File Associate - CellPhoneSoft

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File Assoc. > User Guide

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File Associate UIQ3 User Guide

Product referenced: File Associate UIQ3 1.10
Document version: 1.10
This document is available for Download.

Purpose File Associate lists the file type associations on the phone. You can view and change what application is started when opening a document file. The included Generic viewer application support viewing ZIP, text and binary files, furthermore viewing local flash files using the Opera Flash Plug-in.
Compatibility File Associate can be installed and executed on all smartphones running on Symbian 9.x with UIQ 3.x. The ability to change file type associations is available on SonyEricsson phones.
Installation The distribution package can be installed directly by using the PC install program, or after uploading the .sis file to the phone. Refer to your phone's User Guide for details on installing. After installation restarting the phone is necessary for recognizing newly declared data types. File Associate prompts to restart the phone when it is running for the first time.
Common terms Understanding the following terms is necessary for successfully using File Associate: Data type: An attribute of any file that serves to characterize the data contained in the file. Also known as file type or MIME type. Viewer: An application which is suitable to display (or otherwise process) the contents of files representing the data type(s) that the viewer supports. Viewers can normally only be started by issuing the Open command from a file manager. Association: The binding between a data type and a viewer. Recognizer: A program that analyzes file contents and assigns a data type. Various specific recognizers present on the phone contribute to determining the file type and deciding which one of the installed viewers is the most appropriate one to display the file's contents.
Components File Associate provides the following components upon installation: File Associate: Application that displays existing associations between data types and viewers, and allows changing the associations. Generic viewer: Viewer application that supports viewing various data types, including ZIP, flash, text, and binary. Recognizer: Internal component for declaring various file types (compressed, flash, binary), to facilitate displaying them by Generic viewer.
Data types view - Basic When File Associate is first started up it displays its Basic view that contains a list of the most frequently encountered data type categories, along with their assigned viewers. A row in the list corresponds to the association between a type category and its assigned viewer. Columns in the data type list are the following: Data type icon: Represents the data type. Data type name: Common name for the data type. Viewer icon: The application icon for the viewer currently associated with the data type. The data types displayed in Basic view are combined types that may contain several true data types. To view the associations of individual data types switch to Advanced view using the Main menu. In Basic view the appearance is fixed, and the Settings command is not available.
Data types view - Advanced When Advanced view is selected in the Main menu, individual data types are displayed in the association list, and the Settings dialog comes up to fine-tune the appearance. A row in the list corresponds to the association between a data type and its assigned viewer. Data type names consist of two parts: type and subtype, separated by a slash character. Types are larger categories, like audio, image, text, application, etc.. Subtypes specify the concrete data type within the type. Display features, like inclusion of specific types, name details, and sorting can be changed using the Settings command.
Association view The Association view displays details about the selected association. The view can be accessed by double-clicking on an association, or by issuing the View command. The upper part of the view shows the data type and subtype name. In Basic view the file types (extensions) that belong to the combined type group are shown in place of the subtype. The bottom part of the view shows characteristics for the viewer application that is associated with the data type.
Changing associations To change the viewer for the selected data type, issue the Change command, which is available in both views. The Viewer selection dialog comes up, which list applications that can be chosen as a viewer. Using the Include selector various ranges of application can be listed: Related viewers: Viewers that are likely to be able to display the data type. All viewers: Applications present on the phone that are likely to be viewers. Note that some listed programs may not be true viewers, and surely not all of them can be successfully used to display a certain data type. Applications: All installed applications, most of which will not display the data type. To associate a viewer with the selected data type, click on the required item in the application list. To retain the current viewer, cancel the dialog. Important: While File Associate allows you to associate any application with any data type, it entirely depends on the application whether it is able to act as a viewer, that is to properly display a file. When you assigned the wrong viewer, use the Restore command to revert back to a default viewer.
Commands Commands assigned to menu items, softkeys, and the button-bar are the following: Change: Assign a viewer to the selected data type. View: Display the Association view for the selected data type. Refresh: Reload the data type list. This is useful for updating the list when associations might have changed, like when uninstalling a viewer. Restore: Revert the file type association back to the default viewer, as determined by recognizers present in the system. Restore all: Restore the association for all displayed data types. Advanced mode: Switch between Advanced and Basic view modes. Settings: Invoke the Settings dialog to set options.
Settings The List page of the Settings dialog lets you fine tune the appearance and contents of the data type list. Include: Select the range of data types that you want displayed. The Common types option refers to combined groups of types as shown in the Basic view. Display: Select what detail you want displayed as the name of the data type. Sort by: Select the sorting order of data types. Confirmations: Check the option if you want to have a prompt before changing or restoring an association. The Viewer page of the Settings dialog provides options for the Generic viewer application (see further below).
Viewing files File managers generally provide an Open command to further process a selected file. Depending on the kind of file, processing can involve displaying, manipulating, or otherwise using the file. A file manager can also display for each file an icon that symbolizes its type and lets you have an idea about what will happen when you open it. All this is based on associations between data types and the so-called viewer applications that eventually open the file. File Associate lets you manipulate the above-mentioned associations. The changes you make will reflect the display and behavior of file managers. Changes include the icon shown for files, and the action performed upon the Open command. The screenshots below illustrate how the display of file managers may change upon installing File Associate, using the built-in File Manager (left) and Swiss Manager Pro (right) as examples. Several files have the icon of Generic viewer, which will be started when opening the file.

Generic viewer Generic viewer is a viewer application installed together with File Associate. The viewer supports displaying various file types, like text, binary, compressed (ZIP), and flash. The use of Generic viewer requires that it is associated with a certain data type, and that you open a file comprising that data type from a file manager program. Depending on the data type and current settings, the viewer either displays the file, or passes it to another program for displaying. Flash files are always passed to the built-in Web application. The Web application can successfully display the file only if the Opera Flash Plug-in is installed on the phone. Binary and compressed (ZIP) files are always displayed using Generic viewer. Text and some web-related files can optionally be passed to the built-in Web application. The screenshots below illustrate viewing a text file (left) and a ZIP file (right) using Generic viewer.

Viewer commands The following commands are available in Generic viewer as items in the Main menu, softkeys, and the button-bar: Info: Display detailed information about the file, like name, path, data type, size, and modification time. Send: Send the file via Bluetooth, Email, etc.. Save: Save the file at a different location. View with Web: Pass the current text file for displaying by the built-in Web application. Wrap text: Toggle wrapping the display for a text file with long lines. Zoom: Set the font size for displaying text files. View: View a file contained within a compressed file. Extract: Extract and save a file contained within a compressed file. Settings: Invoke the Settings dialog (see below). The screenshots below illustrate commands available in the Main menu (left) and the File information dialog (right), presented upon the Info command.

Viewer settings The provided options let you choose which file types are automatically passed to the built-in Web application for display. When the option is enabled, then Generic viewer will only act as a "mediator" in forwarding the respective file type to the Web application. Note that the forwarding feature is always in effect for flash (.swf) files. Text: Enable passing plain text files to the Web application. HTML: Enable passing web-related files, like HTML and XML, to the Web application.
We at CellPhoneSoft hope you enjoy using File Associate, and find it useful in making your smartphone a more pleasant experience. Thank you for using our product!