Create components with WebDAV

Components are used to store elements in the Web content system, and we 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 as folders under the components folder for that library. Within the components folder, we can also create custom folders that we can use to organize the components. Like the root components folder, custom folders contain folders for each type of component.

 libraries
   - wcm.library.my_library
       - components
           - CustomComponentFolder1 
               - wcm.comps.authoring.tools
               - wcm.comps.component.references
               - wcm.comps.data.and.time
               .
               .
               .
               - wcm.comps.user.selection        
           - CustomComponentFolder2 
               - wcm.comps.authoring.tools
               - wcm.comps.component.references
               - wcm.comps.data.and.time
               .
               .
               .
               - wcm.comps.user.selection        
          - wcm.comps.authoring.tools
          - wcm.comps.component.references
          - wcm.comps.data.and.time
          - wcm.comps.federated.content
          - wcm.comps.file
          - wcm.comps.html
          - wcm.comps.image
          - wcm.comps.jsp
          - wcm.comps.link
          - wcm.comps.menu
          - wcm.comps.navigator
          - wcm.comps.number
          - wcm.comps.page.navigation
          - wcm.comps.personalization
          - wcm.comps.rich.text
          - wcm.comps.search
          - wcm.comps.short.text
          - wcm.comps.style.sheet
          - wcm.comps.taxonomy
          - wcm.comps.text
          - wcm.comps.user.name
          - wcm.comps.user.selection
          access-control.xml

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

 libraries
   - wcm.library.my_library
       - components
          - wcm.comps.authoring.tools
          - wcm.comps.component.references
          - wcm.comps.data.and.time
          - wcm.comps.federated.content
          - 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.jsp
          - wcm.comps.link
          - wcm.comps.menu
          - wcm.comps.navigator
          .
          .
          .
           - wcm.comps.user.selection
          access-control.xml 

Important: Although displayed in WebDAV, the following components cannot be created or modified through WebDAV and are represented by empty files:

• Authoring tools

• Component references

• Federated content

• JSP

• Menu

• Navigator

• Page navigation

• Personalization

• Search

• Taxonomy

• User name

• User selection

To make changes to these components, use the authoring portlet.

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 we 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 the library, drag one or more files into the appropriate component type folder. When creating 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, we 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.

Important: 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.

Update components: To update an existing component, we can simply replace the corresponding file in the WebDAV tree with a new file that has the same name. For example we 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.