NAME

Email::Abstract - unified interface to mail representations

VERSION

version 3.009

SYNOPSIS

  my $message = Mail::Message->read($rfc822)
             || Email::Simple->new($rfc822)
             || Mail::Internet->new([split /\n/, $rfc822])
             || ...
             || $rfc822;

  my $email = Email::Abstract->new($message);

  my $subject = $email->get_header("Subject");
  $email->set_header(Subject => "My new subject");

  my $body = $email->get_body;

  $rfc822 = $email->as_string;

  my $mail_message = $email->cast("Mail::Message");

DESCRIPTION

"Email::Abstract" provides module writers with the ability to write simple, representation-independent mail handling code. For instance, in the cases of "Mail::Thread" or "Mail::ListDetector", a key part of the code involves reading the headers from a mail object. Where previously one would either have to specify the mail class required, or to build a new object from scratch, "Email::Abstract" can be used to perform certain simple operations on an object regardless of its underlying representation.

"Email::Abstract" currently supports "Mail::Internet", "MIME::Entity", "Mail::Message", "Email::Simple", "Email::MIME", and "Courriel". Other representations are encouraged to create their own "Email::Abstract::*" class by copying "Email::Abstract::EmailSimple". All modules installed under the "Email::Abstract" hierarchy will be automatically picked up and used.

PERL VERSION SUPPORT

This module has a long-term perl support period. That means it will not require a version of perl released fewer than five years ago.

Although it may work on older versions of perl, no guarantee is made that the minimum required version will not be increased. The version may be increased for any reason, and there is no promise that patches will be accepted to lower the minimum required perl.

METHODS

All of these methods may be called either as object methods or as class methods. When called as class methods, the email object (of any class supported by Email::Abstract) must be prepended to the list of arguments, like so:

  my $return = Email::Abstract->method($message, @args);

This is provided primarily for backwards compatibility.

new

  my $email = Email::Abstract->new($message);

Given a message, either as a string or as an object for which an adapter is installed, this method will return a Email::Abstract object wrapping the message.

If the message is given as a string, it will be used to construct an object, which will then be wrapped.

get_header

  my $header  = $email->get_header($header_name);

  my @headers = $email->get_header($header_name);

This returns the values for the given header. In scalar context, it returns the first value.

set_header

  $email->set_header($header => @values);

This sets the $header header to the given one or more values.

get_body

  my $body = $email->get_body;

This returns the body as a string.

set_body

  $email->set_body($string);

This changes the body of the email to the given string.

WARNING! You probably don't want to call this method, despite what you may think. Email message bodies are complicated, and rely on things like content type, encoding, and various MIME requirements. If you call "set_body" on a message more complicated than a single-part seven-bit plain-text message, you are likely to break something. If you need to do this sort of thing, you should probably use a specific message class from end to end.

This method is left in place for backwards compatibility.

as_string

  my $string = $email->as_string;

This returns the whole email as a decoded string.

cast

  my $mime_entity = $email->cast('MIME::Entity');

This method will convert a message from one message class to another. It will throw an exception if no adapter for the target class is known, or if the adapter does not provide a "construct" method.

object

  my $message = $email->object;

This method returns the message object wrapped by Email::Abstract. If called as a class method, it returns false.

Note that, because strings are converted to message objects before wrapping, this method will return an object when the Email::Abstract was constructed from a string.

AUTHORS

Ricardo SIGNES <rjbs@semiotic.systems>
Simon Cozens <simon@cpan.org>
Casey West <casey@geeknest.com>

CONTRIBUTORS

Dave Rolsky <autarch@urth.org>
Ricardo Signes <rjbs@cpan.org>
William Yardley <pep@veggiechinese.net>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.