My goodness.
>"Adobe says "Drag the files LSApplications, LSClaimedTypes and LSSchemes to your desktop" but I can't find these in Panther?"
Of course you can't find those in Panther! Geez, that information looks like it hasn't been updated since OS X 10.1. Those files are only used in OS X 10.1.x.
In OS X 10.2.x and later, Apple changed the way the Launch Services' (that's what the LS stands for) database was structured, or at least which files are used.
This is my basic Launch Services post, which applies to OS X 10.2.x and OS X 10.3.x:
The technology that OS X uses to keep track of document-to-application bindings is called Launch Services. Launch Services uses a
database to keep track of all the applications on your machine and the kinds of documents they're capable of opening.
The information in the database is initially generated during startup when OS X scans the /Applications/ folder (and subdirectories) and, if applicable, your /Users/~/Applications/ folder (and subdirectories). The information in this database is then updated whenever you encounter other applications in the Finder, which lie outside the of these Applications folders. The information in this database is used to determine the default applications for opening files. The database files that Launch Services uses are the following:
Panther:
/Library/
Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.6B.csstore
Jaguar:
/Library/
Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.LocalCache.csstore
/Users/~/Library/
Caches/com.apple.LaunchServices.UserCache.csstore
When you double-click on a file in the Finder, there are 3 characteristics of that file are used to determine which default application will open them:
creator type: a four-character creator type, such as '
Hway' (iMovie), '
hook' (iTunes), or '
fez!' (iChat), which represents the application that created the document, and therefore "claims" it.
filename extension: an extension to a file's name, such as '.jpg' (JPEG image), '. textClipping' (Text Clipping), '.chat' (iChat transcript), that represents the type of data which the file holds; similar to file type.
file type: a four-character file type, such as '
MooV' (QuickTime Movie), '
clpt' (Text Clipping), or '
chat' (iChat transcript), that represents the type of data which the file holds; similar to filename extension.
The presence or absense of each of these 3 characteristics is taken into account when determining which application should open a file.
Each unique combination of these 3 characteristics can have its own unique mapping to a particular application.
Take a look at this
comparison of 4 different "types" of PDF files:
1)
creator type = '
????' ,
file type = '
PDF ' ,
and filename extension = '.pdf' == (OS X Screen Shot PDF)
2)
creator type = ---- ,
file type = '
PDF ' ,
and filename extension = '.pdf' == (PDF downloaded with Internet Explorer)
3)
creator type = '
CARO' ,
file type = '
PDF ' ,
and filename extension = '.pdf' == (PDF created thru Print Center (early Jaguar))
4)
creator type = ---- ,
file type = ---- ,
and filename extension = '.pdf' == (PDF created thru Print Center (later Jaguar, Panther), thru "Print Preview", downloaded with Safari)
As you can see, as far as OS X is concerned, these are actually 4 completely different PDF files. Take away the ".pdf" filename extension from any one of those files and you'd have yet another PDF file. (Actually, removing the ".pdf" filename extension from the 4th example file would result in the document becoming a generic document, since without either a file type or filename extension (or both), there's no way to identify what type of file it is.)
When you choose a particular file in the Finder, open the Show Info window and use the "Open with:" section to choose a custom
non-default application to open the file with, the Finder makes note of that preference by adding a small resource of type '
usro' (user override) to the file's resource fork. (In order to do this, you must have write permission for the file, and for the folder containing the file. This is why you might sometimes get a "You don't have privileges to change the application for this document only...." and you're prompted to make a global-override change (see below), which doesn't involve modifying the individual file). This '
usro' resource contains a pointer to the application with which you've chosen to open the file. This type of per-document override will affect any user who comes into contact with the file, unless that user has a global-override (see below) for that same exact type of file. In that case, the
global-override overrides the
per-document override.
To provide you with visual feedback, the Finder will change the icon from the previous application to the new one you've chosen. It does this by adding a custom icon resource (for the corresponding non-default application you chose) of type '
icns' (Icon Suite) to the file's resource fork.
If you then click on the "Change all..." button in the Show Info window, OS X makes note of this custom
global-override preference by adding it to the following file:
Panther & Jaguar:
/Users/~/Library/
Preferences/com.apple.LaunchServices.plist
NOTE: While your
global-override preference
has been recorded, you won't see an immediate change of the icons of all similar files with the exact same combination of the 3 characteristics mentioned above until you quit and relaunch the Finder, log out and back in, or restart your machine. Your preference should still be honored in the meantime, and you can confirm this by choosing another similar document (with the exact same combination of the 3 items mentioned above) and confirm that it's scheduled to open in your desired application. If, instead of looking at the document-to-application mapping that the Show Info window shows for a file, you rely on the appearance or icon of the file, it might be easy to interpret this as your settings "not sticking".
NOTE: The program used in the images pictured above is a shareware program called XRay and is available
here.
Hope this helps....
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