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Proliferating MIME-type application/octet-stream for PDFs Necessitates mimeTypes.rdf Change

AnonymousUser
AnonymousUser
more options

Greetings -

We use a webmail (Squirrelmail) client that a user's webbrowser can connect to to view email. On Fedora Core 7 and Firefox 2.0.0.14 when a mis-MIME-typed (application/octet-stream) PDF file was selected a pop-up box appeared that had options to cancel, save or open the file. With Fedora 11 and Firefox 3.5.3 when I select the same PDF I only get the option to cancel or save.

I attempted to make a change to my mimeTypes.rdf file to give me the option of viewing the file. I used the following webpage (http://www.mozilla.org/docs/end-user/helper-applications.html) along with some targeted websearches to come up with the following:


...





I do get the notice that the application/octet-stream-typed PDF is a 'TonyTest PDF document'. But I still only get the option to cancel or save.

I did find two different extensions that may help: 'Open in Browser' and 'OpenDownload'. But the person I am attempting to help, a man with the first name of 'tenured professor', may still find them a little difficult/confusing/annoying.

I will attempt to train my constituent in using one of the two Firefox extensions. But if possible a cleaner method would be to change a local configuration file (like mimeTypes.rdf) to react to the extension and not the MIME-type.

Tony -

This happened

Every time Firefox opened

== We upgraded from FC7 (Firefox 2.0.0.14) to F11 (Firefox 3.5.3)

Greetings - We use a webmail (Squirrelmail) client that a user's webbrowser can connect to to view email. On Fedora Core 7 and Firefox 2.0.0.14 when a mis-MIME-typed (application/octet-stream) PDF file was selected a pop-up box appeared that had options to cancel, save or open the file. With Fedora 11 and Firefox 3.5.3 when I select the same PDF I only get the option to cancel or save. I attempted to make a change to my mimeTypes.rdf file to give me the option of viewing the file. I used the following webpage (http://www.mozilla.org/docs/end-user/helper-applications.html) along with some targeted websearches to come up with the following: ... I do get the notice that the application/octet-stream-typed PDF is a 'TonyTest PDF document'. But I still only get the option to cancel or save. I did find two different extensions that may help: 'Open in Browser' and 'OpenDownload'. But the person I am attempting to help, a man with the first name of 'tenured professor', may still find them a little difficult/confusing/annoying. I will attempt to train my constituent in using one of the two Firefox extensions. But if possible a cleaner method would be to change a local configuration file (like mimeTypes.rdf) to react to the extension and not the MIME-type. Tony - == This happened == Every time Firefox opened == We upgraded from FC7 (Firefox 2.0.0.14) to F11 (Firefox 3.5.3)

All Replies (1)

AnonymousUser
AnonymousUser Question owner
more options

Darn it. The form gobbled up my mimeTypes.rdf code. Here it is again with the GT and LT symbols replaced with '+': 

   +RDF:li RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:application/pdf2"/+

... 

 +RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:application/pdf2"
                  NC:fileExtensions="pdf"
                  NC:description="TonyTest PDF document"
                  NC:value="application/pdf2"
                  NC:editable="true"+
   +NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:application/pdf2"/+
 +/RDF:Description+
 +RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:application/pdf2"
                  NC:alwaysAsk="true"
                  NC:saveToDisk="false"
                  NC:useSystemDefault="false"
                  NC:handleInternal="false"+
   +NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/pdf2"/+
 +/RDF:Description+
 +RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:application/pdf2"
                  NC:path="/usr/bin/acroread"
                  NC:prettyName="acroread" /+