Email::MIME(3)                                 User Contributed Perl Documentation                                Email::MIME(3)



NAME
       Email::MIME - Easy MIME message parsing.

VERSION
       version 1.863

SYNOPSIS
         use Email::MIME;
         my $parsed = Email::MIME->new($message);

         my @parts = $parsed->parts; # These will be Email::MIME objects, too.
         my $decoded = $parsed->body;
         my $non_decoded = $parsed->body_raw;

         my $content_type = $parsed->content_type;

DESCRIPTION
       This is an extension of the Email::Simple module, to handle MIME encoded messages. It takes a message as a string, splits
       it up into its constituent parts, and allows you access to various parts of the message. Headers are decoded from MIME
       encoding.

NOTE
       This is an alpha release, designed to stimulate discussion on the API, which may change in future releases. Please send
       me comments about any features you think "Email::MIME" should have. Note that I expect most things to be driven by
       subclassing and mix-ins.

METHODS
       Please see Email::Simple for the base set of methods. It won't take very long. Added to that, you have:

   parts
       This returns a list of "Email::MIME" objects reflecting the parts of the message. If it's a single-part message, you get
       the original object back.

       In scalar context, this method returns the number of parts.

   subparts
       This returns a list of "Email::MIME" objects reflecting the parts of the message.  If it's a single-part message, this
       method returns an empty list.

       In scalar context, this method returns the number of subparts.

   body
       This decodes and returns the body of the object. For top-level objects in multi-part messages, this is highly likely to
       be something like "This is a multi-part message in MIME format."

   body_raw
       This returns the body of the object, but doesn't decode the transfer encoding.

   decode_hook
       This method is called before the Email::MIME::Encodings "decode" method, to decode the body of non-binary messages (or
       binary messages, if the "force_decode_hook" method returns true).  By default, this method does nothing, but subclasses
       may define behavior.

       This method could be used to implement the decryption of content in secure email, for example.

   content_type
       This is a shortcut for access to the content type header.

   filename
       This provides the suggested filename for the attachment part. Normally it will return the filename from the headers, but
       if "filename" is passed a true parameter, it will generate an appropriate "stable" filename if one is not found in the
       MIME headers.

   invent_filename
         my $filename = Email::MIME->invent_filename($content_type);

       This routine is used by "filename" to generate filenames for attached files.  It will attempt to choose a reasonable
       extension, falling back to dat.

   debug_structure
         my $description = $email->debug_structure;

       This method returns a string that describes the structure of the MIME entity.  For example:

         + multipart/alternative; boundary="=_NextPart_2"; charset="BIG-5"
           + text/plain
           + text/html

TODO
       All of the Email::MIME-specific guts should move to a single entry on the object's guts.  This will require changes to
       both Email::MIME and Email::MIME::Modifier, sadly.

SEE ALSO
       Email::Simple, Email::MIME::Modifier, Email::MIME::Creator.

PERL EMAIL PROJECT
       This module is maintained by the Perl Email Project

       <http://emailproject.perl.org/wiki/Email::MIME>

AUTHOR
       Casey West, "caseyATgeeknest.com"

       Simon Cozens, "simonATcpan.org" (retired)

       This software is copyright (c) 2004 by Simon Cozens.

       This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as perl itself.

THANKS
       This module was generously sponsored by Best Practical (http://www.bestpractical.com/) and Pete Sergeant.



perl v5.12.0                                               2009-01-30                                             Email::MIME(3)