The WebDAV plugin integrates media data from your WebDAV server into the Joomla core media manager. It allows the admin to select images in articles and any other extension which uses the core media manager. Beside that it is possible to create folders, upload images, rename and delete the data directly from within Joomla on your WebDAV server. It's possible to add unlimited different WebDAV servers in the plugin.
The plugin is tested with the following WebDAV servers:
Please read the Concept of image service provider integration article to get more information how to get started with the image service provider plugins from DPMedia.
Adding a WebDAV account is rather straightforward. To do so, open the filesystem WebDAV plugin in the plugin manager in the back end of your Joomla site. Click on the green "+" button in the plugin edit form. Copy your credentials and server settings into the form. Click the "Save" button in the toolbar of the plugin.
Some WebDAV servers like Nextcloud or OwnCloud have a custom endpoint to access their data through WebDAV. Mostly it is an url pointing to a specific PHP file. Put that part as root folder property. For example Nextcloud works on specific user directories. When you have an url like "https://www.mywebsite.com/remote.php/dav/files/foo" then use https://www.mywebsite.com as host and /remote.php/dav/files/foo as root folder.
During the list fetch the image files are copied from the WebDAV server to the local filesystem on a path the site admin can define for thumbnail generation. Each file will be saved with the last modification timestamp to ensure that the updates are immediately reflected locally. As WebDAV doesn't allow public HTTP links to a file, the files are served from the web servers local drive. The files are stored in the configured path.
If the file is an image it is also possible to define a custom width and height, so the drive of the Joomla site will not fill up quickly.
As WebDAV doesn't support public links for thumbnails, DPMedia creates them on the fly for the media list, the thumbnails are not used anywhere else. It does it by downloading the original file and creates a thumbnail out of it while fetching the images list. In the options the admin can define per account where the thumbnails should be stored on the local filesystem.
DPMedia is fetching only 10 thumbnails per request, otherwise it it can reach the execution time on large WebDAV folders. So if an image has no local thumbnail a default placeholder will be shown instead.
The plugin supports automatic resize when images are uploaded. The images are only scaled down, but not up. The admin can choose between the following four options when resizing should be applied:
When only a width or height is set, then a resize is performed and the aspect ratio is kept. Like that will all images have the same width or height. When both dimensions are set, then an option is shown which lets you define if the aspect ratio should be kept or not. If it is not kept, then each image has the same dimensions but the smaller side gets cropped. Here are some examples listed for a better understanding:
| Image dimensions | Force width | Force Height | Keep aspect ratio | Resized image dimensions | Crop |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 x 3000 | 0 | 400 | 267 x 400 | No | |
| 2000 x 3000 | 400 | 0 | 400 x 750 | No | |
| 2000 x 3000 | 400 | 100 | No | 400 x 100 | Height is cropped from 750 to 100 |
| 2000 x 3000 | 400 | 100 | Yes | 67 x 100 | No |
| 2000 x 3000 | 100 | 400 | No | 100 x 400 | Width is cropped from 267 to 100 |
| 2000 x 3000 | 100 | 400 | Yes | 267 x 400 | No |
Per imported account the site administrator can define caching so images will be loaded much faster in the media manager. DPMedia uses the core Joomla cache, so it can be revoked at any time in the core Maintenance Manager. Additionally the admin can define a cache time so images will downloaded after a certain time automatically again from the WebDAV server.
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