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Vince - Easily set internet protocol helper applications Pick of the Week
Vince iconThe macosxhints Rating:
9 of 10
[Score: 9 out of 10]
Vince is a very simple little application that does one thing, but does that one thing very well. What is that one thing? Vince allows you to assign the OS X "protocol helpers." What does that mean in English? Assigning a protocol helper tells the operating system which application (for example, the Transmit FTP application) to use when a web browser encounters a given URL type (in this case, "ftp://").

In the current version of OS X, the only way to set these helpers is to use the Internet Explorer "Protocol Helpers" preference panel. As Vince's author writes on the product's info page:
... in order to configure something that is integral to the Mac OS you have to use *a web browser* that is built by Microsoft - If that doesn't seem wrong to you then you've already given your soul to Bill Gates.
Given the recent announcement of the end of new IE versions on the Mac, I expect that we'll soon (Panther?) see an Apple replacement for setting protocol helpers in OS X ... but until that time, Vince does the job perfectly. Once launched, you get a small pop-up menu listing all of the available protocols, along with a short description, an example URL, and the currently assigned helper application. To reassign a helper, just select the protocol from the pop-up menu, click the Change Helper button, and then find the new helper application. Very simple, very easy to understand, and free of the reliance on a web browser as the configuration tool.

The only reason I marked it down from a 10 is that, unlike the preferences panel in IE, there doesn't seem to be a way to easily add new URL types to the configuration panel. Perhaps I'm overlooking something obvious, but there's no help file available to see if I'm just being dense :-).
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  • Currently 2.00 / 5
  You rated: 1 / 5 (8 votes cast)
 
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Vince - Easily set internet protocol helper applications | 28 comments | Create New Account
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Vince - Easily set internet protocol helper applications
Authored by: mmmmark on Jul 17, '03 10:48:13AM

MoreInternet does the same thing and is a sytem preference panel.

http://www.monkeyfood.com/software/MoreInternet/



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2nd vote for More Internet
Authored by: saint.duo on Jul 17, '03 11:05:38AM

I've been using the pref pane more internet to do this for quite some time. One problem with the system is that if an application does not either have a creator code, or does not register with launch services, you cannot assign it as a helper for a URL (so no shell scripts and such).

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duo



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2nd vote for More Internet
Authored by: redfood on Jul 17, '03 03:13:40PM

If you remove the protocol and then add it again the Finder starts out as the default helper app.



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Vince has been superceeded by More Internet PrefPane
Authored by: triplef on Jul 18, '03 08:10:00AM
From the Vince website:
n.b. Vince has been superceeded by More Internet PrefPane

Not sure why rob prefers Vince over More Internet. I think More Internet is the better solution.

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Don't count on Panther
Authored by: diamondsw on Jul 17, '03 11:31:01AM

Heck, Panther TAKES AWAY setting the web and e-mail protocol helpers - a long way from providing an expanded interface.

I wonder if they're planning on dropping Internet Config (what all protocol helpers have been based on for a long time) and piping it through LaunchServices?



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Don't count on Panther
Authored by: saint.duo on Jul 17, '03 12:17:47PM

If memory serves, Launch Services is supposed to replace internet config. Internet config is there for legacy support. Soemone correct me if I'm wrong.

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duo



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Don't count on Panther
Authored by: mrbiiggy on Jul 18, '03 04:47:58AM

They're only moving it to a different location: inside of the app where probably more people would actually see it, and anyone who really wanted to switch away from whatever app it was would already know its there...



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Hooray!
Authored by: Diggory on Jul 17, '03 11:50:05AM
[self doLittleDance]

thanks for the review :)

I hope that Apple provides some built-in way of setting preferred helpers in Panther.

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Use MoreInternet Preference Pane to change Internet Helpers without IE

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Mirrors
Authored by: Diggory on Jul 17, '03 12:10:46PM
I'm hosted on ADSL - so if my server gets a bit slow there is a mirror on my .mac page: homepage.mac.com/diggorylaycock/FileSharing.html

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Use MoreInternet Preference Pane to change Internet Helpers without IE

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Mirrors
Authored by: Nostromo1965 on Jul 17, '03 09:12:46PM

????

When I click this link I get a 404....



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Mirrors
Authored by: Diggory on Jul 18, '03 05:43:32AM
Corrected Address (including http://)

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Use MoreInternet Preference Pane to change Internet Helpers without IE

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Vince - Easily set internet protocol helper applications
Authored by: liquidgood on Jul 17, '03 01:53:58PM

Yep, the pref pane seems like a better choice; it lets you add and remove easily.

But, I have a problem. I can't add X-Chat Aqua as the app for IRC; it tells me that it has no creator code. It seems that this is an OS X behavior, judging from the actual pref files.

Anyone know a way around this?



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XHintsChat - irc helper
Authored by: saint.duo on Jul 17, '03 02:37:59PM

Ask the developer to add it? ;)

You're right, XHintsChat doesn't have a creator code, but it does have a bundle identifier. I'll look and see how hard it would be to add something to make it addable or hook into launch services.

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duo



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WHOOPS! wrong app
Authored by: saint.duo on Jul 17, '03 02:39:43PM

Sorry, i saw XChat Aqua and registered XHintschat mentally. Sorry about that.

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duo



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There's also MisFox
Authored by: theNonsuch on Jul 17, '03 05:51:52PM
Don't forget MisFox - it does what Vince does, and also allows you to add and edit file mappings, default applications, etc. The site I linked to is in German, but the application is in English. It's not that hard to use, if you understand how IE's filemappings and protocols preferences work.

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Vince - Easily set internet protocol helper applications
Authored by: outofcontrol on Jul 17, '03 08:51:22PM

I have not tried any other app than Vince, but what keeps me from looking is simply the icon. It gives me a good hoot everytime I use it. That's good enough for me... for now.

Plattapuss



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Vince = More Internet, same developer
Authored by: saint.duo on Jul 17, '03 11:30:40PM

"Vince has been superceeded by More Internet PrefPane"
This is on the vince product page, and More Internet is made by the same developer.

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duo



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heh...
Authored by: robg on Jul 18, '03 12:17:33PM

I'd been using Vince for so long I never even read the product page when posting the PotW :-).

Feel like a dunce now, though!

-rob.



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heh...
Authored by: Diggory on Jul 18, '03 07:07:45PM
Don't - I changed it after you posted the hint - just to make it totally obvious. ;)

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Use MoreInternet Preference Pane to change Internet Helpers without IE

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Vince - Easily set internet protocol helper applications
Authored by: bluehz on Jul 18, '03 10:51:11AM

MoreInternet is definitely teh way to go. Its all still a big mystery as to why some things work and some do not. For instance why is it that .pls files (like for streaming radio stations) are downloaded and associated with iTunes - but they never launch iTunes after d/l. So you have to click the link on a web page, then find the downloaded .pls, double-click that to open it in iTunes. Try it here: http://somafm.com/

Also - I have never seen MisFox - but it looks pretty good. Tried it out and it has some issues. Like in some case you can choose applications in the dialogs, but they don't stick. Never get written out to prefs.



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iTunes auto-play .pls
Authored by: sylvank on Jul 18, '03 02:38:51PM
To make iTunes autoplay .pls files:

  • Open Safari preferences
  • Under "General", click "Open 'safe' files after downloading".

If anyone knows how to specify what are "safe" files or not... :-)

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"safe" files for Safari
Authored by: sjk on Jul 20, '03 10:19:53PM

Seems like EyeTV would automatically load TitanTV .tvpi and .tvvi files if Safari's "safe" file list could be modified to recognize them.



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Vince - Easily set internet protocol helper applications
Authored by: bluehz on Jul 20, '03 08:36:56AM

A major problem I have has to do with Flash Standalone projectors. I develop a lot of Flash Standalone Application projectors for clients. These application all have the same type/creator as the stock standalone Flash Player which I use frequently to view swf files (not projectors. The projectors are basically the Flash Player with an SWF file embedded. What annoys me is that whenever I double-click on an SWF (Flash document) to open it in the Flash Player - it always launched the last projector I launched. No matter how many times I tell the Finder to ALWAYS use the Flash Player, it forgets. Its actually not forgetting - its really more a problem with Macromedia allowing the Projectors to have the same type/creator as the Flash Player itself. It is extremely annoying!!!

I don't suppose anyone has a solution for this do they?



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Solution for OS 9
Authored by: VRic on Jul 20, '03 12:22:35PM

I don't know for OS X, but the incredible Default App does exactly what you want: drag files to the left pane, drag apps to the right pane, choose a pair in those lists and Boom®, any file with that creator/type will open in the app you specified. No changing the file's creator code, no extension, no control panel, no reboot, nothing, it's magic.

http://www.merzwaren.com/da/index.html



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hmm, maybe not
Authored by: VRic on Jul 21, '03 10:10:46AM

Now that I think of it, Default App might not solve your kind of problem since it probably relies on the apps creator codes.

So I guess the solution is the same as for OSX: change the projectors' creator codes.

Under OS 9 another (tedious) approach would be to "hide" each projector from the desktop DB. This can be done using AppHider or DesktopDBDiver.
http://www.acts.org/roland/thanks/
http://www.tempel.org/macdev/



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Semi-solution for OS X
Authored by: VRic on Jul 20, '03 12:53:17PM

I doubt there is something as good as Default App for OS X, but you could at least save yourself trouble by changing every projectors' creator codes (of course patching Flash once and for all would be better, maybe it's possible somehow).

Just try not to steal the creator code from an existing application (checking your disks might prove insufficient since you distribute the projectors to others), or maybe steal one from a very old, very dead application that doesn't even create files to open, like some unknown game from the 68k era.

The best tool for that is FileTyper (OS 9, might work within Classic): will effortlessly build small droplets that can perform such modifications automatically, even on whole folders or disks by filtering affected files based on any possible attribute, from type code to mod date or name.

http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~dazuma/filetyper/

The cheaper way would be to write an AppleScript droplet for existing projectors and attach a similar folder action script to the location where you save projector files.



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Vince - Easily set internet protocol helper applications
Authored by: osxpounder on Jul 22, '03 03:33:35PM

Aha, finally someone else has seen this. I never got as far as you did towards figuring out what was causing it--I just put up with the fact that, every time I launched an SWF I was working on, a certain SWF I had made in the past would open, too, behind the one I actually wanted to see.

It eventually went away--I guess I created a Projector from that old SWF, and later, when I had backed-up and then removed the files for that project, the Flash Player must have skipped it. I don't remember how I fixed it, but that same thing was happening to me for quite a while.

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osxpounder



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Vince - Easily set internet protocol helper applications
Authored by: magnamous on Feb 27, '09 05:27:44PM