Setting MIME Types on Your Server

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For browsers to recognize and display Flash files, the server that delivers the Flash Player (.swf) files must tell the browser what type of files it's serving. This information is called the MIME type . The intricacies of server administration are beyond the scope of this book, but this section provides a basic description of the MIME types and the Flash suffixes to add to your server's configuration files. (Check out the Macromedia Flash Support Center at / www.macromedia.com/support/flash for technical notes about setting MIME types on specific servers.)

To identify a MIME type:

To update your server's configuration files, do one of the following:

• For files published as Flash Player 2 through 6 or exported as Flash Movie, add the MIME type application/x-shockwave-flash and the associated suffix .swf .

• For files published as Flash Player 1 or exported as FutureSplash Player, add the MIME type application/futuresplash and the associated suffix .spl .

To set additional parameters for Macintosh servers:

1. For servers hosting movies published as Flash Player 2 through 6, do the following:

   • Set the Action parameter to Binary .

   • Set the Type parameter to SWFL .

   • Set the Creator parameter to SWF2 .

2. For servers hosting movies published as Flash Player 1 or FutureSplash Player, do the following:

   • Set the Action parameter to Binary .

   • Set the Type parameter to TEXT .

   • Set the Creator parameter to Fspl .

Tip

• You can use Netscape Navigator to check whether the MIME type has been set properly on the server where you're posting your Flash movies. In Navigator, surf to a movie on the server that you want to check. From Navigator's View menu, choose Page Info (or Document Info ). In the window that appears, click the Embed link for the .swf file. Navigator lists the MIME type for the Embed URL in the bottom frame of the browser window (Figure 16.46). See whether the type displayed there matches the MIME type that you need.

  Figure 16.46. The View > Document Info (or View > Page Info) command in Netscape Navigator lets you see whether the MIME type has been set correctly on the server where your Web site is located.

  

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