diff options
author | Barry Warsaw <barry@python.org> | 2002-10-01 01:05:52 (GMT) |
---|---|---|
committer | Barry Warsaw <barry@python.org> | 2002-10-01 01:05:52 (GMT) |
commit | 5b9da893d3590106398afed0383bc06738d8c095 (patch) | |
tree | 0944fd3c84ae880eff51cbb1afdbffacdd03939b /Doc/lib/emailmimebase.tex | |
parent | 2d7fab1a4519df3e13c87c5b6c2a06bd48525227 (diff) | |
download | cpython-5b9da893d3590106398afed0383bc06738d8c095.zip cpython-5b9da893d3590106398afed0383bc06738d8c095.tar.gz cpython-5b9da893d3590106398afed0383bc06738d8c095.tar.bz2 |
Vast update to email version 2. This could surely use proofreading.
Diffstat (limited to 'Doc/lib/emailmimebase.tex')
-rw-r--r-- | Doc/lib/emailmimebase.tex | 159 |
1 files changed, 159 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/lib/emailmimebase.tex b/Doc/lib/emailmimebase.tex new file mode 100644 index 0000000..97c3eda --- /dev/null +++ b/Doc/lib/emailmimebase.tex @@ -0,0 +1,159 @@ +Ordinarily, you get a message object structure by passing a file or +some text to a parser, which parses the text and returns the root of +the message object structure. However you can also build a complete +object structure from scratch, or even individual \class{Message} +objects by hand. In fact, you can also take an existing structure and +add new \class{Message} objects, move them around, etc. This makes a +very convenient interface for slicing-and-dicing MIME messages. + +You can create a new object structure by creating \class{Message} +instances, adding attachments and all the appropriate headers manually. +For MIME messages though, the \module{email} package provides some +convenient subclasses to make things easier. Each of these classes +should be imported from a module with the same name as the class, from +within the \module{email} package. E.g.: + +\begin{verbatim} +import email.MIMEImage.MIMEImage +\end{verbatim} + +or + +\begin{verbatim} +from email.MIMEText import MIMEText +\end{verbatim} + +Here are the classes: + +\begin{classdesc}{MIMEBase}{_maintype, _subtype, **_params} +This is the base class for all the MIME-specific subclasses of +\class{Message}. Ordinarily you won't create instances specifically +of \class{MIMEBase}, although you could. \class{MIMEBase} is provided +primarily as a convenient base class for more specific MIME-aware +subclasses. + +\var{_maintype} is the \mailheader{Content-Type} major type +(e.g. \mimetype{text} or \mimetype{image}), and \var{_subtype} is the +\mailheader{Content-Type} minor type +(e.g. \mimetype{plain} or \mimetype{gif}). \var{_params} is a parameter +key/value dictionary and is passed directly to +\method{Message.add_header()}. + +The \class{MIMEBase} class always adds a \mailheader{Content-Type} header +(based on \var{_maintype}, \var{_subtype}, and \var{_params}), and a +\mailheader{MIME-Version} header (always set to \code{1.0}). +\end{classdesc} + +\begin{classdesc}{MIMENonMultipart}{} +A subclass of \class{MIMEBase}, this is an intermediate base class for +MIME messages that are not \mimetype{multipart}. The primary purpose +of this class is to prevent the use of the \method{attach()} method, +which only makes sense for \mimetype{multipart} messages. If +\method{attach()} is called, a \exception{MultipartConversionError} +exception is raised. + +\versionadded{2.2.2} +\end{classdesc} + +\begin{classdesc}{MIMEMultipart}{\optional{subtype\optional{, + boundary\optional{, _subparts\optional{, _params}}}}} + +A subclass of \class{MIMEBase}, this is an intermediate base class for +MIME messages that are \mimetype{multipart}. Optional \var{_subtype} +defaults to \mimetype{mixed}, but can be used to specify the subtype +of the message. A \mailheader{Content-Type} header of +\mimetype{multipart/}\var{_subtype} will be added to the message +object. A \mailheader{MIME-Version} header will also be added. + +Optional \var{boundary} is the multipart boundary string. When +\code{None} (the default), the boundary is calculated when needed. + +\var{_subparts} is a sequence of initial subparts for the payload. It +must be possible to convert this sequence to a list. You can always +attach new subparts to the message by using the +\method{Message.attach()} method. + +Additional parameters for the \mailheader{Content-Type} header are +taken from the keyword arguments, or passed into the \var{_params} +argument, which is a keyword dictionary. + +\versionadded{2.2.2} +\end{classdesc} + +\begin{classdesc}{MIMEAudio}{_audiodata\optional{, _subtype\optional{, + _encoder\optional{, **_params}}}} + +A subclass of \class{MIMENonMultipart}, the \class{MIMEAudio} class +is used to create MIME message objects of major type \mimetype{audio}. +\var{_audiodata} is a string containing the raw audio data. If this +data can be decoded by the standard Python module \refmodule{sndhdr}, +then the subtype will be automatically included in the +\mailheader{Content-Type} header. Otherwise you can explicitly specify the +audio subtype via the \var{_subtype} parameter. If the minor type could +not be guessed and \var{_subtype} was not given, then \exception{TypeError} +is raised. + +Optional \var{_encoder} is a callable (i.e. function) which will +perform the actual encoding of the audio data for transport. This +callable takes one argument, which is the \class{MIMEAudio} instance. +It should use \method{get_payload()} and \method{set_payload()} to +change the payload to encoded form. It should also add any +\mailheader{Content-Transfer-Encoding} or other headers to the message +object as necessary. The default encoding is \emph{Base64}. See the +\refmodule{email.Encoders} module for a list of the built-in encoders. + +\var{_params} are passed straight through to the base class constructor. +\end{classdesc} + +\begin{classdesc}{MIMEImage}{_imagedata\optional{, _subtype\optional{, + _encoder\optional{, **_params}}}} + +A subclass of \class{MIMENonMultipart}, the \class{MIMEImage} class is +used to create MIME message objects of major type \mimetype{image}. +\var{_imagedata} is a string containing the raw image data. If this +data can be decoded by the standard Python module \refmodule{imghdr}, +then the subtype will be automatically included in the +\mailheader{Content-Type} header. Otherwise you can explicitly specify the +image subtype via the \var{_subtype} parameter. If the minor type could +not be guessed and \var{_subtype} was not given, then \exception{TypeError} +is raised. + +Optional \var{_encoder} is a callable (i.e. function) which will +perform the actual encoding of the image data for transport. This +callable takes one argument, which is the \class{MIMEImage} instance. +It should use \method{get_payload()} and \method{set_payload()} to +change the payload to encoded form. It should also add any +\mailheader{Content-Transfer-Encoding} or other headers to the message +object as necessary. The default encoding is \emph{Base64}. See the +\refmodule{email.Encoders} module for a list of the built-in encoders. + +\var{_params} are passed straight through to the \class{MIMEBase} +constructor. +\end{classdesc} + +\begin{classdesc}{MIMEMessage}{_msg\optional{, _subtype}} +A subclass of \class{MIMENonMultipart}, the \class{MIMEMessage} class +is used to create MIME objects of main type \mimetype{message}. +\var{_msg} is used as the payload, and must be an instance of class +\class{Message} (or a subclass thereof), otherwise a +\exception{TypeError} is raised. + +Optional \var{_subtype} sets the subtype of the message; it defaults +to \mimetype{rfc822}. +\end{classdesc} + +\begin{classdesc}{MIMEText}{_text\optional{, _subtype\optional{, + _charset\optional{, _encoder}}}} + +A subclass of \class{MIMENonMultipart}, the \class{MIMEText} class is +used to create MIME objects of major type \mimetype{text}. +\var{_text} is the string for the payload. \var{_subtype} is the +minor type and defaults to \mimetype{plain}. \var{_charset} is the +character set of the text and is passed as a parameter to the +\class{MIMENonMultipart} constructor; it defaults to \code{us-ascii}. No +guessing or encoding is performed on the text data, but a newline is +appended to \var{_text} if it doesn't already end with a newline. + +\deprecated{2.2.2}{The \var{_encoding} argument has been deprecated. +Encoding now happens implicitly based on the \var{_charset} argument.} +\end{classdesc} |