Create components with WebDAV

Components are used to store elements in your Web content system, and you can use WebDAV to create and manage components. Each component type is represented as a folder in WebDAV, with individual components being represented as files in the appropriate component folder. All components for a given library are listed under the components folder for that library. Within the components folder there are folders for each type of component.

 libraries
   - wcm.library.my_library
       - components
          - wcm.comps.data.and.time
          - wcm.comps.file
          - wcm.comps.html
          - wcm.comps.image
          - wcm.comps.link
          - wcm.comps.number
          - wcm.comps.rich.text
          - wcm.comps.short.text
          - wcm.comps.style.sheet
          - wcm.comps.text
          access-control.xml

Components are data-oriented items and represented as files and metadata folders.

 libraries
   - wcm.library.my_library
       - components
          - wcm.comps.data.and.time
          - wcm.comps.file
          - wcm.comps.html
          - wcm.comps.image
               image1.jpg
               image2.jpg
               - meta-data
                 - wcm.comp.image1.jpg
                       access-control-system.xml
                       access-control-user.xml
                       meta-data.xml        
                 - wcm.comp.image2.jpg
                       access-control-system.xml
                       access-control-user.xml
                       meta-data.xml        
          - wcm.comps.link
          - wcm.comps.number
          - wcm.comps.rich.text
          - wcm.comps.short.text
          - wcm.comps.style.sheet
          - wcm.comps.text        
          access-control.xml    

Link component limitation: Currently link components are not fully supported by WebDAV. The WebDAV file representing the link component contains only the URL of the link itself but no other information, such as the link text.

For example, if you use WebDAV to modify a link component containing an HTML representation of <a href='www.lotus.com'>lotus software</a> and change the URL to www.ibm.com, the link text will still be rendered as lotus software, because that information cannot be modified with WebDAV.

To create components for your library, drag one or more files into the appropriate component type folder. When you create a new component in this way, the object's file name is used as the name and title of the new component, and the file's content is stored as the component's data. In addition the user authenticated with the WebDAV client is specified as the author and owner of the new component.

For example, you could drag an HTML file into the wcm.comps.html folder for a new HTML component or into the wcm.comps.rich.text folder for a new rich text element.

Placing an incompatible file into a component type folder (for example, putting a JPEG file into the wcm.comps.html folder) can cause errors during component creation and might result in an unusable component. Updating components: To update an existing component, you can simply replace the corresponding file in the WebDAV tree with a new file that has the same name.

For example you can place myCoolPic.jpg into the image components folder that already contains myCoolPic.jpg, and the component will automatically be updated with the new file's content. If you place a file with a different name, a new component with that name is created.

Parent topic:

Use WebDAV with Web content

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