Over the years, Microsoft has been roundly criticized for implementing a centralized registry, which (among many other things) controls which applications the OS uses to handle various content types. For example, this causes problems when application installations alter the registry to make themselves the default content handler. Automatically associating content types with applications has also led to the current problems with worms and viruses attached to emails with some executable file type. Now JSR 211 seems headed in the same direction. So--do you think it's a good idea to have a centralized registry for content handlers, and do you think that creating one will lead to applications contending to be the default handler or to problems similar to those Windows has faced? Let us know in the Wireless discussion forum on DevX.
Map J2ME Applications to Content Types with JSR-211 (CHAPI)
If you've been frustrated when trying to write J2ME apps that communicate with other applications, help is at hand. This brand new J2ME API improves the way mobile devices handle content.
by Herval Freire
September 15, 2004
n July, the Java Community Process released JSR 211, the Content Handler API (also known as CHAPI), for public review. The release counts as one of the most useful and innovative new APIs for J2ME development. In short, the API defines a communication model between applications (either Java/J2ME or native applications), by letting developers specify MIDlets as the content handlers for one or more specific file types.
One of the greatest limitations in writing applications for the current J2ME platform lies in intercommunication with other applications. Except for some very limited mechanisms (such as the platformConnection method introduced with MIDP 2.0), Java applications have no way to exchange data with other applications. Faced with the need to communicate with other processes, the "sandbox" concept—a good thing when it comes to security in mobile applications—suddenly becomes a major flaw.
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n July, the Java Community Process released JSR 211, the Content Handler API (also known as CHAPI), for 
