Adapting Databases and WebDAV Protocol

The ability of the Web to share data regardless of geographical location raises a new issue called remote authoring. With the Internet and Web browsers being independent of hardware, it becomes possible to build Web-enabled database applications. Many approaches are provided to integrate databases into the Web environment, which use the Web's protocol i.e. HTTP to transfer the data between clients and servers. However, those methods are affected by the HTTP shortfalls with regard to remote authoring. This paper introduces and discusses a new methodology for remote authoring of databases, which is based on the WebDAV protocol. It is a seamless and effective methodology for accessing and authoring databases, particularly in that it naturally benefits from the WebDAV advantages such as metadata and access control. These features establish a standard way of accessing database metadata, and increase the database security, while speeding up the database connection.