Best way to register a file format plugin for an app with nautilus's mime-handler etc.

[Alexander Larsson]

On Thu, 2009-02-19 at 11:17 +0000, Caolán McNamara wrote:
> So, here's the example scenario: Someone writes an extension for
> OpenOffice.org writer which adds a file format importer and that gets
> packaged into Fedora. Is there a way to then register the extra
> mime-type that writer now supports if, and only if, that extension is
> installed.
> 
> The mime-type field in .desktops
> http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec-latest.html
> basically assumes a static list of supported mime-types. Adding the
> mime-type to the writer list would claim that it always can open the
> type, which isn't true if the extension isn't installed.

Yeah, this is a bit of a problem. Especially with things like apps using
gstreamer thus being one step removed from what filetypes are supported.

> So is the right solution to install a new .destop along with that
> extension with NoDisplay=true set and the list of extra mime-types that
> the extension adds to writer and then use the same Exec line from the
> normal parent package .desktop ?

This sounds like it could work. Have you tried it? I can't think of a
better approach really.