When I was figuring out the architecture for the versioning system system for our Manuscript Workbench, I really wanted to go with WebDAV and looked hard at a way to connect MS Office Plugin -> LK -> Apache Jackrabbit backend, but realized I was going to run into a lot of the same issues you're discussing above. I even looked at perhaps using Git SCM or another CVS for document versioning. Our solution ended up with a LabKey module -> interface webapp -> OpenKM versioning but does not allow for directly saving from Office (or Open Office) unless I go so far as to write a plugin, but so far the users have found it pretty easy to work with versioning (browse or drag and drop).

I'd be really interested to see an integral WebDAV solution in LK. I know it's tough, since the 'V' in WebDAV has always been somewhat lacking support and adoption. The solution we came up with is necessarily complicated, and a chance to version directly rather than using a three-part psuedo-SOA involving 3 Tomcats would be great.


Some links I came across when doing research on this:

Java framework with delta-v versioning for WebDAV:
http://www.webdavsystem.com/news/webdav_server_library_java_supports_versioning

MS tech paper on WebDAV versioning:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCUQFjABahUKEwiLlLrgq7DHAhWJGT4KHb3MBxM&url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.microsoft.com%2FDOWNLOAD%2F9%2F5%2FE%2F95EF66AF-9026-4BB0-A41D-A4F81802D92C%2F%5BMS-WDVSE%5D.pdf&ei=jfHRVcuZI4mz-AG9mZ-YAQ&usg=AFQjCNE-ebec_g1BWtQqhcdLlH2iGpVc-A&bvm=bv.99804247,d.cWw

OReilly article on the history of versioning in WebDAV:
http://archive.oreilly.com/pub/a/opensource/excerpts/9780596510336/webdav-and-autoversioning.html


CodeBeamer Application Lifecycle Management has a WebDAV plugin for their system that seems to have versioning:
https://codebeamer.com/cb/wiki/11103 (about WebDAV.. note the 'experimental' versioning system and the general difficulty of set-up from the user's end)