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

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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)

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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" /+