How to connect WebDAV (XAMPP) with SharePoint

This "how-to-connect" documentation will explain the initial configuration of an example connection from WebDAV to a SharePoint Document Library in Office 365. We will be synchronizing data stored in WebDAV.

This guide presupposes that you have installed the Layer2 Cloud Connector and that you are familiar with its basic functionality. The Layer2 Cloud Connector User Documentation will provide you with all necessary information.

Contents

1. Configuring WebDAV

2. Configuring the Layer2 Cloud Connector

2.1 Creating a new connection

2.2 Configuring the Data Entity 1

2.3 Configuring the Data Entity 2

2.4 Running your connection

3. Hints and known issues

3.1 Connection direction

1. Configuring WebDAV

We are going to configure WebDAV in a Xampp Apache 2.x server. You must enable the WebDAV feature first. Go to your Xampp installations folder and in the file <xampp_path>/conf/http.conf uncomment these lines:

LoadModule alias_module modules/mod_alias.so

LoadModule auth_digest_module modules/mod_auth_digest.so

LoadModule authn_file_module modules/mod_authn_file.so

LoadModule dav_module modules/mod_dav.so

LoadModule dav_fs_module modules/mod_dav_fs.so

LoadModule dav_lock_module modules/mod_dav_lock.so

LoadModule setenvif_module modules/mod_setenvif.so


# Distributed authoring and versioning (WebDAV)

Include conf/extra/httpd-dav.conf

Create your own folder under <xampp_path>\webdav\yourfolder. We named the folder csantos. Now go to the folder <xampp_path>\apache\conf\extra and change the fiile httpd-dav.conf:

Alias /csantos "D:\xampp\webdav\csantos" 


<Directory "D:\xampp\webdav\csantos">

Dav On

Order Allow,Deny

Allow from all

Options Indexes

</Directory>

Restart the Xampp server and try to reach the folder in your browser with this URL 127.0.0.1/webdav/yourfolder. Please check if the IP address from your Xampp server first.

2. Configuring the Layer2 Cloud Connector

2.1. Creating a new connection

Create a new connection by using the Create New Connection option in the Actions pane (right-hand side). The new connection will appear at the bottom of the Connection Manager List (left-hand side). Click on your newly created connection to open the connection configuration settings.

Choose a meaningful name for your connection and replace the current "New Connection" Connection Title with it.

Connections to WebDAV can be bi-directional. An initial connection should always be uni-directional to assure that both data entities are identical before switching to bi-directional. Therefore, choose Left to Right as Direction. You can change this setting after your initial synchronization finished successfully.

2.2. Configuring the Data Entity 1

We will now set up our Data Entities. Go to the data entity “Data Entity 1” to open the configuration settings.

Choose a Data Entity Title. It is recommended to give your entities meaningful names to maintain an overview when you decide to set up multiple connections.

Select the Data Provider for File System from the data provider list. You can search for File System by typing into the selection box.

For the Connection String, we need the URL address without the last folder name. You can copy the below connection string and adjust it to match your gathered information. Use the Verify Connection String option to evaluate if the provided connection string is valid.

Directory=\\127.0.0.1\webdav	

• "Directory=\\yourxamppipaddress\webdav;" this property points to the WebDAV folder we set in the first step.

The Select Statement text box is used to define specific data queries. We do not need the SELECT statement here. Save your changes by using the right-hand pane option Save Changes.

To check if all necessary columns are received, you can use the Preview Data option on the right-hand pane which will provide you with a pop-up window showing your sample data from your WebDAV entity.

2.3. Configuring the Data Entity 2

We are going to send the data to a custom SharePoint Document Library. It's required that you set up this library prior to the next steps.

Use the left-hand pane to switch to the data entity "Data Entity 2". We will be using the Layer2 SharePoint Provider for this setup. 

For more information about the SharePoint provider visit:

https://www.layer2solutions.com/support/cloud-connector-faqs/layer2-csom-sharepoint-ado-net-provider.

You can copy the below Connection String which contains the minimum of required properties to connect to your custom SharePoint Online Document Library.

URL=https://your_custom_sharepoint_library_url/Forms/AllItems.aspx;Authentication=Microsoft_Modern;

• "URL=https://your_custom_sharepoint_url/Forms/AllItems.aspx;" this property defines the URL of your custom document library that will be addressed.
• "Authentication=Microsoft_Modern;" this property will determine the authentication method used. Microsoft_Modern is the default authentication method to access Microsoft Office 365 / SharePoint Online and should work in most cases, even if the SharePoint site is connected to an ADFS. This authentication does not need any further connection string settings, other than the URL of the connected system.

Save your changes by using the right-hand pane option Save Changes.

In the next step, we will configure our mapping settings. Click on the Mappings option on the left-hand pane. If your fields from SharePoint are named identical to the fields from your source system, the Enable Auto Mapping option will match those columns. Disabling this option allows you to match your columns as needed. We enabled auto-mapping in our setup. Save your changes by using the right-hand pane option Save Changes.

2.4. Running your connection

To run your connection switch back to the main connection configuration node and use the Run Now Button located on the bottom of the setup page. The Run Synchronization Toolbox will also display the synchronization process. 

Below is a data preview of the information we have accessed in our source entity:

This will be the result in our SharePoint Online Document Library after our initial successful synchronization:

If you want to use a bi-directional syncronization, you can now switch your connection directon after our first initial synchronization run finished successfully. See section 3.1 for further information.

3. Hints and known issues

3.1. Connection direction

As far as tested, this connection supports uni-directional as well as bi-directional synchronizations. 

After adjusting the direction to bi-directional, you should check your Mappings settings again because some systems might include read-only columns that cannot be mapped directly.

We also recommend to choose a Conflict Resolution that matches your environments needs. You can find out more about the different conflict resolutions in our Layer2 Cloud Connector User Documentation.

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