Deploy to WebDAV

Synopsis

This document describes how artifacts can be deployed to a WebDAV service. WebDAV in a protocol that enables write acccess to server content. It is an extension to HTTP and is supported by many Web servers. Examples include the Apache HTTP Server, NGINX and Nextcloud.

Purpose

• WebDAV is a widely supported protocol. The ability to deploy maven artifacts via this protocol may be useful for archiving purposes.

Caveats

⚠️ Maven’s WebDAV provider (wagon-webdav-jackrabbit) is deprecated and subject to removal in Maven 4. It is unclear whether and when there will be a replacement. The example on this page was tested with Maven 3.

⚠️ Just like there is http:// and its secure version https:// the same difference exists for WebDAV as it builds upon HTTP(s). Using dav:// in cases where secure webdav davs:// is needed will result in errors. Typically it will be permission denied but it may also be moved permanently if the server tries to redirect.

Approach

The following mvn invocation requires appropriately adapted versions of the pom.xml and settings.xml files as described below. It will deploy a simple archive to the specified server using:

mvn -P webdav deploy

ℹ️ It is generally good practice to put distribution configurations, such as that for the webdav deployment - into profiles. This allows one to easiliy deploy to a specific destination.

Supply user name and password with appropriate <server> sections in the ~/m2/settings.xml:

<settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd">

  <servers>
    <server>
      <id>my.webdav.internal</id>
      <username>USERNAME</username>
      <password>PASSWORD</password>
    </server>
    <server>
      <id>et.webdav.snapshots</id>
      <username>USERNAME</username>
      <password>PASSWORD</password>
    </server>
  </servers>
</settings>

The pom.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
  <groupId>org.aksw.maven4data.examples</groupId>
  <artifactId>my-archived-directory-with-webdav</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
  
  <properties>
    <!-- Adjust the following settings your needs -->
    <webdav.url>davs://SERVER/nextcloud/remote.php/dav/files/USERNAME</webdav.url>
    
    <!-- The values for these properties must match with the server ids in settings.xml -->
    <webdav.id.internal>my.webdav.internal</webdav.id.internal>
    <webdav.id.snapshots>my.webdav.snapshots</webdav.id.snapshots>
    
    <!-- Adjust the path to your needs -->
    <directory-to-archive>.</directory-to-archive>

    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    <wagon-webdav-jackrabbit.version>3.0.0</wagon-webdav-jackrabbit.version>
  </properties>
  
  <repositories>
    <repository>
      <id>${webdav.id.internal}</id>
      <name>My WebDAV-based Internal Repository</name>
      <url>${webdav.url}</url>
    </repository>
    <repository>
      <id>${webdav.id.snapshots}</id>
      <name>My WebDAV-based Snapshot Repository</name>
      <url>${webdav.url}</url>
    </repository>
  </repositories>

  <profiles>
    <profile>
      <id>webdav</id>
      <distributionManagement>
        <repository>
          <id>${webdav.id.internal}</id>
          <name>My WebDAV-based Internal Repository</name>
          <url>${webdav.url}</url>
          <uniqueVersion>false</uniqueVersion>
        </repository>
        <snapshotRepository>
          <id>${webdav.id.snapshots}</id>
          <name>My WebDAV-based Snapshot Repository</name>
          <url>${webdav.url}</url>
          <uniqueVersion>false</uniqueVersion>
        </snapshotRepository>
      </distributionManagement>      
    </profile>
  </profiles>

  <build>
    <extensions>
      <extension>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.wagon</groupId>
        <artifactId>wagon-webdav-jackrabbit</artifactId>
        <version>${wagon-webdav-jackrabbit.version}</version>
      </extension>
    </extensions>
  
    <resources>
      <resource>
        <directory>${directory-to-archive}</directory>
      </resource>
    </resources>
  </build>
</project>