Contents->MIME Types
  1. MIME Types
  2. Defining a MIME Type
  3. Cross Referencing MIME Types
  4. "Open With" List
  5. Importing MIME Types
  6. Exporting MIME Types
  7. Defining Global MIME Types

MIME Types

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:


Defining a MIME Type

From the Endeavour browser window, go to View->MIME Types... You will see a dialog appear containing a list of all defined MIME Types.

Suppose 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 wish to insert your new MIME Type in and then click on Add...

A new MIME Type will be added and a dialog will appear prompting you for information about the new MIME Type. You should set each of the values as shown below:

To add a value to the Commands list, first make sure the handler is set to Command and then click on the plus-shaped button. Next, press Button2 over the new command's cell (not just anywhere on the row) to change the appropriate value.

You can also set an icon for this MIME Type by clicking on the corresponding icon frame on the right column and selecting an .xpm file. 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 commonly used icons located in /usr/share/endeavour2/icons/

Click on OK when you are done.

So in the future if you double click on an object on any of Endeavour's windows who has an extension of .txt it will run the command:

Where /somewhere/somefile.txt is the full path to the actual object.


Cross Referencing MIME Types

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 another MIME Type first create a new MIME Type by clicking on Add... and set its values to the following:

Note, for a MIME Type who's class is set to Application only the first defined command will be used, subsequent commands are never used.

Click on OK when you are done.

Now go and edit the previous MIME Type that defined your .txt file format and change its command to reffer to the type value of the new MIME Type, which is application/text/editor. Notice that command value does not start with an absolute path, this implies that the command is to reffer to another MIME Type.

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.


"Open With" List

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.


Importing MIME Types

File formats that contain MIME Types which this application can import are listed as follows:

To import MIME Types:

  1. Determine of the location of the file that contains the MIME Types that you want to import. The format of this file must be one of the formats listed above.
  2. Go to View->MIME Types...
  3. Select the MIME Type in the list at the position where you want to import the new MIME Types at.
  4. Click on Import, a file browser will appear.
  5. You must know the format of the file you are importing ahead of time, select the format from the Type: list.
  6. Select the file that contains the MIME Types you want to import.

Exporting MIME Types

File formats that contain MIME Types which this application can export are listed as follows:

To export MIME Types:

  1. Go to View->MIME Types...
  2. Select all the MIME Types in the list that you want to export.
  3. Click on Export, a file browser will appear.
  4. In the Type: list, select the format that you want the exported MIME Types file to be.
  5. Enter the path of the file you want to export to and click on OK.

Defining Global 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!

Defining global MIME Types is similar to the Export process, the steps are as follows.

  1. Go to View->MIME Types...
  2. Select all the MIME Types in the list that you want to export (including any current global MIME Types that you want in the new global MIME Types file).
  3. Click on Export, a file browser will appear.
  4. In the Type: list, select the Endeavour MIME Types files (.ini) format.
  5. Enter the path of the file you want to export to (this can be a tempory file if do not have access to the global MIME Types file and want to move the exported file to that location later), and click on OK.

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.


Back to the top

Endeavour Mark II is Copyright © 1997-2002 WolfPack Entertainment