xchm for Debian --------------- Desktop / MIME integration from Loic Minier This is quite a lot of things that should go in xchm: - GNOME <= 2.4 integration (MIME entries, application registry entries etc.) not tested - freedesktop.org integration (for GNOME 2.6 and maybe KDE) This is are MIME support enabling files for xCHM targeting better GNOME/KDE integration. This is only tested it with GNOME, it might require some additional work to integrate with KDE correctly. If one want to check for support, here are the commands used: - run-mailcap file.chm: will look for the MIME type for .chm files in /etc/mime.types or ~/.mime.types, and open the application bound to this type in /etc/mailcap with the syntax described in /etc/mailcap - gnome-open display.chm: will look for the MIME type for .chm files in the GNOME MIME types database, or in the freedesktop.org shared MIME information database, and will open the GNOME application found in the GNOME application database or in the freedesktop.org shared application database associated to this type. It seems two MIME support schemes are being used in GNOME right now, - the old one, consisting of .keys and .applications files in /usr/share/{mime-info,application-registry} respectively and .mime in /usr/lib/mime/packages seems half broken (.applications aren't picked up any more). dh_installmime is used to install .mime file. - the new one, "standardized" by freedesktop.org, consisting of .desktop and .xml files (in /usr/share/{applications,mime/packages/} respectively). Some notes concerning the MIME support enabling files for xCHM: - the .desktop Categories: are Application, Viewer, and graphics as found on the web, in /usr/share/applications, and in grep '' /etc/gnome-vfs-2.0/vfolders/applications-all-users.vfolder-info, - looking in Graphics directory, It is seen that the .desktop Name: of some entries isn't related to the name of the program, but to what they do. It is unclear what the GNOME HID guidelines are suggesting. This program is explicitly targeting CHM files, and the users will probably recall they have installed xCHM to view CHM files anyway. - most viewers use the French translation "Visionneur" for "viewer", which isn't a French word. Xchm is using "Visionneuse". - the xchm.keys, xchm.applications, and xchm.mime files have been guessed from a lot of sources. There is no exhaustive reference for them especially for the priority of keys like default_action_type, open, view, short_list_application_ids_for_novice_user_level, and also for the category key. TODO.Debian: - Regarding MIME integration: - Submit new patterns for the /etc/gnome-vfs-mime-magic file update, it seems we can do some filename based pattern matching meanwhile - GNOME support: gconf, gvfs, DnD, recent-files, session mgt, (see ) Other things to do in xCHM: - Support for opening multiple files Other things to do for the CHM file format: - Register a real MIME type - at IANA: Some work on MIME type research for the CHM files is done, and unfortunately nobody bothered to register it. "application/vnd.ms-chm" is submitted to the IANA on july the 11th. It should be ok to use the application/x-chm type meanwhile: */x-* is meant for local extensions. - register file hinting in the appropriate databases: It is found that this sequence of bytes is the appropriate one for detecting CHM files (from /usr/share/misc/file/magic): 0 string ITSF\003\000\000\000\x60\000\000\000\001\000\000\000 CHM files support should be integrated in: - /etc/gnome-vfs-mime-magic - /usr/share/misc/file/magic.mime (with the appropriate MIME type) - the freedesktop.org equivalent of the magic file - register the MIME type in /etc/mime.types: This is sent to mime-support@packages.debian.org on Tue, 22 Jun 2004 15:46:39 +0200. No new mime-support package has been published since. -- Kartik Mistry Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:26:11 +0530