WebDAV : Java Glossary

Advantages

• It is faster than FTP (File Transfer Protocol).
• It uses an extension of HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) protocol. This means it requires no special firewall tunnelling exceptions. To the firewall, its conversations with the server look just like ordinary browser web page requests and fetches.
• WebDAV is platform independent. This means that Macintosh, Linux, Unix and Windows users can collaborate on web content without all of the usual conversion problems
• You can upload large files that would be too big for email.
• The software is simpler to use than FTP.
• Like HTTP, WebDAV is not locked into any particular software. So long as your authoring tools are WebDAV compliant, you are fine.
• Microsoft products such as Explorer, Internet Explorer, Word, Excel and PowerPoint and Office are WebDAV compliant out the box. You just map a network drive letter onto a WebDAV URL (Uniform Resource Locator). You still need WebDAV client software.
• Most of the servlet wombs also support WebDAV.

Disadvantages

• I could not get it to work.
• It has many configuration options. It should just automatically take the lead from the server.