Specify file associations

[rhbvkleef]

I'm submitting a…

• [ ] bug report
• [x] feature request
• [ ] other

Short description of the issue/suggestion:

We are able to specify file associations in jpackage (through the --file-associations switch). I would like to have the ability to do this too, using this plugin. I read through the source, and I cannot find how to do this. In fact, it appears that we are entirely unable to specify file associations.

What is the expected behavior?

Have a configuraiton property named fileAssociations in which we are able to specify these associations.

What is the current behavior?

There´s no way to specify these associations.

What is the motivation / use case for changing the behavior?

It is sometimes desired to register the java application to open certain files.

Please tell us about your environment:

• JavaPackager version: 1.5.1
• OS version: Arch Linux on kernel 5.11
• JDK version: OpenJDK 15.0.2 JDK
• Build tool:
  • [x] Maven
  • [ ] Gradle

[fvarrui]

Hi @rhbvkleef! I was hoping someone would request this feature sooner or later.

Let's recap how to achieve this on different platforms:

• Windows: it can be done adding some entries to Windows Registry.
• Mac OS X: we have to specify UTIs (Uniform Type Identifiers) in Info.plist file.
• Linux: I'm not really sure how to do it. Do you know if it depends on the used Linux distro?

[rhbvkleef]

I was hoping someone would request this feature sooner or later.

Cool! Well, here ya go ;-)

I'm not really sure how to do it. Do you know if it depends on the used Linux distro?

Luckily, it doesn't. You can simply place the mime-type into the desktop file: https://specifications.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec-0.9.5.html#mime-types

[commi]

Let's recap how to achieve this on different platforms:

• Windows: it can be done adding some entries to Windows Registry.

As a starting point here the snippet i added to the iss.vtl:

[Registry]
; create file associations
\#define MyAppName "${info.name}"
\#define MyFileExtension "FILENAMESUFFIXHERE"
\#define MyFileDescription "Human readable file type description here (what Windows Explorer will show)"

Root: HKCU; Subkey: "Software\Classes\.{#MyFileExtension}"; ValueType: string; ValueName: ""; ValueData: "{#MyAppName}File"; Flags: uninsdeletevalue
Root: HKCU; Subkey: "Software\Classes\Mime\Database\Content Type\application/xml"; ValueType: string; ValueName: "Extension"; ValueData: ".{#MyFileExtension}"; Flags: uninsdeletevalue
Root: HKCU; Subkey: "Software\Classes\{#MyAppName}File"; ValueType: string; ValueName: ""; ValueData: "{#MyFileDescription}"; Flags: uninsdeletekey
Root: HKCU; Subkey: "Software\Classes\{#MyAppName}File\shell\open\command"; ValueType: string; ValueName: ""; ValueData: """{app}\{#MyAppName}"" ""%1"""

[fvarrui]

Let's recap how to achieve this on different platforms:

• Windows: it can be done adding some entries to Windows Registry.

As a starting point here the snippet i added to the iss.vtl:

[Registry]
; create file associations
\#define MyAppName "${info.name}"
\#define MyFileExtension "FILENAMESUFFIXHERE"
\#define MyFileDescription "Human readable file type description here (what Windows Explorer will show)"

Root: HKCU; Subkey: "Software\Classes\.{#MyFileExtension}"; ValueType: string; ValueName: ""; ValueData: "{#MyAppName}File"; Flags: uninsdeletevalue
Root: HKCU; Subkey: "Software\Classes\Mime\Database\Content Type\application/xml"; ValueType: string; ValueName: "Extension"; ValueData: ".{#MyFileExtension}"; Flags: uninsdeletevalue
Root: HKCU; Subkey: "Software\Classes\{#MyAppName}File"; ValueType: string; ValueName: ""; ValueData: "{#MyFileDescription}"; Flags: uninsdeletekey
Root: HKCU; Subkey: "Software\Classes\{#MyAppName}File\shell\open\command"; ValueType: string; ValueName: ""; ValueData: """{app}\{#MyAppName}"" ""%1"""

Thanks!!

[fvarrui]

Hi @rhbvkleef! You can follow the work in progress in issue-103 branch.

[fvarrui]

I've been trying to associate extensions/mime-types to apps on Linux, but I'm not able to do it.

Luckily, it doesn't. You can simply place the mime-type into the desktop file: https://specifications.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/desktop-entry-spec-0.9.5.html#mime-types

It doesn't work just trying what is explained here. What if I want to associate a custom file format? e.g. ".hello" files.

Heeelp!!! 😓

[commi]

Yes, you have to register a custom mime-type first. For a user these are here: $HOME/.local/share/mime/ for users and here /usr/share/mime for system

Example for opus-files:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info">
    <mime-type type="audio/x-opus+ogg">
        <comment>Opus-Audio</comment>
        <icon name="audio-x-flac+ogg"/>
        <glob-deleteall/>
        <glob pattern="*.opus"/>
    </mime-type>
</mime-info>

You see there a file pattern (can be more than one). Then you can use this mime type in a .desktop-file. When installing a .deb, changes to the system-wise mime folder should be picked up automatically

More here: https://wiki.debian.org/MimeTypesSupport

[fvarrui]

Hi @commi! Yeah! Thanks.

But when I specify fileAssociations in JavaPackager:

<fileAssociations>
    <fileAssociation>
    <description>HelloWorld File</description>
    <extension>hello</extension>
    <mimeType>application/hello</mimeType>
    </fileAssociation>
</fileAssociations>

I'm creating a file like this in /usr/share/mime/packages:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info">
    <mime-type type="application/hello">
        <comment>HelloWorld File</comment>
        <glob pattern="*.hello"/>
    </mime-type>
</mime-info>

The following file in /usr/share/applications:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=HelloWorld
GenericName=HelloWorld
Comment=My HelloWorld sample app
Exec=/opt/HelloWorld/HelloWorld %U
Icon=/opt/HelloWorld/HelloWorld.png
Terminal=false
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
MimeType=application/hello;

When installing a .deb, changes to the system-wise mime folder should be picked up automatically

and yes, you are right, these system changes are triggered after installing a .deb.

but it doesn't work.

[commi]

For that worked. I created exactly those files and ran sudo update-mime-database /usr/share/mime manually

The file was recognized.

And after placing the desktop file, dolphin (KDE) tried to run /opt/HelloWorld/HelloWorld when clicking the file.

Which file manager do you use?

[fvarrui]

For that worked. I created exactly those files and ran sudo update-mime-database /usr/share/mime manually

Oh! Great!!! I thought that this command was triggered after installing a DEB file ... so, do I have to include an after-install script including this command?

The file was recognized.

And after placing the desktop file, dolphin (KDE) tried to run /opt/HelloWorld/HelloWorld when clicking the file.

Which file manager do you use?

I'm testing on a LinuxMint 20.1 (Mate), with nemo file manager.

[commi]

Afaik dpkg really should trigger that itself, if it sees that a package modifies /usr/share/mime/packages. You should not call that yourself. update-mime-database (package shared-mime-info) may not even be installed on all systems.

Maybe i can test den DEB you created here? can you upload it somewhere?

[fvarrui]

I've just installed my DEB file:

$ sudo dpkg -i HelloWorldMaven_1.0.0.deb 
Seleccionando el paquete helloworldmaven previamente no seleccionado.
(Leyendo la base de datos ... 278851 ficheros o directorios instalados actualmente.)
Preparando para desempaquetar .../HelloWorldMaven_1.0.0.deb ...
Desempaquetando helloworldmaven (1.0.0) ...
Configurando helloworldmaven (1.0.0) ...
Procesando disparadores para gnome-menus (3.36.0-1ubuntu1) ...
Procesando disparadores para desktop-file-utils (0.24+linuxmint1) ...
Procesando disparadores para mime-support (3.64ubuntu1) ...
Procesando disparadores para shared-mime-info (1.15-1) ...

You can see here that shared-mime-info triggers has been executed.

Then, I did some checks:

$ xdg-mime query default application/hello
HelloWorldMaven.desktop
$ xdg-mime query filetype prueba.hello 
text/plain

and ... what!?! text/plain?

Then, I executed sudo update-mime-database /usr/share/mime ... but with the same result! I'm missing something.

Here you have a link to my deb.

Thanks so much!!!

[commi]

works great here:

(Doubleclick on the bla.hello)

(file details from Dolphin)

till@tbc:/tmp$ xdg-mime query filetype bla.hello
application/hello

Maybe some other mimetype claims *.hello on your system? Has you testfile any contents..maybe a BOM?

[fvarrui]

:exploding_head:

[fvarrui]

Maybe some other mimetype claims *.hello on your system?

It's a freshly installed virtual machine ... I'll have to do some research about this.

Has you testfile any contents..maybe a BOM?

No, because I'd like that the file associations was only by the file extension, not by the content.

[fvarrui]

Hi @rhbvkleef! Sorry! I've been a bit busy last month ... I hope to have more time now.

At the moment, file associations are implemented for GNU/Linux and Windows (only Setup installer, still need to implement for MSI installer), so you can already test it.

Thanks!

[fvarrui]

Hi @rhbvkleef! File association is already implemented for Mac OS X. You can try JavaPackager 1.6.0-SNAPSHOT issue-103, which has to be installed manually. If it works fine for you, I'll merge this branch to be released in 1.6.0.

Sorry for being so late. I hope you haven't lost faith in JavaPackager 😞

[fvarrui]

I write this information here for those who may be useful:

When we double click a file on Windows and GNU/Linux, the path of the file is passed to the executable as an argument.

But, on Mac OS X, it's a bit different. I put a link here with explanations about how to access a file open from the system in Mac OS X: https://openjfx-dev.openjdk.java.narkive.com/emgVmZMH/how-to-handle-file-open-requests-on-macos

[fvarrui]

Example on how to handle open files by double clicking on Mac OS X:

https://github.com/fvarrui/HelloWorldMaven/blob/249fa3492f8bb2c12ab3f6f9b7db9101a1912c09/src/main/java/io/github/fvarrui/helloworld/HelloWorldFrame.java#L91-L98

[fvarrui]

Branch issue-103 merged into master

[fvarrui]

Changes will be released in v1.6.0 asap.

[fvarrui]

JavaPackager v1.6.0 released to Maven Central