/ 
Email-Abstract-2.132
River stage three • 25 direct dependents • 225 total dependents
/ Email::Abstract

NAME

Email::Abstract - unified interface to mail representations

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;
$email->set_body("Hello\nTest message\n");

$rfc822 = $email->as_string;

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

DESCRIPTION

Email::Abstract provides module writers with the ability to write 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 and Email::MIME. 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.

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.

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 $header  = Email::Abstract->get_header($message, $header_name);

my @headers = $email->get_header($header_name);
my @headers = Email::Abstract->get_header($message, $header_name);

This returns the value or list of values of the given header.

set_header

$email->set_header($header => @lines);
Email::Abstract->set_header($message, $header => @lines);

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

get_body

my $body = $email->get_body;

my $body = Email::Abstract->get_body($message);

This returns the body as a string.

set_body

$email->set_body($string);

Email::Abstract->set_body($message, $string);

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

as_string

my $string = $email->as_string;

my $string = Email::Abstract->as_string($message);

This returns the whole email as a string.

cast

my $mime_entity = $email->cast('MIME::Entity');
my $mime_entity = Email::Abstract->cast($message, '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.

PERL EMAIL PROJECT

This module is maintained by the Perl Email Project

http://emailproject.perl.org/wiki/Email::Abstract

AUTHOR

Casey West, <casey@geeknest.com>

Simon Cozens, <simon@cpan.org>

Ricardo SIGNES, <rjbs@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2004 by Simon Cozens

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