The WebDAV is an extension of HTTP with file and directory (collection) operations.
E.g. to download a file a method GET is used. It adds a method PROPFIND which returns a directory listing in XML format.
Users may use their own personal cloud based on the WebDAV protocol.
This allows to create own media library.
Unlike SMB the WebDAV can be easily used over internet with HTTPS and basic authorization.
It should be not so complicated to implement and there is a big intersection of the NewPipe users and self hosters.
Today there is no a good Android app to watch videos from DAV.
But VLC player has a support of DLNA/UPnP which is also HTTP based but can be used only in local network.
Why do you want this feature?
I'm very concerned about safe watching for my daughter. She watches YouTube but it's a toxic platform that often "recommends" inappropriate videos.
So I installed Lighttpd+WebDAV on my router and attached a USB stick with old but good cartoons and child shows. I installed Kodi on her TV but can't find a good solution for her phone. The phone is cheap and old and doesn't have enough space. For now I also installed miniDLNA and she can watch cartoons from VLC but still it would be great to have one app with both YouTube and personal cloud.
Also I wish to make my library available for my parrents over internet.
It would be really cool to support personal clouds like NextCloud, ownCloud or NAS.
In spare time I working on creation of self hosting platform YurtPage that will provide WebDAV out of the box.
So I hope I'll make it easier for users and more people will be interested in some app to use their file server.
Additional information
There is another task #1163 which is about settings syncing and backup. Maybe some code may be reused.
Other clouds like Dropbox, GooglDrive are out of scope because here the main focus onself hosting.
pvbhanuteja
commented
3 months ago
Checklist
Feature description
The WebDAV is an extension of HTTP with file and directory (collection) operations. E.g. to download a file a method GET is used. It adds a method PROPFIND which returns a directory listing in XML format. Users may use their own personal cloud based on the WebDAV protocol. This allows to create own media library. Unlike SMB the WebDAV can be easily used over internet with HTTPS and basic authorization. It should be not so complicated to implement and there is a big intersection of the NewPipe users and self hosters.
Today there is no a good Android app to watch videos from DAV. But VLC player has a support of DLNA/UPnP which is also HTTP based but can be used only in local network.
Why do you want this feature?
I'm very concerned about safe watching for my daughter. She watches YouTube but it's a toxic platform that often "recommends" inappropriate videos. So I installed Lighttpd+WebDAV on my router and attached a USB stick with old but good cartoons and child shows. I installed Kodi on her TV but can't find a good solution for her phone. The phone is cheap and old and doesn't have enough space. For now I also installed miniDLNA and she can watch cartoons from VLC but still it would be great to have one app with both YouTube and personal cloud. Also I wish to make my library available for my parrents over internet.
It would be really cool to support personal clouds like NextCloud, ownCloud or NAS. In spare time I working on creation of self hosting platform YurtPage that will provide WebDAV out of the box. So I hope I'll make it easier for users and more people will be interested in some app to use their file server.
Additional information
There is another task #1163 which is about settings syncing and backup. Maybe some code may be reused.
Other clouds like Dropbox, GooglDrive are out of scope because here the main focus onself hosting.