Apple Finder 10.5.3 and Microsoft Word 2008 12.0.1 (080305) with WebDAV

[Graham Perrin]

Last week I upgraded Mac OS X on my MacBook Pro from Tiger (10.4.11)
to Leopard (10.5.2).

Before reviewing application behaviour with SSHFS or CurlFtpFS, I
wondered how the most recent versions of Finder and Microsoft Word
behave with a WebDAV server.

Highlights:

1) for many use cases, persistence of
._ dot underscore files will be a norm (not an exception)

2) during a Finder copy, bytes are written to
._foo.bar *before* bytes are written to
foo.bar

3) after initiating a Finder copy, both foo.bar and ._foo.bar are
visible at the server (through the web) _before_ Finder presents its
Copy dialogue.

4) don't expect Microsoft Office 2008 applications to work with WebDAV
volumes

-- I have not tested Office 2008 with ZopeEditManager and Plone-served
WebDAV but I expect this combination to be fine

-- whether Office 2008 will be reliable with MacFUSE + SSHFS or
CurlFtpFS I don't know; proceed with caution.

In each example below I captured TTW views of the WebDAV volume, to
help demonstrate the sequence of events.


=========
Example 1
=========

touch ~/Desktop/foo.bar

nano ~/Desktop/foo.bar

Finder: copy foo.bar from ~/Desktop to a WebDAV volume http://www.box.net/dav/
provided by Box.net

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/1325/foobarstage1xn3.png
http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/9938/foobarstage2fo9.png
http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/9822/foobarstage3rm9.png
http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/7720/foobarstage4fq6.png

Summary:

foo.bar zero bytes
foo.bar and ._foo.bar zero bytes
bytes written to ._foo.bar
bytes written to foo.bar
._foo.bar disappears (not required).


=========
Example 2
=========

Microsoft Word 2008: create a .docx file at ~/Desktop

Finder: copy the .docx file from ~/Desktop to the WebDAV volume.

http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/2917/docxstage1iz3.png
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/5396/docxstage2wo6.png
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/9127/docxstage3ig7.png
http://img168.imageshack.us/img168/4470/docxstage4pg4.png

Summary:

._ file persists.

Contents of that ._ file pasted to
http://pastie.textmate.org/169052

Other examples:
http://pastie.textmate.org/169051
http://pastie.textmate.org/169071

Note: the files had _no_ resource fork.


=========
Example 3
=========

Microsoft Word 2008 tries but fails to create a .docx file on the
WebDAV volume. Word displays an error.

Web UI to the volume reveals that the file was saved. However: neither
Word nor Finder can work with the file's name.

Through the web I rename the .docx file
(but not its ._ counterpart),
correcting the %20 parts of the name, so that Word can open it.

Curiously, there was no problem with %20 when Word began with
Word Work File D_3.tmp and
._Word Work File D_3.tmp

I use Finder to delete the .docx file.

Finally through the web I remove the orphaned ._ file.

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8945/word2008andwebdavstage1re6.png
http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/6561/word2008andwebdavstage2om8.png
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/8043/word2008andwebdavstage3so5.png
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/3658/word2008andwebdavstage4qr9.png
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/5748/word2008andwebdavstage5jh1.png

Summary:

/.TemporaryItems
was an issue with Office 2004 and earlier, see for example
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302979

/.TemporaryItems
is no longer evident but still,
Word 2008 can not save without error to a WebDAV volume.