Re: Need help with mime types & file associations

[Joshua Smith <jesmith kaon com>]

> >  but nothing I try seems to have any effect.  I
> > think the system may have cached its conclusion that my .mesonjar 
> > files
> > are ZIPs someplace, but I cannot figure out how to clear/refresh that
> > cache.  (I found documentation of a command called
> > "update-desktop-database" but there is no such program on my test
> > system.)
>
> This application is necessary to register, that your application can
> handle the MIME-types specified in the .desktop file. It should be part
> of desktop-file-utils or similar (which distribution do you use? "Apple
> Mail" sounds like Mac?).

Yes, I'm mostly a Mac user.  I'm doing this testing on a JDS (Java 
Desktop System) Solaris system provided to me by the customer who wants 
our application to work on this system, so I don't know much about the 
details of what's running here.

However, I have just had a minor breakthrough.  I was able to get my 
mime type recognized by adding an XML file to /usr/share/mime/packages 
and then running "update-mime-database /usr/share/mime".  Is this a 
kosher way for my installer to add our mime type?  It definitely 
worked.  But I wouldn't want to do something radically non-standard in 
our installer.

I also had to execute "nautilus --quit" to get the mime change 
reflected on the desktop.  Do you suppose it's OK to do that in a 
software install program?  Is there a more delicate way to get nautilus 
to re-read the mime database?

Interestingly, once I had the mime type fixed, the .desktop stuff I had 
tried "just worked."  Now I have to go figure out what I did to make 
that work, so I'll be able to reproduce it in the installer.

-Joshua