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])
              || ...;

my $subject = Email::Abstract->get_header($message, "Subject");
Email::Abstract->set_header($message, "Subject", "My new subject");

my $body = Email::Abstract->get_body($message);
Email::Abstract->set_body($message, "Hello\nTest message\n");

$rfc822 = Email::Abstract->as_string($message);

my $mail_message = Email::Abstract->cast($message, "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

get_header($obj, $header)

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

get_header($obj, $header, @lines)

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

get_body($obj)

This returns the body as a string.

set_body($obj, $string)

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

as_string($obj)

This returns the whole email as a string.

AUTHOR

Simon Cozens, <simon@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.