I spent a little time today trying to get Spotlight to import Tinderbox files correctly. I was initially having problems and knew the latest Tinderbox (2.5) was supposed to be Spotlightable. So what do we know about Tinderbox files?

$ mdls Tinderbox\ release\ notes

Tinderbox release notes -------------

kMDItemAttributeChangeDate = 2005-06-30 11:20:26 -0400

kMDItemContentCreationDate = 2002-03-08 14:21:13 -0500

kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2005-06-27 13:49:50 -0400

kMDItemContentType = "dyn.ah62d4rv4gk8yg3pwqy"

kMDItemContentTypeTree = ("public.data", "public.item")

kMDItemDisplayName = "Tinderbox release notes"

kMDItemFSContentChangeDate = 2005-06-27 13:49:50 -0400

kMDItemFSCreationDate = 2002-03-08 14:21:13 -0500

kMDItemFSCreatorCode = 1130721893

kMDItemFSFinderFlags = 16

kMDItemFSInvisible = 0

kMDItemFSLabel = 0

kMDItemFSName = "Tinderbox release notes"

kMDItemFSNodeCount = 0

kMDItemFSOwnerGroupID = 80

kMDItemFSOwnerUserID = 501

kMDItemFSSize = 646376

kMDItemFSTypeCode = 1130721893

kMDItemID = 2251793

kMDItemKind = "Tinderbox document"

kMDItemLastUsedDate = 2005-06-30 11:19:26 -0400

kMDItemUsedDates = (2005-06-30 11:19:26 -0400, 2005-06-29 20:00:00 -0400)

The important bits for our purpose are the kMDItemContentType and kMDItemContentTypeTree. These are set by the Spotlight importer and are what Spotlight "knows" about the filetype. Here the Tinderbox Release Notes is treated as just plain data and not indexed.

$ mdimport -d1 Tinderbox\ release\ notes

2005-07-01 16:46:21.470 mdimport[13845] Import '/Applications/Productivity/Tinderbox 2.5/Tinderbox release notes' type 'dyn.ah62d4rv4gk8yg3pwqy' no mdimporter

Now, I have a choice -- I can either let Spotlight not index the file, or I can finesse the RichText.mdimporter to handle this type. We'll ignore this for now.

So let's look at another Tinderbox. The original box for this web site was called RoboTHOR. I'd never added a file extension, since I hadn't needed it previously, but obviously raw Tinderboxes don't work ideally. What if I renamed it to RoboTHOR.xml ?

$ mdls RoboTHOR.xml

RoboTHOR.xml -------------

kMDItemAttributeChangeDate = 2005-07-01 16:28:00 -0400

kMDItemContentCreationDate = 2005-04-19 18:48:33 -0400

kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2005-07-01 14:39:31 -0400

kMDItemContentType = "public.xml"

kMDItemContentTypeTree = ("public.xml", "public.text", "public.data", "public.item", "public.content")

kMDItemDisplayName = "RoboTHOR"

...

Certainly better. Now mdimport's output will be a little more pleasant:

$ mdimport -d1 RoboTHOR.xml

2005-07-01 16:48:24.961 mdimport[13852] Import '/Users/mtlong/Sites/robothor/RoboTHOR.xml' type 'public.xml' using 'file://localhost/System/Library/Spotlight/ RichText.mdimporter/'

So now the final test. What about .tbx, the normal extension for Tinderbox documents?

$ mdls RoboTHOR.tbx

RoboTHOR.tbx -------------

kMDItemAttributeChangeDate = 2005-07-01 16:50:00 -0400

kMDItemContentCreationDate = 2005-04-19 18:48:33 -0400

kMDItemContentModificationDate = 2005-07-01 16:33:18 -0400

kMDItemContentType = "com.testgate.tinderbox"

kMDItemContentTypeTree = (

"com.testgate.tinderbox",

"public.xml",

"public.text",

"public.data",

"public.item",

"public.content"

)

...

But now we have stopped getting love from mdimport:

$ mdimport -d1 RoboTHOR.tbx

2005-07-01 16:50:48.586 mdimport[13872] Import '/Users/mtlong/Sites/robothor/RoboTHOR.tbx' type 'com.testgate.tinderbox' no mdimporter

Spotlight will no longer import this file, even though it still knows that it is XML. But there is a solution. We can modify the /System/Library/Spotlight/ RichText.mdimporter/Contents/Info.plist and alter the LSItemContentTypes array as follows:

<key>LSItemContentTypes</key>

<array>

<string>public.rtf</string>

<string>public.html</string>

<string>public.xml</string>

<string>public.plain-text</string>

<string>com.apple.traditional-mac-plain-text</string>

<string>com.apple.rtfd</string>

<string>com.apple.webarchive</string>

<string>com.testgate.tinderbox</string>

<string>dyn.ah62d4rv4gk8yg3pwqy</string>

</array>

We simply added com.testgate.tinderbox and dyn.ah62d4rv4gk8yg3pwqy. Now mdimport

$ mdimport -d2 RoboTHOR.tbx

2005-07-01 16:09:53.020 mdimport[13591] Import '/Users/mtlong/Sites/robothor/RoboTHOR.tbx' type 'com.testgate.tinderbox' using 'file://localhost/System/Library/Spotlight/ RichText.mdimporter/'

$ mdimport -d1 Tinderbox\ release\ notes

2005-07-01 17:35:27.905 mdimport[13901] Import '/Applications/Productivity/Tinderbox 2.5/Tinderbox release notes' type 'dyn.ah62d4rv4gk8yg3pwqy' using 'file://localhost/System/Library/Spotlight/ RichText.mdimporter/'

Now were sitting fat dumb and happy.