.xhtml MIME type
XHTML documenttext & code
application/xhtml+xmlHTML written as XML. Only this type makes the browser use its strict XML parser.
| MIME type | application/xhtml+xml |
|---|---|
| Extensions | .xhtml |
| Content-Type | application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8 |
| Compress in transit? | Yes — enable gzip or Brotli |
Good to know
- Served as
text/html, an XHTML file is parsed as ordinary HTML — the XML declaration and namespace are ignored. - Served as
application/xhtml+xml, a single well-formedness error (an unclosed tag, a stray&) stops rendering and shows an XML parsing error instead of the page. - EPUB books are built from XHTML content documents.
Serve .xhtml files with the right type
The response header to send:
Content-Type: application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8
Most servers pick the type from the file extension. If yours sends the wrong one, map it explicitly:
nginx (inside the types block in mime.types)
application/xhtml+xml xhtml;
Apache (.htaccess or server config)
AddType application/xhtml+xml .xhtml
Express
res.set("Content-Type", "application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8");Python
import mimetypes
mimetypes.add_type("application/xhtml+xml", ".xhtml")HTML file input
<input type="file" accept=".xhtml,application/xhtml+xml">
Check it
See what a server sends for a file, and what type a local file really is by its contents:
curl -sI https://example.com/file.xhtml | grep -i '^content-type:' file --mime-type file.xhtml
Frequently asked questions
What is the MIME type for .xhtml files?
application/xhtml+xml.
What Content-Type header should a .xhtml file be served with?
Content-Type: application/xhtml+xml; charset=utf-8. As a text format, include the charset so browsers don't guess the encoding. It compresses well, so let the server apply gzip or Brotli.
Related types
Headers that go with it: Content-Type · Content-Disposition · X-Content-Type-Options