Firefox3/ContentManagement:Handlers

One of the new features of Firefox 3 is the ability to map a URL protocol segment to either a website or local application.

This document attempts to document some of the commonly seen protocols on the net and offer some of the handlers that we may want to include as default options.

Feature Functional description appears at http://wiki.mozilla.org/User:Dmose:Fx-Docs:ContentTypeProcessing.

Protocols

MIME Types & Filename Extensions

Protocol Candidate Apps/ Web Services Comments
Common
file Handled by Firefox
http/https Handled by Firefox
ftp Handled by Firefox
mailto Yahoo Mail, GMail, Hotmail, WinOS MAPI, Mail.app, Thunderbird
webcal Google Calendar, Thunderbird, iCal
news/snews Google News, Thunderbird,
irc/ircs
rtsp
feed Handled by Firefox
aim AOL Instant Messenger
skype Skype
mms Windows Media Player
ymsgr Yahoo Messenger
Rare
gopher Handled by Firefox
tel Skype, other VOIP app?
telnet ?
(See about:config, "protocol-handler" ?
Mime Type Extensions Candidate Apps/ Web Services Comments
Common
application/pdf pdf Adobe Acrobat Reader
video/qt qt Apple Quicktime
...

RSS Feeds

  • Is this a separate beast?
RSS Type Candidate Apps/ Web Services Comments
Common
ATOM, text/img ? Are there content indicators?
RSS 2, text/img LiveBookmarks, Google, My Yahoo, bloglines, <ClientApp> ?
RSS 2, Video? Miro/Democracy Player, NetnewsWire? ?
RSS 1 ? ?

Questions

  • Is there anyway to use the existing list of OS registered MIME types handler to add to the list used in Firefox?
    • Yes. Currently the list ONLY consists of OS registered handlers, we are trying to add web based handlers to that list.
  • Is there anyway to detect if the local app is already installed before offering it as a choice?
  • Should we do/use a canonical lookup service like http://filext.com or http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/mime-types.shtml?