config directory contains mappings between MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) types and file extensions. For example, the MIME types file maps the extensions .html and .htm extension to the type text/html:
type=text/html exts=htm,htmlWhen the iPlanet Web Server receives a request for a resource from a client, it uses the MIME type mappings to determine what kind of resource is being requested. MIME types can have three attributes: language (
lang), encoding (enc), and content-type (type). The most commonly used attribute is type. The server frequently considers the type when deciding how to generate the response to the client. (The enc and lang attributes are rarely used).
By default, the MIME types file is called mime.types. You should not change the name of this file unless you have a particular reason for doing so -- everyone expects it to be called mime.types.
Init directive in obj.conf invokes the load-mime-types directive to load the MIME types file:
Init fn="load-types" mime-types="mime.types"After loading the MIME types file, the server uses it to create a table of mappings between file extensions and MIME types. If you make changes to the MIME types file, you will need to restart the server before the changes take effect. The server loads the MIME types file during the initialization step, so it does not notice any changes in the MIME types file until the next time it is initialized.
ObjectType step in the request handling process, the server determines the MIME type attributes of the resource requested by the client. Several different server application functions (SAFs) can be used to determine the MIME type, but the most commonly used one is type-by-extension. This function tells the server to look up the MIME type according to the requested resource's file extension in the MIME types table.
The directive in obj.conf that tells the server to look up the MIME type according to the extension is:
ObjectType fn=type-by-extensionIf the server uses a different SAF, such as
force-type, to determine the type, then the MIME types table is not used for that particular request.
For more details of the ObjectType step, see Chapter 2, "Syntax and Use of obj.conf."
type attribute when deciding which Service directive in obj.conf to use to generate the response to the client.
By default, if the type does not start with magnus-internal/, the server just sends the requested file to the client. The directive in obj.conf that contains this instruction is:
Service method=(GET|HEAD|POST) type=*~magnus-internal/* fn=send-fileNote here the use of the special characters
*~ to mean "does not match." See Appendix D, "Wildcard Patterns," for details of special characters.
By convention, all values of type that require the server to do something other than just send the requested resource to the client start with magnus-internal/.
For example, if the requested resource's file extension is .map, the type is mapped to magnus-internal/imagemap. If the extension is .cgi, .exe, or .bat, the type is set to magnus-internal/cgi:
type=magnus-internal/imagemap exts=mapIf the
type=magnus-internal/cgi exts=cgi,exe,bat
type starts with magnus-internal/, the server executes whichever Service directive in obj.conf matches the specified type. For example, if the type is magnus-internal/imagemap, the server uses the imagemap function to generate the response to the client, as indicated by the following directive:
Service method=(GET|HEAD) type=magnus-internal/imagemap fn=imagemapIf the type is
magnus-internal/servlet, the server uses the NSServletService function to generate the response to the client, as indicated by the following directive:
Service type="magnus-internal/servlet" fn="NSServletService"
Service function generates the data and sends it to the client that made the request. When the server sends the data to the client, it also sends headers. These headers include whichever MIME type attributes are known (which is usually type).
When the client receives the data, it uses the MIME type to decide what to do with the data. For browser clients, the usual thing is to display the data in the browser window.
If the requested resource cannot be displayed in a browser but needs to be handled by another application, its type starts with application/, for example application/octet-stream (for .bin file extensions ) or application/x-maker (for .fm file extensions). The client has its own set of user-editable mappings that tells it which application to use to handle which types of data.
For example, if the type is application/x-maker, the client usually handles it by opening Adobe FrameMaker to display the file.
#--Netscape Communications Corporation MIME InformationOther non-comment lines have the following format:
type=type/subtype exts=[file extensions] icon=icon
type/subtype is the type and subtype.exts are the file extensions associated with this type.icon is the name of the icon the browser displays. Netscape Navigator keeps these images internally. If you use a browser that doesn't have these icons, the server delivers them.#--Netscape Communications Corporation MIME Information
# Do not delete the above line. It is used to identify the file type.
type=application/octet-stream exts=bin,exe
type=application/oda exts=oda
type=application/pdf exts=pdf
type=application/postscript exts=ai,eps,ps
type=application/rtf exts=rtf
type=application/x-mif exts=mif,fm
type=application/x-gtar exts=gtar
type=application/x-shar exts=shar
type=application/x-tar exts=tar
type=application/mac-binhex40 exts=hqx
type=audio/basic exts=au,snd
type=audio/x-aiff exts=aif,aiff,aifc
type=audio/x-wav exts=wav
type=image/gif exts=gif
type=image/ief exts=ief
type=image/jpeg exts=jpeg,jpg,jpe
type=image/tiff exts=tiff,tif
type=image/x-rgb exts=rgb
type=image/x-xbitmap exts=xbm
type=image/x-xpixmap exts=xpm
type=image/x-xwindowdump exts=xwd
type=text/html exts=htm,html
type=text/plain exts=txt
type=text/richtext exts=rtx
type=text/tab-separated-values exts=tsv
type=text/x-setext exts=etx
type=video/mpeg exts=mpeg,mpg,mpe
type=video/quicktime exts=qt,mov
type=video/x-msvideo exts=avi
enc=x-gzip exts=gz
enc=x-compress exts=z
enc=x-uuencode exts=uu,uue
type=magnus-internal/imagemap exts=map
type=magnus-internal/parsed-html exts=shtml
type=magnus-internal/cgi exts=cgi,exe,bat
type=magnus-internal/jsp exts=jsp
Last Updated: 03/01/00 09:22:23
© Copyright © 2000 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Some preexisting portions Copyright © 2000 Netscape Communications Corp. All rights reserved.
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