Checking MIME Type from a base64 string

Question

I've written the following extension to determine the MIME type of a base64 string. It's worked in my local tests, but can anyone point out issues or alternate methods?

public static AttachmentType GetMimeType(this string value)
{
    if(String.IsNullOrEmpty(value))
        return new AttachmentType
                {
                    FriendlyName = "Unknown",
                    MimeType = "application/octet-stream",
                    Extension = ""
                };

    var data = value.Substring(0,5);

    switch (data.ToUpper())
    {
        case "IVBOR":
        case "/9J/4":
            return new AttachmentType
                {
                    FriendlyName = "Photo",
                    MimeType = "image/png",
                    Extension = ".png"
                };

        case "AAAAF":
            return new AttachmentType
                {
                    FriendlyName = "Video",
                    MimeType = "video/mp4",
                    Extension = ".mp4"
                };
        case "JVBER":
            return new AttachmentType
                {
                    FriendlyName = "Document",
                    MimeType = "application/pdf",
                    Extension = ".pdf"
                };

        default:
            return new AttachmentType
                {
                    FriendlyName = "Unknown",
                    MimeType = string.Empty,
                    Extension = ""
                };
    }
}

public class AttachmentType
{
    public string MimeType { get; set; }
    public string FriendlyName { get; set; }
    public string Extension { get; set; }
}

Answer 1

Your attachment types look like static data to me, so I'd personally make AttachmentType an immutable class and define your common bits as static members. I also like making things like this implement an interface for ease of mocking during unit testing. So I have this:

public interface IAttachmentType
{
    string MimeType
    {
        get;
    }

    string FriendlyName
    {
        get;
    }

    string Extension
    {
        get;
    }
}

public sealed class AttachmentType : IAttachmentType
{
    // Possibly make this private if you only use the static predefined MIME types.
    public AttachmentType(string mimeType, string friendlyName, string extension)
    {
        this.MimeType = mimeType;
        this.FriendlyName = friendlyName;
        this.Extension = extension;
    }

    public static IAttachmentType UnknownMime { get; } = new AttachmentType("application/octet-stream", "Unknown", string.Empty);

    public static IAttachmentType Photo { get; } = new AttachmentType("image/png", "Photo", ".png");

    public static IAttachmentType Video { get; } = new AttachmentType("video/mp4", "Video", ".mp4");

    public static IAttachmentType Document { get; } = new AttachmentType("application/pdf", "Document", ".pdf");

    public static IAttachmentType Unknown { get; } = new AttachmentType(string.Empty, "Unknown", string.Empty);

    public string MimeType { get; }

    public string FriendlyName { get; }

    public string Extension { get; }
}

Then, to avoid a big long switch, I put those into a Dictionary<T,U> as such (note the case-insensitive specification, which will remove the ToUpper() later). You can add MIME types with your detection string as needed:

    private static readonly IDictionary<string, IAttachmentType> mimeMap =
        new Dictionary<string, IAttachmentType>(StringComparer.OrdinalIgnoreCase)
        {
            { "IVBOR", AttachmentType.Photo },
            { "/9J/4", AttachmentType.Photo },
            { "AAAAF", AttachmentType.Video },
            { "JVBER", AttachmentType.Document }
        };

Your calling code then simplifies to:

    public static IAttachmentType GetMimeType(this string value) => string.IsNullOrEmpty(value)
        ? AttachmentType.UnknownMime
        : (mimeMap.TryGetValue(value.Substring(0, 5), out IAttachmentType result) ? result : AttachmentType.Unknown);

Answer 2

Your switch is wrong: "/9J/4" is for JPG images, not PNG (e.g. as shown in these examples).