NAME

Convert::ASCII::Armour - Convert binary octets into ASCII armoured messages.

SYNOPSIS

my $converter = new Convert::ASCII::Armour; 

my $message   = $converter->armour( 
                    Object   => "FOO RECORD", 
                    Headers  => { 
                                    Table   => "FooBar", 
                                    Version => "1.23", 
                                },
                    Content  => { 
                                    Key  => "0x8738FA7382", 
                                    Name => "Zoya Hall",
                                    Pic  => "....",  # gif 
                                },
                    Compress => 1,
                );

my $decoded   = $converter->unarmour( $message ) 
                 || die $converter->errstr();
                    

DESCRIPTION

This module converts hashes of binary octets into ASCII messages suitable for transfer over 6-bit clean transport channels. The encoded ASCII resembles PGP's armoured messages, but are in no way compatible with PGP.

Here's a sample encoded message:

-----BEGIN FOO RECORD-----
Version: 1.23
Table: FooBar

eJwzZzA0Z/BNLS5OTE8NycgsVgCiRIVciIAJg6EJg0tiSaqhsYJvYlFyho6CkYGBoQWDoZkRg09+
XnpOZl5qYlJySmpaekZmVnZObl5+QWFRcUlpWXlFZRWXAk7g6OTs4urm7uHp5e3j6+cfEBgUHBIa
Fh4VGaWAR5ehkbGJqZm5hSUeNXWKDsoGcWpaGpq68bba0dWxtTVmDOYMfqW5SalFFpYWlsZGxgBW
NzuZ
=MxpZvjkrv5XyhkVCuXmsBQ==
-----END FOO RECORD-----

METHODS

new()

Constructor.

armour()

Converts a hash of binary octets into an ASCII encoded message. The encoded message has 4 parts: head and tail strings that act as identifiers and delimiters, a cluster of headers at top of the message, Base64 encoded message body and a Base64 encoded MD5 digest of the message body. armour() takes a hash as argument with following keys:

Object

An identification string embedded in head and tail strings.

Content

Content is a hashref that contains the binary octets to be encoded. This hash is serialized, compressed (if specified) and encoded into ASCII with MIME::Base64. The result is the body of the encoded message.

Headers

Headers is a hashref that contains ASCII headers that are placed at top of the encoded message. Headers are encoded as RFC822 headers.

Compress

A boolean parameter that forces armour() to compress the message body.

unarmour()

Decodes an armoured ASCII message into the hash provided as argument to armour(). The hash contains Content, Object, and Headers. unarmour() performs several consistency checks and returns a non-true value on failure.

errstr()

Returns the error message on failure at unarmour().

AUTHOR

Vipul Ved Prakash, <mail@vipul.net>

LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2001, Vipul Ved Prakash. All rights reserved. This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

SEE ALSO

MIME::Base64(3), Compress::Zlib(3), Digest::MD5(3)