I agree with you in theory, Andreas, but in practice file extensions
are typically more accurate than mime-types.
That's why you often get garbled junk in the browser with .mp4, .wmv, and .m4v
Thus, we've had to rely on file extensions with FireAnt rather than
mime-types (especially not the mime-types in the RSS enclosure
element).
While there are more redirect URLs such as you mention, its also easy
to include something like &type=.wmv at the end of the URL, which is
kind of hackish but generally works.
So, anyway... including the type attribute in URL links, while nice to
do is certainly optional IMHO. Of course, its good to encourage such
nice practices even if they are not always reliable.
-Josh
On 3/9/06, Andreas Haugstrup <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Thu, 09 Mar 2006 17:23:15 +0100, Enric <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > Anreas, I notice in your video-link.js code that you require the mime
> > type to be "video", but then determine the video type based on file
> > extension. So the mime type is just evaluated as a gate, but not
> > used. Since I'm trying to make the user coding of vPIP as easy as
> > possible, I'm wondering if type="{mime type]" is necessary? I'm
> > supporting three major media types (and I've listed their correspondig
> > mime types to the extensions I support in this release):
>
> Actually it should be the other way around. The "type" is the only check
> needed. In hindsight I don't know why I have that file extension check in
> there. File names are arbitrary so you shouldn't make any assumptions
> based on them (which is why so many mp4's are being treated as text/plain
> by browsers). Sooner rather than later you'll start seeing extentionless
> video URLs like http://www.example.com/video/4285/original/.
>
> So check on the type attribute alone is my advice. I put the check in
> there because I had (and have) intentions of extending the script to
> handle other media types (well, I just want it to handle audio files as
> well).
>
> > It's unlikely most users will remember or even look up the correct
> > mime type. Is there any reason to not make type="{mime type]" optional?
>
> - Users shouldn't have to write the code. There should be a button in
> their blogging platform (or a bookmarklet) that says "make link to
> embedded video"
> - If it doesn't work without the type attribute, users will remember to
> put it in. :o)
> - If the above is not possible the blogging system should be a HEAD
> request on the file when the blog post is saved and rewrite any links
> accordingly.
>
> --
> Andreas Haugstrup Pedersen
> <URL: http://www.solitude.dk/ >
> Commentary on media, communication, culture and technology.
>
>
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