User manual

Chapter 1 Web Technologies Overview 11
You can avoid this problem by carefully setting access privileges for the site files using
the Sharing module of the Workgroup Manager application. Mac OS X Server uses a
predefined group www, which contains the Apache processes. You need to give the
www group Read & Write access to files within the website. You also need to assign
these files Read & Write access by the website administrator (Owner) and No Access to
Everyone.
If you are concerned about website security, you may choose to leave WebDAV
disabled and use Apple file service or FTP service to modify the contents of a website
instead.
Understanding Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension (MIME) is an Internet standard for specifying what
happens when a web browser requests a file with certain characteristics. You can
choose the response you want the web server to make based on the file’s suffix. Your
choices will depend partly on what modules you have installed on your web server.
Each combination of a file suffix and its associated response is called a MIME type
mapping.
MIME Suffixes
A suffix describes the type of data in a file. Here are some examples:
• txt for text files
• cgi for Common Gateway Interface files
• gif for GIF (graphics) files
• php for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (embedded HTML scripts) used for
WebMail, and so on
• tiff for TIFF (graphics) files
Mac OS X Server includes a default set of MIME type suffixes. This set includes all the
suffixes in the mime.types file distributed with Apache, with a few additions. If a suffix
you need is not listed, or does not have the behavior you want, use Server Admin to
add the suffix to the set or to change its behavior.
Note: Do not add or change MIME suffixes by editing configuration files.
Web Server Responses (Content Handlers)
When a file is requested, the web server handles the file using the response specified
for the file’s suffix. Responses, also known as content handlers, can be either an action
or a MIME type. Possible responses include:
• Return file as MIME type (you enter the mapping you want to return)
• Send-as-is (send the file exactly as it exists)
• Cgi-script (run a CGI script you designate)
• Imap-file (generate an IMAP mail message)
• Mac-binary (download a compressed file in MacBinary format)
LL2350.book Page 11 Friday, August 22, 2003 2:32 PM