What is the best way open/edit a data Stream if all I have is a MIME type

Question

I am in a Windows Desktop application and I have a data stream and a mime type in the database. Is there a better way than writing it to a temp folder and launching the default editor for it?

If I have to use the temp folder how can I get the file extension from the MIME type in a C# Windows Desktop application?

Answer 1

Lookup the MIME type in HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\MIME\Database\Content Type to find out the corresponding file extension and go from there. Some starter links:

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms775147(VS.85).aspx
• http://bitworking.org/news/Atom_Auto_Sub_How_To

If that is not enough, maybe libmagic (used by the file command line tool) or its database can be of use to you, even though it is quite UNIX:y.

Answer 2

It depends on what you want to do with that data stream. If all you want to do is open the default program for that file type, writing a temp file and calling Process.Start on it isn't a bad way to go. If you're looking to perform other operations on the data... well, it depends what operations you had in mind.