Locking with DAV Explorer

Using DAV Explorer, you can lock a resource, preventing anyone else from modifying it while it is locked. The lock stays active until it is unlocked, or it times out.

Locking a resource

To lock a resource with DAV Explorer, select the resource in the right window pane, then either select "Shared Lock" or "Exclusive Lock" from the File menu:

Or click on the lock icon in the toolbar:
DAV Explorer supports shared and exclusive locks through the File menu. The lock icon on the toolbar always creates an exclusive lock.

If the resource is successfully locked, a lock icon will appear to the left of the name of the locked resource. The screen below shows the resource "Readme.txt" after it has been locked.

Screenshot with Locked Resource

DAV Explorer requests a lock duration of 86,400 seconds, or 1 day, after which the lock times out, and is automatically removed from the resource. However, it is possible for a WebDAV server to have a different lock duration policy, ignoring the client request and assigning a different lock timeout.

Some WebDAV servers do not support locking for some or all of the resources under their control. If you try to lock a resource that can't be locked, the following error message will appear:

Locking not supported

Lock owner information

It is possible to submit a URL providing some contact information for the person taking out the lock. If another person desires write access to a locked resource, they can use this lock owner information to contact the owner of the lock, and discuss when they can get access. The lock owner field is usually either an "http" URL for a Web page, such as a home page with contact information, or a "mailto" URL, which has the email address of the lock owner.

To set your lock owner information, from the Edit menu, select "Edit Lock Info":

Edit Menu

Enter the lock owner URL in the window that appears, then select "OK".

Lock Info Dialog
The lock owner information is saved when you exit DAV Explorer, and will persist across DAV Explorer sessions. Lock owner information is saved in the file "lockinfo.dat", which is stored in your home directory on Windows (NT and up) and Unix, or in "\" on Windows 95/98. The storage directory location comes from the Java "user.home" system property.

Lock properties

To get a display of the properties of an active lock, first select a locked resource, then from the View menu, choose "View Lock Properties":

View Menu

A small window will appear describing the lock, providing a formatted display of the activelock property. An example of a lock properties display is:

Lock Properties

This example shows an exclusive write lock, of depth 0, meaning the lock only applies to the current resource. A depth value of infinity indicates a lock was made on a collection, and recursively on all its sub-collections. The lock owner contains a "mailto" URL, giving the email address of the owner of the lock. The lock token is an identifier for the lock. The lock token is unique across space and time, and is often called a globally unique identifier, or GUID. The timeout field gives the number of seconds until the lock expires, starting from when the lock was generated.

Unlocking a resource

To unlock a resource, select it, then either choose "Unlock" from the File menu, or click the unlock icon:

User Manual Home	Getting Started	Navigation	Locking
Properties	Namespace	Upload/Download	Logging
Proxies and SSL	Applet	DeltaV	Access Control

Last updated: November 21, 2005