Multimedia and CHP Back to Main FAQ

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This page has had 1054 hits since December 10, 1997.

This part of the CHP FAQ is currently under development, and changes will be swift and painless. So for now the instruction are incomplete, the questioned unanswered, and perhaps even unasked. Stay tuned. (Some of this stuff I'm going to be learning along with everyone else.)

QuickTime and CHP

1. When I try to insert a plug-in or applet into my page, I get an error. What should I do?

2. My multimedia files do not download properly from the web site. What should I do?

3. My multimedia files do not show up in the browser, whether they are on a server or on my harddrive. What should I do?

1. Question: When I try to insert a plug-in or applet into my page, I get an error. What should I do?

Answer: This is error which may occur on the Macintosh when your Macintosh Easy Open file gets corrupted. Simply go to the Mac OS Easy Open (Mac OS 8) or the Macintosh Easy Open (Mac OS 7.x) control panel and click the "Delete Preferences" button. This should get rid of the problem.

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2. Question: My multimedia files do not download properly from the web site. What should I do?

Answer: A web server need to be configured to properly recognize new types of files. Most web servers are already configured to deal with the basic file types used on the web, however, if you are using a rare file type, or an older server, the server will have to be made aware.

There are two ways to do this:

1. Ask your webmaster to do it. Always the easiest - pass the buck to someone else.
2. Do it yourself and do it right. Of course, this requires a bit more work on your part.

It is neccessary to add the following configuration information (shown are QuickTime settings):

The MIME type of the file format:	video/quicktime
The extensions identifying the file format:	.qt .mov

In most UNIX web servers (Apache, Netscape, etc.) this can be set either globally for the whole server in the global .htaccess file, or by directory. To configure a directory and all its subdirectories to support a new file type, create a file called .htaccess in the directory (if it does not already exist) and add the following line:

AddType MIME_type extensions

AddType video/quicktime .qt .mov

On Macintosh webservers, these setting are usually in a Config menu (In Quid Pro Quo, an excellent web server, the settings are under Control:Configure Server... in the MIME mappings pane.).

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3. Question: My multimedia files do not show up in the browser, whether they are on a server or on my harddrive. What should I do?

In order to know which plug-in should handle the file, Netscape and other browsers rely on two sources. One is the server which is sending the file (Most web servers affix a MIME type ID to files). The other is from file extension. I know file extensions are a very un-Maclike thing to do, but on the Internet, they are necessary.

So when you prepare multimedia files, or for that matter any other files, for publication on the Internet, make sure to add the appropriate suffix. Some common suffixes are .mov for QuickTime files, .pdf for Acrobat files, and .midi for MIDI files.

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