Client Handling of MIME Types

The Service function generates the data and sends it to the client that made the request. When the server sends the data to the client, it also sends headers. These headers include the MIME type attributes that are known, which is usually type.

When the client receives the data, it uses the MIME type to decide how to handle the data. For browser clients, the usual action is to display the data in the browser window.

If the requested resource cannot be displayed in a browser but needs to be handled by another application, its type starts with application/, for example, application/octet-stream for .bin file extensions or application/x-maker for .fm file extensions. The client has its own set of user-editable mappings that determines which application to use to handle which types of data.

For example, if the type is application/x-maker, the client usually handles it by opening Adobe® FrameMaker to display the file.