Jakarta Commons Cookbook

11.18. Modifying a WebDAV Resource

Problem

You need to modify a WebDAV resource.

Solution

Use the putMethod( ) on WebdavResource, and be sure to lock and unlock the resource before and after modification. The following example demonstrates the use of lockMethod( ) , putMethod( ), and unlockMethod( ) to modify a resource:

               import org.apache.commons.httpclient.Credentials;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpClient;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.HttpException;
import org.apache.commons.httpclient.UsernamePasswordCredentials;
import org.apache.webdav.lib.WebdavResource;

String url = "http://www.discursive.com/jccook/dav/test.html";
Credentials credentials =
    new UsernamePasswordCredentials("davuser", "davpass");

// List resources in top directory
WebdavResource resource = new WebdavResource(url, credentials);

// Lock the Resource for 100 seconds
boolean locked = resource.lockMethod( "tobrien", 100 );

if( locked ) {
    try {
        // Read content as a String
        String resourceData = resource.getMethodDataAsString( );
        
        // Modify a resource
        System.out.println( "*** Modifying Resource");
        resourceData = resourceData.replaceAll( "test", "modified test" );
        resource.putMethod( resourceData );
    } finally {
        // Unlock the resource
        resource.unlockMethod( );
    }
}
        
// Close the resource    
resource.close( );

Discussion

lockMethod( ) accepts an owner and a timeout; the owner is the owner of the lock, and the timeout is the timeout of the lock in number of seconds. When locking a resource, the lockMethod( ...