECT * FROM v_fe_usergroups;

Some things to notice

If you can see the database-view (show tables;) a select will show its data. You should be able to recognize your users. If you add one within Typo3 the user will automatically apear inside the view. Note: Users that are in no group at will not be visible in the views (the group_concat() function in MySQL will not let them through). So to be able to access our webfolders, the user must be in at least one group (which is not that bad, create some WebDAV group for e.x.)

Furthermore: the merged view (containing all users) must not contain two rows with the same username! This will let the apache-auth module fail to authenticate the users (one user may not have more than one password).

Some featured bug: if you create a frontend group called 'Members' you can create a backend group with the same name. These groups cannot be distinguished! I recommend using different group names anyway. In my case, this is a nice side-effect, as I can grant access so some folders to a group, which is then available for both front-end and back-end users.

As an example: imagine the backend users are people in your company and they all got backend user accounts. Some customers may get a frontend user account. To allow easy file exchange you could create a group for backend and frontend with the same name. Access is then controlled using that group name.

Configure the authentication using the MySQL views

It is somewhat important to notice that there is more than one apache2 module available for mysql authentication. The different modules require slighltly different settings. This example is for the one installed with apt-get on Debian Sarge (3.1).

There is another module doing the same job at sourceforge.org. But its not the one used here. So dont get confused with the manual there. Expecially the encryption types available for passwords are different.

To proper documentation can be read here: 

# cd /usr/share/doc/libapache2-mod-auth-mysql
# zless USAGE.gz
# zless DIRECTIVES.gz

We will map the WebDAV folder into /webroot/apache/typo3-dummy/fileadmin/webdav. Your website would then be available from /webroot/apache/typo3-dummy/. You can actually map this folder directly to the fileadmin folder! It is important to configure the templates, stylesheets and images folder as public folders (see below), so no access popup is shown to your website visitors.

Configure the WebDAV folder in Apache2

You can put this into your httpd.conf or create a new site or add it to your existing files: 

<Location /fileadmin/webdav/>
       # enable WebDAV for this folder:
       DAV On

       php_admin_flag engine off

       AllowOverride All
       allow from all
       Options +Indexes
</Location>

We additionally create a subdomain (virtual host) to allow easy access using the Windows webfolders feature: 

<VirtualHost webdav.yourdomain.ch:80>
       DocumentRoot /webroot/apache/typo3-dummy/fileadmin/webdav
       ServerName wwebdav.yourdomain.ch
       <Directory "/webroot/apache/typo3-dummy/fileadmin/webdav">
               DAV On

               php_admin_flag engine off

               AllowOverride All
               allow from all
               Options +Indexes
       </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Hints and notes on Windows Webfolders

The subdomain we created is mainly used to prevent Windows users to encounter problems when accessing it. There are several known bugs on this. A good overview of work-arounds can be found here. A short summary: Webfolders looking like http://mydomain.ch/fileadmin/webdav/ may not be accessible. To overcome that there seem to be several workarounds:

  • use a subdomain that points to that folder
  • add a port number to the link
  • add a # sign at the end of the resource link (http://mydomain.ch/fileadmin/webdav/#)
  • use an SSL resource, https:// (and be aware of the restrictions if you have only one ip address for your server and are already using it, it will be difficult to use another virtual host, see Apache2 SSL FAQ for some infos in this)
  • use another client (like webdrive) or another operating system
  • be creative in some other way

Creating SSL certificates is pretty easy using the apache2-ssl-certificate command.

Depending on your configuration you may need to insert an AllowOverride option for your apache web-root folder. This will enable the parsing of the .htaccess files (in case that part isnt working). We do another Apache2 restart:

shell script:
 # apache2ctl configtest
 Syntax OK
 # apache2ctl restart

To test if the webdav thing works you may use the command line client: cadaver

shell script:
 # apt-get install cadaver
 # cadaver http://webdav.yourdomain.ch/

No authentication information is requested yet from the server. We will add this now.

Creating access files

There is yet another kind of bug: this time within the apache webdav module. It will list the .htaccess files. Although these files are not readable in any case, there is a workaround too: symbolic links. This will work for authentication and the webdav module will not list the .htaccess files.

We have used /webroot/apache/typo3-dummy/fileadmin/webdav as our webdav folder. We will create the used authentication files somewhere else. It is strongly recommended to put these files in a folder which is not visible from the web! In the case above I would suggest somthing like /webroot/apache/access

We will create different files, so we can re-use them by adding a symbolic link within the folder we want to secure: 

# cd /webroot/apache/typo3-dummy/fileadmin/webdav
# ln -s /webroot/apache/access/typo3_be_users_only.txt .htaccess

An ls -la will show the link: .htaccess -> /webroot/apache/access/typo3_be_users_only.txt


Example file for backend-users:

So. Lets tell apache to authenticate the users using our newly created views: 

# nano /webroot/apache/access/typo3_auth_be.txt

And fill the file with: (insert the correct MySQL settings of your Typo3 configs) 

   # MySql Authentication on TYPO3 BackendUser-Table:
   AuthName "WebDAV Auth (Typo3)"
   AuthType Basic

   Auth_MySQL_Host localhost
   Auth_MySQL_Port 3306
   Auth_MySQL_Username typo3MySQLuser
   Auth_MySQL_Password typo3MysqlPassword
   Auth_MySQL_DB typo3MySQLDatabaseName

   Auth_MySQL_Password_Table v_be_usergroups
   Auth_MySQL_Password_Field password
   Auth_MySQL_Username_Field username
   Auth_MySQL_Group_Table v_be_usergroups
   Auth_MySQL_Group_Field groups

   Auth_MySQL_Encryption_Types PHP_MD5
   Auth_MySQL_Password_Clause " AND be_user=1"

   Auth_MySQL_Non_Persistent on
   Auth_MySQL_Empty_Passwords off
   
   AuthBasicAuthoritative Off     
   AuthUserFile /dev/null

   Auth_MySQL on

   require valid-user

   IndexOptions FancyIndexing FoldersFirst SuppressDescription NameWidth=* VersionSort

After you created the soft-link in your webdav folder accessing it via WebDAV or directly via http:// in your browser should bring up the authentication window. Every backend-user can login (require valid-user).

Example file for frontend-users:

   # MySql Authentication on TYPO3 FrontendUser-Table:
   AuthName "WebDAV Auth (Typo3 fe)"
   AuthType Basic
   
   Auth_MySQL_Host localhost
   Auth_MySQL_Port 3306
   Auth_MySQL_Username typo3MySQLuser
   Auth_MySQL_Password typo3MysqlPassword
   Auth_MySQL_DB typo3MySQLDatabaseName
   
   Auth_MySQL_Password_Table v_fe_usergroups
   Auth_MySQL_Password_Field password
   Auth_MySQL_Username_Field username
   Auth_MySQL_Group_Table v_fe_usergroups
   Auth_MySQL_Group_Field groups
   
   Auth_MySQL_Encryption_Types PHP_MD5
   Auth_MySQL_Password_Clause " AND be_user=0"
   
   Auth_MySQL_Non_Persistent on
   Auth_MySQL_Empty_Passwords off
   
   AuthBasicAuthoritative Off 
   AuthUserFile /dev/null
   
   Auth_MySQL on
   
   Require valid-user
   
   IndexOptions FancyIndexing FoldersFirst SuppressDescription NameWidth=* VersionSort

Example file for certain groups only

The above files will authenticate backend or frontend users. If you want to restrict access to a certain folder to a certain group you only need to add another require line: 

   # authenticate all users with an account:
   Require valid-user
   # restrict access to group named 'Members'
   Require group Members

If you have multiple groups for this folder: 

   # allow access to groups 'Members' and 'Moderators'
   Require group Members Moderators

Example file for a public folders

WebDAV is an extension to the HTTP. Normally browsers use GET requests to retrieve all documents and images for your website. WebDAV introduces more commands (methods) to HTTP.

WebDAV cannot be turned off for a subfolder with apache2. I would not consider this a bug. So we need a little trick here too.

To allow browsers to read the files with no authentication we do not restrict the standard HTTP methods GET and OPTIONS: create a file like 

<LimitExcept GET OPTIONS>
       require valid-user
</LimitExcept>

and soft-link it to a .htaccess file (for example to allow public access to your images or stylesheet folders).


For more information on WebDAV and its methods see


Enjoy :-)

You should be ready to rock.

Questions and Feedback

If you got some feedback or questions you may find my at typo3.net (I will watch that thread) or write something on the discussion page (sorry no email, I'm some poor spam victim).

Some tools that allow mapping of a driveletter to the WebDAV folder

  • Webdrive (Shareware)
  • NetDrive (Novel), free but no longer available from Novel.

However you can still obtain a copy from either:

http://www.loyola.edu/5555/netdrive/installingnetdrive/

or:

http://downloads.lansa.co.uk/other/Novel%20Netdrive/

If all else fails, give your searchengine a try

MS Office will allow you to open and save documents directly via webfolders. Also eclipse has a WebDAV plugin.

Windows Vista

After several failures to get Windows XP to connect to a WebDav folder with no help of third party tools windows Vista brings new features. Vista by default will not allow unencrypted passwords to be sent, even if the connection is SSL encrypted. So a registry change has to be made. Go to: 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\WebClient\Parameters

and change the value of 

BasicAuthLevel

to "2". Then restart the pc (the setting will not be read until then). If the key is not there create a new "DWORD (32-Bit)".

Once this is done a simple command will connect the folder to a drive letter: 

net use w: http://webdav.yourserver.org/ * /user:USERNAME

Choose any free driveletter instead of w. The "*" will ask you for a password. 

net help use

Will write out some additional parameters for the command.

Relations

relating projects (edit this, in alphabetical order)

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