The way I've done it is by keeping a list of well-known extensions and their mime types, and if the extension isn't found then just return it as application/octet-stream
. The reason for this is that this mime type is applied to applications (e.g., exe) which the browser, depending on security settings, may allow you to pass to the operating system, thus opening the default editor for that file type. BTW, consider the security implications for every type of file you may accept and transfer to users.
Here's the list I generally use:
<MimeTypes>
<MimeType Type="application/mac-binhex40" Extensions=".hqx"/>
<MimeType Type="application/msword" Extensions=".doc;.docx"/>
<MimeType Type="application/pdf" Extensions=".pdf"/>
<MimeType Type="application/postscript" Extensions=".ai;.eps;.ps"/>
<MimeType Type="application/rtf" Extensions=".rtf"/>
<MimeType Type="application/vnd.ms-excel"
Extensions=".xla;.xlc;.xlm;.xls;.xlt;.xlw;.xlsx"/>
<MimeType Type="application/vnd.ms-outlook" Extensions=".msg"/>
<MimeType Type="application/vnd.ms-powerpoint"
Extensions=".pot;.pps;.ppt;.pptx"/>
<MimeType Type="application/vnd.ms-works" Extensions=".wcm;.wdb;.wks;.wps"/>
<MimeType Type="application/x-compress" Extensions=".z"/>
<MimeType Type="application/x-compressed" Extensions=".tgz"/>
<MimeType Type="application/x-gzip" Extensions=".gz"/>
<MimeType Type="application/x-msaccess" Extensions=".mdb"/>
<MimeType Type="application/x-msmetafile" Extensions=".wmf"/>
<MimeType Type="application/x-mspublisher" Extensions=".pub"/>
<MimeType Type="application/x-msschedule" Extensions=".scd"/>
<MimeType Type="application/x-msterminal" Extensions=".trm"/>
<MimeType Type="application/x-mswrite" Extensions=".wri"/>
<MimeType Type="application/x-tar" Extensions=".tar"/>
<MimeType Type="application/zip" Extensions=".zip"/>
<MimeType Type="audio/basic" Extensions=".au;.snd"/>
<MimeType Type="audio/mid" Extensions=".mid;.rmi"/>
<MimeType Type="audio/mpeg" Extensions=".mp3"/>
<MimeType Type="audio/x-aiff" Extensions=".aif;.aifc;.aiff"/>
<MimeType Type="audio/x-pn-realaudio" Extensions=".ra;.ram"/>
<MimeType Type="audio/x-wav" Extensions=".wav"/>
<MimeType Type="image/bmp" Extensions=".bmp"/>
<MimeType Type="image/gif" Extensions=".gif"/>
<MimeType Type="image/jpeg" Extensions=".jpe;.jpeg;.jpg"/>
<MimeType Type="image/pipeg" Extensions=".jfif"/>
<MimeType Type="image/tiff" Extensions=".tif;.tiff"/>
<!--Substitute the following two for text/plain if you're sure bad html
won't get rendered in the browser-->
<!--<MimeType Type="text/html" Extensions=".mht;.html;.htm"/>-->
<!--<MimeType Type="text/plain" Extensions=".txt"/>-->
<MimeType Type="text/plain" Extensions=".txt;.html;.htm"/>
<MimeType Type="text/richtext" Extensions=".rtx"/>
<MimeType Type="text/tab-separated-values" Extensions=".tsv"/>
<MimeType Type="video/mpeg" Extensions=".mp2;.mpa;.mpe;.mpeg;.mpg;.mpv2"/>
<MimeType Type="video/quicktime" Extensions=".mov;.qt"/>
<MimeType Type="video/x-la-asf" Extensions=".lsf;.lsx;.asf;.asr;.asx;"/>
<MimeType Type="video/x-msvideo" Extensions=".avi"/>
</MimeTypes>
Here's an example of how to use this (c#-like pseudocode).
public string GetMimeType(string ext)
{
// who would load the file on every method call? That's just dumb
var mimes = XElement.Load("MyMimeTypesLolKThx.xml");
var result = from x in mimes.Elements()
where Contains(x, ext)
select x.Attribute("Type");
return result.FirstOrDefault() ?? "application/octet-stream";
}
public bool Contains(XElement el, string ext)
{
return el.Attribute("Extensions").Value.Contains(ext);
}