Are Sharepoint Services 3.0 document libraries useable for non-Microsoft applications?

Question

I understand that my question title is poorly worded and subjective.

I'm trying to use a WSS 3.0 document library for non-Microsoft applications such as Adobe Creative Suite, Seagull Bartender (label software), and a few others. I want version control and approval for these documents.

The trouble I'm running into is that Sharepoint's WebDAV (or whatever they mangled WebDAV into) doesn't really seem to work. It's ok for copying new items into a library, but saving from non-MS applications just doesn't work reliably or at all. From what I can find online, this is to be expected. Can someone verify or deny?

Ok, so forgetting about WebDAV, I figured it would be easy enough to just use the web interface. But then the update process is completely wonky. If I'm understanding this right, to update a document in the library, I have to upload a document with the exact same name as the one I'm updating? That's a little strange and I feel like I must be missing something.

If these simply are the limitations of WSS's document library, do you have any suggestions for improving the experience?

Answer 1

If you build a web service layer on top, you can access the document libraries from any application over standard web services.

Answer 2

You can map a drive letter to an SP document library and upload that way. I don't have the precise syntax right now, but it should be easy enough to find on Google.

Answer 3

I don't have the hard facts on this but it is true that support for saving to SharePoint is greatly increased when using Office to do it as against any other application. Office installs with an additional component (usually called 'Windows SharePoint Services support') which puts ActiveX controls to assist the experience into Internet Explorer and probably other things as well.

Other applications just don't have this. Why standard WebDAV is so problematic however, I don't know.