RFC 2936 (rfc2936) - Page 1 of 13

HTTP MIME Type Handler Detection

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Network Working Group                                         D. Eastlake
Request for Comments: 2936                                       Motorola
Category: Informational                                          C. Smith
                                                     Royal Bank of Canada
                                                                D. Soroka
                                                                      IBM
                                                           September 2000


                    HTTP MIME Type Handler Detection

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2000).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   Entities composing web pages to provide services over the Hypertext
   Transfer Protocol (HTTP) frequently have the problem of not knowing
   what Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) types have handlers
   installed at a user's browser.  For example, whether an Internet Open
   Trading Protocol (IOTP) or VRML or SET or some streaming media
   handler is available.  In some cases they would want to display
   different web pages or content depending on a MIME handler's
   availability.  This document summarizes reasonable techniques to
   solve this problem for most of the browsers actually deployed on the
   Internet as of early 2000.  It is intended to be of practical use to
   implementors during the period before the wide deployment of superior
   standards based techniques which may be developed.

Acknowledegements

   Helpful comments by Tony Lewis of Visa have been incorporated.












Eastlake, et al.             Informational
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