Contents->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:
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 command's name can be any of the following:
Command Name | Activated By |
---|---|
default |
DOUBLECLICK or File->Open |
edit |
SHIFT + DOUBLECLICK |
You can create as many commands for this MIME Type as you wish, but
currently only the command names listed above are supported. The
first command is always treated as the default
command regardless of the name that you give it.
The command's command may contain any of the following token strings for substituting values:
Token | Substituted With |
---|---|
%cwd |
Current working directory |
%display |
Display address |
%first_name |
Name of the first selected object (without full path) |
%first_path |
Full path to the first selected object |
%home |
User's home directory |
%name |
Name of the last selected object (without full path) |
%names |
Name(s) of all the selected object(s) (without full path) |
%path |
Full path to the last selected object |
%paths |
Full path(s) to all the selected object(s) |
%pid |
Process id |
%p |
Same as %path |
%s |
Same as %path |
Double quotes should be placed around the tokens in the
command so that the substituted value is not unintentionally separated
into separate arguments if it had spaces in it.
When using the
regular Open method the tokens %names
and
%paths
will only describe the one selected object for
each instance of the program be runned. Instead of all the selected
objects for each instance of the program being runned since the
object formats may be different and be associated with different
programs and one program may not possibly handle all object formats.
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" |
To set an icon for this MIME Type, click on the
corresponding icon in the Icons frame on the right.
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 MIME Type Icon has the following states:
Endeavour comes with a large 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 preferred 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 Endeavour can import from are as follows:
*mailcap
)
*media.types
*mime.types
)
mimetypes.ini
)
To import MIME Types:
Note that other MIME Type files may not contain the same amount of
information as the Endeavour Mark II MIME Types format does. So you may
need to edit the imported MIME Types to add more information manually.
In some cases you may want Endeavour Mark II to synchronise its MIME Types with the system's global MIME Types. This way, you only need to update the system's global MIME Types and synchronise Endeavour Mark II to them.
For Debian Linux, Redhat Linux, and Mandrake Linux users, to synchronise Endeavour Mark II's MIME Types with the system's global MIME Types:
/etc/mailcap
) and set the File Type to
Mailcap
, then click on Import, an Options
Dialog will appear.
/etc/mime.types
) and set the File Type to
Media Types
, then click on Import, an
Options Dialog will appear.
MIME Types that already exist in Endeavour Mark II's MIME Types list will be updated, and newer ones will be appended (there will not be any duplicate MIME Types).
You may still need to add additional information (such as icons), since the Mailcap and Media Types files do not contain as much information as the Endeavour Mark II MIME Types do.
You need to repeat the above procedure each time the system's global MIME Types are updated. Information that you added manually, such as icons, will not be cleared or modified when you synchronise.
File formats that contain MIME Types which Endeavour can export to are as follows:
*mailcap
)
*media.types
*mime.types
)
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 © 1997-2005 WolfPack Entertainment |