GUI wrapper for timidity -ig with Firefox

[Peter Garrett]

On Tue, 11 Sep 2007 14:04:13 +1000
"Andre Mangan" <andremangan at gmail.com> wrote:

> It makes no difference which version of Firefox I use.  In version 1.5, the
> file associations are in "Edit - Preferences - Downloads" and in version 2,
> they are in "Edit - Preferences - Content.  The only file displayed there is
> an SPL file to be opened with Shockwave Flash.
> 
> If I reset the midi file association to Firefox I get 83 new tabs opening
> (totally out of control) but no music.
> 
> Is there a way to add files to the "helper file" box?
> 
> I am going grey trying to work this one out - even with the detailed help
> from you, Peter.

I'm already grey so it's too late for me :)

I am using Ubuntu 7.04 with Firefox version :

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.6) Gecko/20061201
Firefox/2.0.0.6 (Ubuntu-feisty)

That's pasted from the "About" dialogue.

With a completely "Vanilla" profile of FF ( I made a new profile to be
sure I hadn't tweaked anything that might interfere with debugging this ),
I see in "Edit-Preferences-Content-File Types-Manage" a series of
associations with mplayerplugin. One was evidently MID ( which I have now
changed to my wrapper script )

This may be the key to your problem - i assume you are not using
mplayerplugin, and thus have no entries in that box to "Remove" or
"Change". Notice that there is *no* button to "Add" .

This came up on the ubuntu-users list some time ago, and I had a
to-and-fro with the user concerned. We concluded that Mozilla have made it
practically impossible to *Add* anything in that dialogue. The work-around
involves opening about:config from the location field, and fiddling with
app associations there. It's a major pain. I don't remember the exact
procedure, unfortunately...

Ah, It could be this about:config entry

browser.download.hide_plugins_without_extensions  boolean  false 

(which is what I now have in my "default" profile for FF - a profile which
has undergone much change ;-) )

*cough* it doesn't exist by default, so you are expected to know to add
the entry - or Mozilla just don't want you to ... 

=========================================

OK - I just set that value in my "Totally Vanilla" profile that has no
tweaks at all, and suddenly all kinds of files and mime types appear in the
dialogue on re-opening it.

However, if you have no existing Firefox association for midi files, you
*should* get a popped-up question dialogue ...

(sounds of hollow laughter... )  

... asking whether to save the file, or play it. If so, you simply insert
the path to the wrapper script as your "helper" app.

I seem to recall that the chap who was trying to work this one out with me
before ended up deleting a whole bunch of entries, so as to be able to make
his own choices - nasty.

I suggest making a new profile and running the experiments on that:

firefox -profilemanager &
"Create ..."
name it "experiment" or something...

Good luck :)  I am frankly more and more disillusioned with Mozilla and
Firefox. This sort of thing should be simple to change!

Peter