/ 
Mail-Box-2.013
River stage one • 8 direct dependents • 8 total dependents
/ Mail::Box::Thread::Node

NAME

Mail::Box::Thread::Node - one node in a message thread

SYNOPSIS

my $node = Mail::Box::Thread::Node->new;
$node->addMessage($message);
...

DESCRIPTION

Read Mail::Box::Thread::Manager and Mail::Box-Overview first.

The Mail::Box::Thread::Node maintains one node in the linked list of threads. Each node contains one message, and a list of its follow-ups. Next to that, it refers to its own ancestor and contains information about the trustworthiness of that relationship.

To complicate things a little, because the thread-manager can mantain multiple folders, and merge there content, you may find the same message in more folders. All versions of the same message (based on message-id) are stored in the same node.

METHOD INDEX

The general methods for Mail::Box::Thread::Node objects:

addMessage MESSAGE                   messageId
endTimeEstimate                      new OPTIONS
expand [BOOL]                        numberOfMessages
followUps                            recurse CODE-REF
followedBy THREADS                   repliedTo
follows THREAD, QUALITY              sortedFollowUps [PREPARE [,...
ids                                  startTimeEstimate
isDummy                              threadMessages
message                              threadToString [CODE]

METHODS

new OPTIONS

You will not call this method yourself. The Mail::Box::Thread::Manager object will use it to construct Mail::Box::Thread::Node objects.

As OPTIONS, you can specify

  • message => OBJECT

    The message OBJECT-reference which is stored in this node. The message must be a Mail::Box::Message.

  • messageId => MESSAGE-ID

    The MESSAGE-ID for the mesesage which is stored in this node. Only specify it when you don't have the message yet.

  • dummy_type => CLASS

    Indicates the class name of dummy messages. Dummy messages are placeholders in a Mail::Box::Thread::Manager data structure, and by default of type Mail::Box::Message::Dummy.

message

Get the message which is stored in this thread node. NOTE: the same message may be located in many folders at the same time, and these folders may be controlled by the same thread manager.

In scalar context, this method returns the first instance of the message that is not deleted. If all instances are flagged for deletion, then you get the first deleted message. When the open folders only contain references to the message, but no instance, you get a dummy message (see Mail::Box::Message::Dummy).

In list context, all instances of the message which have been found are returned.

Examples:

my $threads = $mgr->threads(folders => [$draft, $sent]);
my $node    = $draft->message(1)->thread;

foreach my $instance ($node->message) {
    print "Found in ", $instance->folder, ".\n";
}

print "Subject is ", $node->message->subject, ".\n";
addMessage MESSAGE

Add one message to the thread node. If the node contains a dummy, then the dummy is replaced. Otherwise, the messages is added to the end of the list.

isDummy

Returns true if the message is a dummy. A dummy is a "hole" in a thread which has follow-ups but does not have a message.

messageId

Return the message-id related to this thread node. Each of the messages listed in this node will have the same ID.

repliedTo

Returns the message(s) to which the message in this node replies. In scalar context, this method will return the message to which the message in this node replies. This message object may be a dummy message.

If the message seems to be the first message of a thread, the value undef is returned. (Remember that some MUA are not adding reference information to the message's header, so you can never be sure a message is the start of a thread)

In list context, this method returns a second string value indicating the confidence that the messages are related. When extended thread discovery is enabled, then some heuristics are applied to determine if messages are related. Values for the STRING may be:

  • 'REPLY'

    This relation was directly derived from an `in-reply-to' message header field. The relation has a high confidence.

  • 'REFERENCE'

    This relation is based on information found in a `Reference' message header field. One message may reference a list of messages which precede it in the thread. The heuristic attempts to determine relationships between messages assuming that the references are in order. This relation has a lower confidence.

  • 'GUESS'

    The relation is a big guess, with low confidence. It may be based on a subject which seems to be related, or commonalities in the message's body.

More constants may be added later.

Examples:

my $question = $answer->repliedTo;
my ($question, $quality) = $answer->repliedTo;
if($question && $quality eq 'REPLY') { ... };
follows THREAD, QUALITY

Register that the current thread is a reply to the specified THREAD. The QUALITY of the relation is specified by the second argument. The THREAD may still have angles around it, and in that case maybe even blanks.

The relation may be specified more than once, but only the most confident relation is used. For example, if a reply (QUALITY equals REPLY) is specified, later calls to the follow method will have no effect. If follows is called with a QUALITY that matches the current quality, the new thread overrides the previous.

followedBy THREADS

Register that the THREADS are follow-ups to this message. These follow-ups need not be related to each other in any way other than sharing the same parent.

Defining the same relation more than once will not cause information to be duplicated.

followUps
sortedFollowUps [PREPARE [,COMPARE]]

Returns the list of follow-ups to this thread node. This list may contain parsed, not-parsed, and dummy messages.

The sortedFollowUps() returns the same list, but sorted. By default sorting is based on the estimated time of the reply (see startTimeEstimate() and Mail::Box::sort).

expand [BOOL]

Returns whether this (part of the) folder has to be shown expanded or not. This is simply done by a label, which means that most folder types can store this.

threadToString [CODE]

Translate a thread into a string. The string will contain at least one line for each message which was found, but tries to fold dummies. This is useful for debugging, but most message readers will prefer to implement their own thread printer.

Example:

print $message->threadToString;

may result in

Subject of this message
|- Re: Subject of this message
|-*- Re: Re: Subject of this message
| |- Re(2) Subject of this message
| |- [3] Re(2) Subject of this message
| `- Re: Subject of this message (reply)
`- Re: Subject of this message

The `*' represents a missing message (a "dummy" message). The `[3]' presents a folded thread with three messages.

The optional CODE argument is a reference to a routine which will be called for each message in the thread. The routine will be called with the message as the first argument. The default shows the subject of the message. In the example above, this routine is called seven times.

Example:

print $message->threadToString(\&show);

sub show($) {
   my $message = shift;
   my $subject = $message->head->get('subject');
   length $subject ? $subject : '<no subject>';
}
startTimeEstimate

Returns a guess as to when the thread was started. Each message contains various date specifications (each with various uncertainties resulting from timezones and out-of-sync clocks). One of these date specifications is used as the timestamp for the message. If the node contains a dummy message the lowest timestamp of the replies is returned. Otherwise the estimated timestamp of the node's message is returned.

endTimeEstimate

Returns a guess as to when the thread has ended (although you never know for sure whether there fill follow messages in the future).

Actions on whole threads

Some convenience methods are added to threads, to simplify retrieving information from it.

recurse CODE-REF

Execute a function for all sub-threads. If the subroutine returns true, sub-threads are visited recursively. Otherwise, the current branch traversal is aborted. The routine is called with the thread-node as the only argument.

totalSize

Returns the sum of the size of all the messages in the thread.

numberOfMessages

Number of messages in the thread starting at the current thread node, but not counting the dummies.

threadMessages

Returns all the messages in the thread starting at the current thread node. This list will not include dummies.

Examples:

my @t = $folder->message(3)->threadStart->threadMessages;
ids

Returns all the ids in the thread starting at the current thread node.

Examples:

$newfolder->addMessages($folder->ids($thread->ids));
$folder->delete($thread->ids);

SEE ALSO

Mail::Box-Overview

For support and additional documentation, see http://perl.overmeer.net/mailbox/

AUTHOR

Mark Overmeer (mailbox@overmeer.net). All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

VERSION

This code is beta, version 2.013.

Copyright (c) 2001-2002 Mark Overmeer. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.