Hi Rosario
I have been looking at both SharePoint and Alfresco as possible Moodle 2 repositories. So far, I have made most progress with Alfresco, as it is under my direct administrative control, though am also interested in getting SharePoint to work as it is our 'official' institutional repository. I have used both the Moodle 2 Alfresco repository/filepicker and the WebDAV repository/filepicker to successfully connect to Alfresco.
As I see it, WebDAV can be used in two ways:
1. to Connect Moodle 2 to a WebDAV repository. This WeDAV repository could be any system with a WebDAV interface, Alfresco, SharePoint, ePrints, Documentum, MediaWiki... etc. In this way Moodle 2 users could use the WebDAV repository/filepicker to copy or link to resources in the repository.
In the case of Alfresco, an alternative connection can be made via the Moodle Alfresco repository interface. A repository interface for SharePoint is also under development.
2. to connect users 'client' file-sytems to the WebDAV repository. Users would not (necessarily) have to directly interact with the repository (Alfresco, SharePoint etc) at all. Just add content to a specific folder on their filesystem/desktop. This folder would be mapped, via WebDAV, to their repository space and so content would be immediately accessible to the Moodle 2 file picker.
To try to answer your questions comments
...a little bit too complicated to install/configure.
In my experience, Alfresco is a bit fiddly to install/configure and the documentation for the free community version is somewhat spartan. Java Tomcat stuff is a bit different to the LAMP stack I'm used to for running Moodle. However, the latest Alfresco installation bundle (3.4.d) makes this somewhat easier. Once installed the WebDAV interface works out-of-the-box.
Although I don't have direct experience of setting up SharePoint, it is also supposed to be straightforward to set up a WebDAV interface.
This has to be solved/offered on a personal basis for every teacher...
Agreed. Alfresco can be tied to the same authentication system as Moodle (e.g. AD/LDAP) and 'User Home' folders/spaces for users can be automatically generated from AD/LDAP synchronisation. Alfresco gives WebDAV access to these spaces 'out-of-the-box'. So teachers can easily add content from these spaces (and hence via 2 above a desktop folder)
This works well for copying resources to a Moodle 2 course.
Linking to resources is more problematic, as all users in the Moodle course need access/viewing permissions in the repository (Alfresco, SharePoint etc). So, the repository space will need to be 'public' or more sophisticated ways of managing and coordinating permissions between the repository and Moodle will be required.
I suspect that the Edu-Sharing and Elis systems may also offer this sort of functionality, though I have not tried these as, currently, they require older versions of Alfresco.
There is really no use if I could configure only ONE WebDav-Repository...
Agreed. As I hope I have made clear above, Alfresco has one WebDAV interface but can contain multiple spaces owned by different users and groups of users. I'm hoping SharePoint can do much the same.
I would emphasise that I am not following the model proposed in the Microsoft white-paper for integrating Moodle 1.9 and SharePoint which has a single SharePoint Document Library replacing Moodlefiles. Just using the same WebDAV interface/protocol.
...a possibility to configure other server-drives for teams of teachers...
In Alfresco, it is easy to manually create/configure spaces owned by groups of users. It is also possible to automate this through AD/LDAP groups. Again, Elis and Edu-Sharing may have additional capabilities to do this. Again. I hope SharePoint can do the same.
As you can see, I have been focusing on Moodle 2 recently, but I will certainly take a look at your updated navigation blocks as we'll still be running Moodle 1.9 alongside Moodle 2 for the next academic year.
Cheers
Geoff