[mapguide-internals] MIME type for MapGuide packages

[Jason Birch]

Hi all,

Currently, without a MIME type defined for mapguide packages, Internet Explorer interprets them as .zip files, causing confusion and questions by new users.  

One way of dealing with this would be to register a MIME type for MapGuide packages with IANA as documented in the vendor tree section of following RFC:

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc4288.txt

Specifically, I'd propose something like:

application/vnd.osgeo.mapguide.package mgp

An alternative to this would be to encourage users to configure their http servers to deliver mapguide packages with an existing standard MIME type:

application/octet-stream mgp 

This may be more appropriate, since MapGuide doesn't directly interact with the packages; they require user action once downloaded to be used.

I'm OK with either solution, but would like feedback so that we can either proceed with the registration or with documenting the preferred solution on the wiki.  Once I get some feedback, I'll take care of the registration (if required), having the OSGeo download server configured to implement the chosen solution, and documenting the chosen approach on the wiki.

Jason