Wrong Content-Types

[Asbjorn]

You have to check what content-types the server sends out when serving files, especially when you want the file to be downloaded (and not displayed in the browser).

Internet Explorer has a bug that "intelligently" (it's not intelligent at all) decides the content-type upon the file-extension. E.g. the content-type ".html" is assumend "text/html", although the server miht send "Content-Type: application/something". All unknown extensions will most likely be downloaded, even if the content-type is known.

When I was to download the "Windows Classic skin"[1], my Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 opened the file in the browser (displaying the binary output as plain text), which is absolutely correct behavior.

Why is this correct behavior? Because the content-type served was "text/plain" and not "application/octet-stream"[2] as it should be for unknown file types that should be downloaded. I can see that you are using Apache, and it's quite easy to add content-types based on extensions there. Just read about the AddType directive[3].

As there's probably not registered any official MIME-type for XMPlay Skin files, the right content-type to use is "application/octet-stream"[2]. Can you please set up Apache so it serves the right content types for different files?

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[1] http://support.xmplay.com/Skins_Files/Windows%20Classic.xmpskin
[2] http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/RFC/1521/32.htm
[3] http://httpd.apache.org/docs/mod/mod_mime.html#addtype

[Asbjorn]

I forgot to mention that you can view the headers of a specific URL with Delorie.com's HTTP Header Viewer: http://www.delorie.com/web/headers.html

The headers for the "Windows Classic skin"[1] are:

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 HTTP/1.1 200 OK
  Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 13:29:59 GMT
  Server: Apache
  Last-Modified: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 13:52:01 GMT
  ETag: "3c02fe-cb91-3f0d6f81"
  Accept-Ranges: bytes
  Content-Length: 52113
  Connection: close
  Content-Type: text/plain

As you see, the "Content-Type" is set to "text/plain". This is not correct as I've explained above.

____
[1] http://www.delorie.com/web/headers.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fsupport.xmplay.com%2FSkins_Files%2FWindows%2520Classic.xmpskin

[Ian @ un4seen]

It should be ok now (I set it to "application/x-xmplay-skin", Netscape seemed to assume that "application/octet-stream" meant an EXE).

Thanks for the notification.

[quark]

Nice. Works like a charm now.

I have a question I don't find necessary to start a new thread for: How do I innstall the plugins / visual effects? I found out by an accident how the skins were to be "installed" (saved a skin file inside the XMPlay-folder) in XMPlay, but I can't get XMPlay to find the Plugins in the same way.

I can't find any information on how to innstall either skins or plugins. If it doesn't exist, maybe it should be created? If it does exist, can you point me to where?

[Zarggg]

Hmm. Have we been targeted as a Tech Evangelism bug over at mozilla.org?

*is ashamed he never brought this up before. *

Oh, and Ian, you should be using Mozilla to test those things, not Netscape.

I have a question I don't find necessary to start a new thread for: How do I innstall the plugins / visual effects? I found out by an accident how the skins were to be "installed" (saved a skin file inside the XMPlay-folder) in XMPlay, but I can't get XMPlay to find the Plugins in the same way.

Here's the "preferred" directory trees:

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Plugins: %XMPlayDir%\Plugins\
Skins: %XMPlayDir%\Skins\
Visualizations: %XMPlayDir%\Vis\
where %XMPlayDir% is the directory where xmplay.exe is located. XMPlay itself will function correctly if these files are all contained in %XMPlayDir%, but certain visualizations (i.e., Rappa, WhiteCap) require this tree setup.

Also, the plugins off the Support Site have their own installers.

[Ian @ un4seen]

Oh, and Ian, you should be using Mozilla to test those things, not Netscape.

I will next time I load up Linux, but I had NS6 installed and ready to go, so that's what I used to quickly confirm the problem... and it did

[quark]

Hmm. Have we been targeted as a Tech Evangelism bug over at mozilla.org?

Hehe. I don't work with the Mozilla project, but I use their browser as it's superior to Internet Explorer. Opera is a good alternative, but I find Mozilla to be the best one, especially the new Firebird.

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Plugins: %XMPlayDir%\Plugins\
Skins: %XMPlayDir%\Skins\
Visualizations: %XMPlayDir%\Vis\

Also, the plugins off the Support Site have their own installers.

Ok, thanks. I've already tried to place the visualizations into the %XMPlayDir%\Vis\-folder, but there are still no visualizations available in XMPlay. I've tried to put the .svp-files into seperate folders underneath "Vis", directly into the "Vis"-folder, and into the %XMPlayDir% folder as well. Nothing works.

And also worth mentioning; I can't find that <b>any</b> of the visualizations I've downloaded have an installer bundeled with them. All the .zip-archives include, is a .svp and .txt file, and the .svp file aren't registered as anything in Windows and thus can't be opened.

Where can I find these installers, and what have I done wrong?

[Zarggg]

Hehe. I don't work with the Mozilla project, but I use their browser as it's superior to Internet Explorer. Opera is a good alternative, but I find Mozilla to be the best one, especially the new Firebird.

I do, though, which was why I was asking. I was wondering if I missed it.

Ok, thanks. I've already tried to place the visualizations into the %XMPlayDir%\Vis\-folder, but there are still no visualizations available in XMPlay. I've tried to put the .svp-files into seperate folders underneath "Vis", directly into the "Vis"-folder, and into the %XMPlayDir% folder as well. Nothing works.

And also worth mentioning; I can't find that <b>any</b> of the visualizations I've downloaded have an installer bundeled with them. All the .zip-archives include, is a .svp and .txt file, and the .svp file aren't registered as anything in Windows and thus can't be opened.

Where can I find these installers, and what have I done wrong?

No installers. Just unzip the contents into the Vis folder. Since Rappa requires visualizations (which is what the .SVPs are; they're Sonique visulizations) to be in individual directories, I put them in directories named after the .ZIP files. For example, visulization FOO available in the archive BAR.zip from the Support Site would be located at: %XMPlayDir%\Vis\BAR\FOO.svp

The visulizations are activated by selecting them from a right-click context menu in the Visulization pane (F4 is the hotkey, I believe).

If what I said is confusing, I believe the Support Site does a much better job of explaining this.

The installers I spoke of are for input plugins only.

[quark]

Ah, of course. I mixed 'plugins' and 'visualizations' and thought the 'visualizations' were supposed to show up inside "Options and stuff" -> "Plugins & Skins". Of course it shouldn't. Thanks!