Many Hells of WebDAV: Writing a Client/Server in Go

4 months ago

Implementing WebDAV/CalDAV is challenging due to legacy cruft and incomplete RFCs.
Existing Go implementations like go-webdav lacked necessary features, prompting a custom solution.
Reverse engineering clients (Apple Calendar, DavX, Thunderbird) and servers (iCloud, Google, Radicale) was more efficient than full RFC compliance.
Go's default XML library was inadequate, leading to the creation of a custom wrapper for handling WebDAV's unstructured schema.
Major providers like Apple and Google often deviate from RFCs, complicating interoperability.
Clients vary widely in their support for WebDAV features, with Apple Calendar notably avoiding sync-collection.
Small developers face challenges enforcing standards compliance against larger providers' quirks.

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