Tips

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If you're using DAV for shared storage of documents you're working on with other people, you need to establish some rules and guidelines about how to manage your project so people don't step on each other's toes. DAV gives you the shared directory you need so that everyone can access the files, but doesn't set up much in the way of workflow rules. That part is up to you.

It's best if one person takes the role of project manager, whose job it is to integrate changes from other people and maintain the master copy of the file. The DAV protocol supports file locking, so that anybody with access to the directory can lock a file, preventing it from being overwritten with other peoples' changes. Unfortunately, not all DAV clients support this functionality, so your mileage may vary, but hopefully the ones lacking this ability will be updated to include it soon.

One effective way to manage changes is to set up a file naming scheme that includes the filename, maintenance date, and the initials of the project member making the changes. (So, for a simple example, if the main document name is "abcdef.doc", and I do some revisions on June 13 (and my initials are SFL), I might upload a file called "abcdef-2001-06-13-SFL.doc" to the folder.) The project leader can then integrate the changes into the master document, and move the copies of the documents that have been submitted into a "processed" subfolder. When there are no processed files besides the original in the folder, the project members can be confident that the project leader has merged the changes in. Note that this is just one top-of-the-head suggestion; you should design and adapt a workflow procedure that fits your needs.

Potential future additions to the DAV protocol will support versioning of documents, making it possible to revert to earlier saved versions or to seperate out changes. These are in the proposal stage as of this writing; much more information about DAV and its future direction may be found at the DAV home page, a very useful site with lots of information and resources.

User tips

The following tips were submitted by Carey Reid after some initial experience with a trial install:

  1. Users who have do not have MSExplorer (or a recent enough version?) must download, and they should do a CUSTOMIZED download. In that customized download, they must (a) ask for Webfolders and (b) NOT ASK for MSOutlook. By NOT ASKING for Outlook they will avoid the one-in-a-thousand chance of Outlook's messing with their existing archived emails.
  2. When group-editing a document stored in the Webfolder, we recommend adding to the instructions the following tips:
    1. There should be a LEAD EDITOR, whose responsbility it will be to drop in at points and managed the process--e.g., review and integrate collected copies into new vesions so that group edited documents do not become impossibly jammed with comments.
    2. The lead editor should insert TWO versions of the document to be edited, one as a READ ONLY document and the second as a EDITED document. The READ ONLY version is there to give the membvers of the editing team a fresh untouched copy to reference, an untouched original version. It should be saved as "read only" so as to head off mistaken attempts to edit it. Whenever the lead editor updates and generates a fully new draft, she should again insert two documents, a READ ONLY and EDITED.
    3. If the group editing team is unusually large, say more than five persons, then the lead editor might consider breaking that team into smaller groups to avoid unmanagealbe amounts of comments. We recommend no more than 5 persons working on any one document.

Any other tips on working with Web Folders are welcome; please see the feedback page for information on submitting tips and comments.

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