Registering MIME types and applications

[Murray Cumming <murrayc murrayc com>]

I'm trying to figure out what an application should do to register a new
MIME type with GNOME 2.6, and to register itself as an application that
is capable of opening that MIME type.

I have found the following techniques. Maybe there are more. I'd like to
know which of these are outdated and which are the new approved
techniques. Also, should an application register itself with multiple
(old and new) MIME-type systems?

1. Registering the MIME-type by putting a .xml file in 
<prefix>/share/mime/packages, 
and running update-mime-database.

2. Registering the application by putting an .applications file in 
<prefix>/share/application-registry/

3. Registing the application by putting a .desktop file in 
<prefix>/share/applications/

4. Registering the MIME-type by putting a .mime file in 
<prefix>/share/mime-info/

5. Registering the application by putting a .keys file in 
<prefix>/share/mime-info/

I thought that 1, 2, and 3, were the new ways to do this, but it only
causes Nautilus to show the MIME-type (e.g. application/x-glom), but not
the MIME-type's name. And it does not know that it should launch glom to
open that file.

-- 
Murray Cumming
murrayc murrayc com
www.murrayc.com
www.openismus.com