WebDAV is a way to publish files to your server. I've been a fan since I first saw it and have been teaching people about it for years. When you have everything setup correctly, you can open a web folder in Network Places (or neighborhood or whatever), or on your desktop, and when you drag and drop files into the folder, it publishes over the network using http to the server. Unfortunately, the story about DAV from Microsoft's end has been rather mottled. The specifics of what is possible using DAV, how it appears and behaves depends on the precise combination of which server you're using (DAV was supported on IIS 5 as well), the client (XP, 2000, Vista), and what application you use to do the DAV connection (Explorer, IE, Office, FrontPage).

However, in IIS 7, there is some very good news. Robert McMurray on the IIS team is the same guy that manages the FTP 7 project. He has improved, the DAV story for IIS 7 in many ways. I've had the chance to chat with him on numerous occasions about his vision and hopes for DAV and other publishing protocols and can tell you that he's the right guy for the job.

One of the biggest improvements is that DAV can be enabled per URL. In IIS 6, and 5, DAV was either functional for all sites or not. Now, you can use it just where you need it. The IIS 7 DAV provider integrates with the IIS 7 UI and leverages IIS 7 URL Authorization. URL Auth lets you allow or deny access to content using web.config files instead of ACLS.

This version of DAV is the SERVER side component. The client side will use one of the various providers mentioned earlier - but should work by simply creating a network connection to a dav enabled URL. One way to do this is in IE, using File, Open and selecting the checkbox "open as a web folder".

Once you setup DAV and get used to using it, you'll wonder how you managed without it.

http://blogs.iis.net/robert_mcmurray/archive/2007/12/22/webdav-module-for-windows-server-2008-golive-beta-is-released.aspx

-brett

BTW, RC1 of Windows Server 2008 is released. AFAIK, this is the last release before RTM.  Expect to see the official launch Feb 28th.

You can upgrade from RC1 to RTM! So if you've been avoiding Beta releases out of concern for stability, RC1 is is solid. (Actually, the server was really solid around beta 3).

Lots of new things to be excited about including an improved TCP/IP stack that should dramatically increase file transfers between Vista/Server and Server/Server. 

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008/audsel.mspx

BTW, the bits for SP1 of Vista share a lot in common with server as they are same the code base. As a result, Vista benefits from a lot of work done on Server and visa vera.  In the case of IIS 7, you will also get some new features.

=brett 

It's great to see this list of changes and updates to Vista coming up in SP1. Keep in mind that all of this is baked in to Windows Server 2008 as well. 

http://www.istartedsomething.com/20071208/vista-sp1-changelog/

Microsoft publishes detailed Vista SP1 “changelog” - istartedsomething

So, many people will IIS 7 in hand beginning next week with Vista being available. For those of you have not seen it but are interested,you will need to take some time to get up to speed on the new UI and features. Of course, one of the most practical beneifts of IIS 7 on Vista is that you can make more than one website and it's not limited to 10 connections. It will process 10 requests at a time making it impractical to use as a server - but works great as dev platform.

Be sure to get the version of Vista that has the features you want! THEY ARE DIFFERENT. Here's the definitive list of differences on a feature by feature basis: Notice that Windows Authentication in particular is not available on several versions: http://www.iis.net/default.aspx?tabid=2&subtabid=25&i=1100

The IIS team is working fevershily on IIS 7 on Longhorn Server. It's not quite time to discuss the key features that will be on the server version that are not on Vista, but they are going to be very, very useful for enteprises and it won't impact your ability to develop code on Vista to run on IIS 7 in any core way. If you write an applicaiton on Vista to use IIS 7 features, it will run on IIS 7. In fact, our experience has shown that in many cases, ihttp handlers and ihttp modules for ASP.net run without modification. That is not always true as there are some differences in the environment between the core pipline of IIS 7 and the ASP.net pipeline in IIS6.

Keep in mind also that when you install IIS 7, you do NOT get an IIS 6 (or IIS 5.1) equivalent. IIS 7 is LESS enabled with a default install than in previous releases. Be sure to install the features you need using Turn on/Off Windows features or package manager. See details here: http://www.iis.net/default.aspx?tabid=2&subtabid=25&i=957

Mike Volodarsky has an article about this on IIS.net http://www.iis.net/default.aspx?tabid=2&subtabid=23&i=1223. His blog http://mvolo.com/blogs/serverside/ is also reqruied reading for IIS 7 devs.

Please post problems on IIS.net forums which the team montors. That is the best way, I hope, to get help for  your issues and report problems. It absoulety does happen that people report bugs there and they become fixes in the product. 

Thanks!

Brett