What are MIME types

Points To Remeber

MIME stands for Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extensions.
MIME is an extension of the original Internet e-mail protocol that lets people use the protocol to exchange different kinds of data files on the Internet: audio, video, images, application programs
MIME types were originally used to send different file types through email services over SMT SMTP(Simple Mail Transfer Protocal) protocal.
MIME types form a standard way of classifying file types on the Internet e.g. using the "Content-type" header value defined in a HTTP response, the browser can open the file with the proper extension/plugin.
Internet programs such as Web servers and browsers all have a list of MIME types, so that they can transfer files of the same type in the same way, irrespective of what operating system they are working in.

How does a MIME type look like ??

There are two parts in a MIME type a type and a subtype, and they are seperated by a slash '/' in between.

Type - It represent the type of file that is being used e.g application, audio, text etc.
Subtype - It represents the file type of the file being used. eg msword, html , plain , zip etc.

MIME type Prefixes

MIME Prefixed with "x-" The "x-" prefix of a MIME subtype simply means that it's non-standard, i.e not registered with the "Internet Assigned Numbers Authority".
MIME Prefixed with "vnd-" The "vnd-" prefix means that the MIME value is vendor specific and is not a registered MIME type.

How to set Content-Type header of my files ??

Setting the Content-type in ASP:
<% response.ContentType="text/html" %>
Setting the Content-type in C#:
// Response is of type System.Web.HttpResponse
response.ContentType = "text/plain";
Setting the Content-type in Java:
// Response is of type javax.servlet.ServletReponse
response.setContentType("text/plain");
Setting the Content-type in Perl/CGI:
print "Content-type:text/html";
Setting the Content-type in PHP:
<?php header('Content-type: text/html');?>

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