Patent ID: 7437429

Claim:
In a computer network, a method of automatically and transparently handling WebDAV server and file access requests, the method comprising: maintaining at an I/O manager a predetermined, stored priority order that indicates which of a plurality of redirectors has precedence to handle a WebDAV I/O request, wherein a plurality of suitably configured redirectors respond to the WebDAV I/O request, each redirector being equally capable of redirecting the received WebDAV I/O request; receiving at the I/O manager the WebDAV I/O request initiated from an application program, wherein the WebDAV I/O request indicates a path and filename of a remote file accessible via WebDAV; polling available redirectors to determine which redirectors are configured to handle the application program's WebDAV I/O file request, each redirector suitably configured to handle the WebDAV I/O request including appropriate functionality for receiving and redirecting WebDAV I/O file requests to corresponding WebDAV server computer systems that store the remote files; receiving responses from the plurality of suitably configured redirectors, each suitably configured redirector being equally capable of redirecting the received WebDAV I/O file request; determining from the stored priority order which of the plurality of suitably configured redirectors has precedence to handle the WebDAV I/O file request; based on the determination, requesting a local file system of the redirector determined to have precedence to create the file in response to the WebDAV I/O file request, downloading the file to a local cache of the redirector's file system, and returning a file handle corresponding to the file in the local cache to the application program; providing access to the file in the local cache of the file system via the file handle; receiving a request to close the file via the file handle, and when received, uploading the file from the local cache of the file system to the WebDAV server; determining that the redirector determined to have precedence is configured to handle all similar WebDAV I/O requests to a network share; and bypassing any redirector polling for subsequent requests directed to the network share.