MIME-types and VPP

Yesterday i ran into a problem when i was moving an old JAVA-application from an Apache-server into i VPP-folder on our EPiServer site.

What i wanted to do was to host the JNLP-file and the JAR-files in a VPP-folder, and simple create a hyperlink to the JNLP-file from a web page, rather then have a separate Apache that only serves JNLP-files.

I knew it would be a bit of an issue to set the correct MIME-types for my JNLP-file when stored on a VPP-folder, so what i wanted was a flexible solution that would allow me to add other MIME-types if needed. Here is what i came up with:

First of all i added a handler in global.asax that is triggered when i file transmission starts.

   1:  void Application_Start(object sender, EventArgs e)

   2:  {

   3:      UnifiedFile.UnifiedFileTransmitting += 
               new UnifiedFileEventHandler(UnifiedFile_UnifiedFileTransmitting);

   4:  }

Also in global.asax:

   1:  void UnifiedFile_UnifiedFileTransmitting(UnifiedFile sender, 
           UnifiedVirtualPathEventArgs e)

   2:  {

   3:      if (sender == null || sender.Name == null || sender.Extension == null)

   4:          return;

   5:   

   6:      UnifiedFileManager.HandleMimeType(sender.Extension);

   7:  }

As you can see i don’t add a lot of code in global.asax, i prefer to create manager-classes. The UnifiedFileManager-class looks like this:

   1:  public static class UnifiedFileManager

   2:  {

   3:      public static void HandleMimeType(string Extension)

   4:      {

   5:          string HandledMimeTypes = 
                   ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["HandledMimeTypes"].ToString();

   6:   

   7:          foreach (string HandledMimeType in HandledMimeTypes.Split("|".ToCharArray()))

   8:          {

   9:              string[] ThisMimeType = HandledMimeType.Split(";".ToCharArray());

  10:              if (ThisMimeType[0].Equals(Extension))

  11:                  HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentType = ThisMimeType[1];

  12:          }

  13:      }

  14:  }

And the final step is to add a line in appSettings. This is where you store the MIME-types and their extensions:

<add key="HandledMimeTypes" value=".jnlp;application/x-java-jnlp-file" />

To add more MIME-types, simple separate them with a |-character, like this:

<add key="HandledMimeTypes" 
    value=".jnlp;application/x-java-jnlp-file|.pdf|application/octet-stream" />

Now, i was able to launch my JNLP-file without any problems.