Evolution 2 and convenient opening of attachments

msfroh · n00b Joined: 12 Nov 2004 Posts: 5

I recently upgraded from Evolution 1.4 to Evolution 2.0.2, as 2.0.2 became the default within Portage. Unfortunately, I seem to have lost the ability to easily open the Microsoft Word documents which my coworkers send as attachments. Previously, I could click on the little attachment down-arrow, and select "Open in OpenOffice.org". Now, the only option I have is "Save As..."

I suspected that this has something to do with my gnome-vfs settings, but both /usr/share/mime-info/gnome-vfs.{mime|keys}, and /usr/share/application-registry/gnome-vfs.applications seem to have entries which would apparently make the association between MS Word documents and OpenOffice.

Any suggestions on how to regain this ability so I don't have to downgrade to Evolution 1.4 would be greatly appreciated.

Sotol · Apprentice Joined: 09 Apr 2004 Posts: 192

Within Nautilus, right click on any .doc file and choose Properties. Then choose the 'open with' tab and add the program you wanna use. That should also add it to Evolution.

kenthepostman · Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 10:49 pm Post subject:

I use KDE with evolution 2.0.2 so I don't use nautilus. Is there anyway other way I can fix the same problem?

Sotol · Apprentice Joined: 09 Apr 2004 Posts: 192

You could try to edit ~/.local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache
although I don't know if this is a safe way to do it. It works over
here though.

kenthepostman · Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 12:09 am Post subject:

I have the directories but that file does not exist. Can you post the portion of one and I'll give it a try?

Sotol · Apprentice Joined: 09 Apr 2004 Posts: 192

Ok I open .doc apps in Evo with abiword. There a file in ~/.local/share/applications/ called abiword-2.2.desktop that looks like this.

kenthepostman · Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 3:22 am Post subject:

I tried creating the same basic thing for an excel file using open office and I had no luck. Thanks for all the help, I'm going to keep looking around to see if I can find a solution to the problem. Gnome 2.8 and evolution 2.0 were just unmasked so I'm sure other people who have the problem will be looking for solutions.

kenthepostman · Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 3:50 am Post subject:

Actually, it did work. I found the copy of the system wide configuration for Mime types. It turns out I was just missing the line

Sotol · Apprentice Joined: 09 Apr 2004 Posts: 192

Oops, posting the [MIME Cache] line probably woulda helped. Glad you found the answer.

msfroh · n00b Joined: 12 Nov 2004 Posts: 5

Thanks for the discussion and replies! This was a big help. To describe in a single post exactly what was needed to get this working system-wide (since I use neither Nautilus, nor the GNOME desktop):

First, I created a file called /usr/share/applications/openoffice.desktop, containing

Joseph_sys · Posted: Sun Nov 21, 2004 9:35 pm Post subject: pdf attachment

Following this pattern, to add pdf association copy one of the xpdf.desktop file to:
/usr/share/applications

you can find one with: locate xpdf.desktop
/home/joseph/.kde3.3/.kde3.2/share/apps/kicker/xpdf.desktop

run as root:
update-desktop-database

rogeroberholtzer · Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 7:24 pm Post subject: missing mimeinfo.cache

Why don't I have a mimeinfo.cache file in either the global or my user directory? There are assorted .desktop files.

BTW, I run KDE. But I have enough GNOME installed for evolution. Maybe there is some GNOME package that has this that I do not have installed?

Joseph_sys · Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 7:30 pm Post subject: Re: missing mimeinfo.cache

rogeroberholtzer · Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 7:55 pm Post subject:

In fact, an earlier post in the thread suggested emerging desktop-file-utils, which contains the command. It makes this file. As the file can contain hundreds of lines, this is a time saver. When I first read the thread, I was not looking for that bit of info, so I passed over it...

What I am trying to sort out is where I shoud invest my time in getting mime types and applications set up. I do not want to add non-kde apps to the /usr/kde tree as that does not survive new kde versions. Is /usr/share the way to go? So that GNOME, KDE and, I would hope, most all interested apps will find mime info? I bet there is real documentation to cover this. Time to explore.

Joseph_sys · Posted: Mon Nov 22, 2004 8:03 pm Post subject:

I was under impression that only mimeinfo.cache is updated automatically, but not the xxxx.desktop files in that folder. There are there but I think KDE changed their setting somehow so after upgrade Evolution couldn't find them as for example xpdf.desktop I just copied from a different folder.
The only problem I had was with evolution attachments, but now the all work (it means I can open them directly from email).

tecknojunky · Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 6:33 pm Post subject:

So this serves nothing in terms of adding OpenOffice mime support. You're still requiered to create those by hand.
_________________
(7 of 9) Installing star-trek/species-8.4.7.2::talax.

rogeroberholtzer · Posted: Wed Dec 15, 2004 10:11 pm Post subject: Really?

But knowing the command may save some poor soul from having to make the mimeinfo.cache file from hand. And it can be hundreds of lines. So, it is relevant info to the topic of adding mime info that describes OpenOffice files. JMHO.

meowsqueak · Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2005 8:10 pm Post subject:

So if you're using neither Gnome nor KDE, what do you do? I'd rather change a file in ~ than in /usr/share (since a user might not have access to those files).