Firefox and Plugins/Mime type association

[Aaron Konstam]

On Mon, 2007-06-25 at 10:53 +0100, John Austin wrote:
> Hi
> 
> Firefox 2.0.0.3 and F7
> 
> I really would like to know who or what decides how
> the mime type to plugin/application mapping is determined.
> 
> The behaviour of FF seems to change depending upon which
> plugins are installed.
> EG
> If the vlc plugin is not there the mplayerplug-in is used
> and the "Video Streaming VideoCam" fails on this site
> 
> mv libvlcplugin.so /tmp
> http://seaspritesports.com/weather-cams-stream.php
> Select "Video Streaming VideoCam click here"
> ....Mplayerplug-in starts and fails 
> mv /tmp/libvlcplugin.so .
> 
> Move it back and it uses vlc and works - How does it know that ?
> 
> In this example things start working with the additional plugin
> What happens if things start failing ? 

One thing you can do that Mozilla refuses to do is change the following
config option from true to false.

Go to: about:config
in the browser, Then change the value of the config parameter:
browser.download.hide_plugins_without_extensions
from true to false.
This will allow you to go to: Edit->preferences->Content
Then in box called File types click on Manage.
There you will see a list of what application handles which extension
type. This can now be changed. This hidden feature of firefox is helpful
in situations such as yours.