MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Types were originally used to associate file types sent between Internet E-mail clients, however it has since been extended to other applications including web browsers and file system browsers (such as Endeavour).
Endeavour has a built-in MIME Types engine, that supports objects of different types and uniquenesses to be associated with each other. Each MIME Type has the following properties:
System Object
, File Format
,
Application
, or Unique Object
.
Application
or Unique Object
.
.
character. This value exists only if the
class is set to File Format
.
Application
, File Format
or
Unique Object
.
Each one of those MIME Types may have one or more commands
(Application
class MIME Types usually only have one
command),
where the first command is considered the default. Each command
has a name and a command string. The command string may be a
reference to another MIME Type of class Application
.
To define a new MIME Type, go to View->MIME Types...
You should then see the dialog shown below (it may take a while for the MIME Types to be loaded):
Suppose, for this example, you want to define a MIME Type for a text
file format who's file name extension is .txt
and the
default program to be executed for it is
/usr/bin/tknotepad
, then first select
an item from the list at where you want to insert
the new MIME Type at and then click on Add...
A new MIME Type will be added and a dialog will appear as shown below:
To add a value to the Commands list, first make sure that
Handle By is set to Command
and then
click on
to add a new command.
Now double click on the new command's cell and enter the new values. You need to define both the new command's name and the new command's value (two cells).
You can also click on the cell and then click on
to define the command's name and value.
The new command's name can be any of the following:
Command Name | Activated By |
---|---|
default |
DOUBLECLICK or File->Open |
view |
DOUBLECLICK or File->Open |
edit |
SHIFT + DOUBLECLICK |
For this example, set the command's name to
default
and the command value to
/usr/bin/tknotepad "%s"
, as shown below:
Name | Command |
---|---|
default |
/usr/bin/tknotepad "%s" |
You can create as many commands
for this MIME Type as you wish, but currently only the command names
listed above are supported. All other command names will be ignored.
You can also set an icon for this MIME Type by clicking
on the corresponding icon on the right column Icons frame.
You will then be prompted for an icon image file, select
an .xpm
image file that you want to use and
click on Select.
Each icon has a Standard, Selected, and Extended state. In most cases
you only need to set the Standard icon.
Endeavour comes with a set of icons located in
/usr/share/endeavour2/icons/
Large icons are typically 48 by 48 pixels, medium icons are typically 32 by 32 pixels, and small icons are typically 20 by 20 pixels.
Click on OK when you are done.
In the future (for this example) if you double click on an
object who has an extension of .txt
then the
following command will be executed:
/usr/bin/tknotepad /somewhere/somefile.txt
Where /somewhere/somefile.txt
is the full path to the
actual object.
Valid extensions include .txt .tar.gz .Z *rc Makefile*
.
Prefixes or suffixes (without the .
deliminator) require
a *
character after or before the word (respectivly).
When you define a command for your MIME Type, you can set that
command to either reffer to a specific program (as seen in the
above example) or you can reffer it to another MIME Type who's
class is set to Application
.
To reffer the command of one MIME Type to a
Application
class MIME Type:
First create a new Application
class
MIME Type by clicking on
Add... and set its values to the following:
Application
application/text/editor
/usr/bin/tknotepad
default
/usr/bin/tknotepad
For
Application
class MIME Types, only the first
defined command will be used (subsequent commands are ignored).
Click on OK when you are done.
Now go and edit the previous MIME Type that defined
the .txt
file format and change its
command to reffer to the type value of the
Application
class MIME Type you just created.
Command values that do not start with an absolute
path imply that the command reffers to another MIME Type. For
example, a command value of
application/text/editor
reffers to another MIME Type who's type is
application/text/editor
.
Now the default command for an object who's extension is
.txt
will be refered to the new
Application
class MIME Type who's type value
is set to application/text/editor
. This will allow you to
change your prefered application for a group of MIME Types that all
require just one common application by only changing that one
Application
class MIME Type.
The items that appear in the "Open With" list (the list that you
see when you go to File->Open With...) are MIME Types
who's class is set to Application
.
To add an item to the "Open With" list, follow the steps in
section Defining a MIME Type. Make
sure that you set the MIME Type's class to Application
.
File formats that contain MIME Types which this application can import are listed as follows:
$HOME/.mailcap
)
$HOME/.media.types
)
$HOME/.endeavour2/mimetypes.ini
)
To import MIME Types:
File formats that contain MIME Types which this application can export are listed as follows:
$HOME/.mailcap
)
$HOME/.media.types
)
$HOME/.endeavour2/mimetypes.ini
)
To export MIME Types:
To define your own global MIME Types, you must have access
to the global MIME Types file
/usr/share/endeavour2/mimetypes.ini
.
Before you begin, you should back up the existing global MIME Types file (if any).
Defining global MIME Types is similar to the Export process, the steps are as follows.
Endeavour MIME Types files (.ini)
format.
If there were no errors encountered in the above steps and you
backed up your old global MIME Types file, move the
MIME Types file you just exported to
/usr/share/endeavour2/mimetypes.ini
and then restart
Endeavour.
Endeavour Mark II is Copyright © 1997-2003 WolfPack Entertainment