5.12. Associating Files with MIME Types

Servers typically have a way for Webmasters to associate file extensions with media types. So, for example, a file named mom.jpg would automatically be given a MIME type of image/jpeg. However, suppose that your Web application has unusual files that you want to guarantee are assigned a certain MIME type when sent to clients. The mime-mapping element, with extension and mime-type subelements, can provide this guarantee. For example, the following code instructs the server to assign a MIME type of application/x-fubar to all files that end in.foo.

<mime-mapping> 
  <extension>foo</extension> 
  <mime-type>application/x-fubar</mime-type> 
</mime-mapping> 

Or, perhaps your Web application wants to override standard mappings. For instance, the following would tell the server to designate.ps files as plain text (text/plain) rather than as PostScript (application/postscript) when sending them to clients.

<mime-mapping> 
  <extension>ps</extension> 
  <mime-type>text/plain</mime-type> 
</mime-mapping> 

For more information on MIME types, see Table 2.1 on page 88.