Associating a MIME type with a file extension

At document checkin, Content Engine assigns a MIME type to any content transfer element that has no MIME type. The assignment is based on the mimetypes.properties file and the file name extension specified by the Retrieval Name property: Content Engine searches that file for the MIME type mapped to the extension. For example, the Retrieval Name for a content transfer element might be abc.txt. Content Engine finds the MIME type mapped to the .txt extension and assigns that mapped type as the default MIME type. For more information about default MIME type assignment, see About MIME types.

Content Engine attempts to find the mimetypes.properties configuration file in the following standard property file locations in the order shown:

If the file is not found, Content Engine uses the mimetypes.properties file inside the Content Engine EAR file.

You can edit the mimetypes.properties file to add, change, or remove file name extensions and their mapped MIME types. Follow this procedure after you finish executing all tasks in the IBM FileNet Configuration Manager. (This procedure is not executed within Configuration Manager.)

To edit the mimetypes.properties file

  1. If the mimetypes.properties file does not exist in one of the standard property file locations, extract the file from the Content Engine EAR file. For detailed instructions, see the procedure in the following section.
  2. Use a text editor to open the mimetypes.properties file.
  3. In the mimetypes.properties file, add, change, or remove pairings of MIME types and file name extensions as needed. Each line consists of such a pairing, beginning with the MIME type and separated by tabs or spaces from the file name extension. You can pair multiple MIME types with the same file name extension. Indicate the primary pairing with an asterisk after the file name extension.
  4. Save and close the file.

To extract the mimetypes.properties file from the engine EAR file

  1. Determine the appropriate EAR file to modify based on your application server:
  2. Find the copy of the EAR archive file in the configuration profiles directory tree. (The Configure Bootstrap Properties step in the IBM FileNet Configuration Manager creates this copy.) For example, the path of the file might be ..\Program Files\IBM\FileNet\ContentEngine\tools\configure\profiles\WebSphere\ear\Engine-ws.ear.
  3. Open the EAR archive file. For example, on a Windows®-based system, you can use WinZip to open the file.
  4. In the EAR file, find and extract the engine.rar file to the file system.
  5. Open the engine.rar file.
  6. In the engine.rar file, find and extract the engine.jar file to the file system.
  7. Open the engine.jar file.
  8. In the engine.jar file, find and extract the mimetypes.properties file to the file system. (In the .jar file, the file has a res path.)
  9. Copy the mimetypes.properties file to one of the standard property file locations.