Maple and the WWW

To configure a WWW browser and HTTP server for the automatic viewing of Maple worksheets as they are downloaded via the WWW.

The computers on the World-Wide Web (WWW) communicate according to the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). A message on the WWW begins when a user selects a link on a web page. The browser responds by sending the request to the appropriate HTTP server. The response to the browser includes the requested information (typically a file) and a MIME type (Multipurpose Internet Message Extension). As the name suggests, the MIME type is typically determined by the file's extension; common MIME types include text/html, text/plain, image/gif, and application/postscript. The browser uses the MIME type to determine how the data it receives is to be processed: displayed in the browser window, saved to a file, sent to a helper application, ....

Waterloo Maple Software recommends the use of the MIME type application/maple-v-r4 for files with mws extensions, i.e., Release 4 worksheets. This MIME type is relatively new; it is not uncommon to encounter HTTP servers using text/x-maple (for both, ms and mws files), application/x-maple (for ms files), or application/x-maple4 (for mws files).

Most browsers provide a user-friendly method to identify the appropriate helper application for a MIME type. For example, in Netscape 3.0, the following steps can be used to specify that data received with the application/maple-v-r4 MIME type should be sent to Maple V, Release 4.

1. Check that Netscape and Maple V, Release 4, are installed on your computer.
2. Launch Netscape.
3. Select Preferences (General Preferences, for UNIX) from the Options menu.
4. Select Helpers.
5. Click the New button inside the window.
6. The final steps are platform dependent:

   Windows:

   • the MIME type should be application
   • the MIME subtype should be maple-v-r4
   • the Extensions box should contain mws
   • under the Action menu, select Launch Application
   • click the Browse button, then locate the Maple application
   • press Apply, then OK (or press OK to close the window and Save Options from the Options menu)

   Macintosh:

   • the MIME type should be application/maple-v-r4
   • the Suffixes box should contain mws
   • the File Type should be either TEXT or MVNB
   • in the Handled By sub-window, select Application
   • click the Browse button, then locate the Maple application
   • press Apply, then OK

   UNIX:

   • the MIME type should be application/maple-v-r4
   • the Suffixes box should contain mws
   • in the Handle By sub-window, select Application
   • click the Browse button, then locate the Maple application
   • add the string %s to the end of the application (e.g., /usr/local/bin/xmaple %s)
   • press OK to close the window then Save Options from the Options menu

7. Now, from Netscape, open a Maple worksheet that has the proper extension, and the Maple application will be launched.

Configuring an HTTP server is less standardized and, for security reasons, should be done only my the person responsible for maintaining the server. For the NCSA HTTPd server, the recommended MIME type can be added to the default MIME types by adding the following line to the file named srm.conf:

                  AddType   application/maple-v-r4      mws
 

Release 3 worksheets, with extension ms, can be directly loaded into a Release 4 session. This can be achieved by simply appending ms to the above AddType line.

Macintosh and Windows users who still have Maple V, Release 3, on their systems can load a Release 3 worksheet directly into Release 3. All that is needed is to create a separate MIME type for ms files; a reasonable MIME type is application/maple-v-r3. (This does not work for UNIX versions of Release 3.)