Edit File: email.mime.html
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /> <title>18.1.4. email: Creating email and MIME objects from scratch — Python v2.6.6 documentation</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/default.css" type="text/css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" href="../_static/pygments.css" type="text/css" /> <script type="text/javascript"> var DOCUMENTATION_OPTIONS = { URL_ROOT: '../', VERSION: '2.6.6', COLLAPSE_MODINDEX: false, FILE_SUFFIX: '.html', HAS_SOURCE: true }; </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/jquery.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="../_static/doctools.js"></script> <link rel="search" type="application/opensearchdescription+xml" title="Search within Python v2.6.6 documentation" href="../_static/opensearch.xml"/> <link rel="author" title="About these documents" href="../about.html" /> <link rel="copyright" title="Copyright" href="../copyright.html" /> <link rel="top" title="Python v2.6.6 documentation" href="../index.html" /> <link rel="up" title="18.1. email — An email and MIME handling package" href="email.html" /> <link rel="next" title="18.1.5. email: Internationalized headers" href="email.header.html" /> <link rel="prev" title="18.1.3. email: Generating MIME documents" href="email.generator.html" /> <link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/png" href="../_static/py.png" /> </head> <body> <div class="related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" accesskey="I">index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../modindex.html" title="Global Module Index" accesskey="M">modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="email.header.html" title="18.1.5. email: Internationalized headers" accesskey="N">next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="email.generator.html" title="18.1.3. email: Generating MIME documents" accesskey="P">previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="../index.html">Python v2.6.6 documentation</a> »</li> <li><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> »</li> <li><a href="netdata.html" >18. Internet Data Handling</a> »</li> <li><a href="email.html" accesskey="U">18.1. <tt class="docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt> — An email and MIME handling package</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="document"> <div class="documentwrapper"> <div class="bodywrapper"> <div class="body"> <div class="section" id="module-email.mime"> <h1>18.1.4. <a title="Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents." class="reference external" href="email.html#module-email"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a>: Creating email and MIME objects from scratch<a class="headerlink" href="#module-email.mime" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1> <p>Ordinarily, you get a message object structure by passing a file or some text to a parser, which parses the text and returns the root message object. However you can also build a complete message structure from scratch, or even individual <a title="email.message.Message" class="reference external" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> objects by hand. In fact, you can also take an existing structure and add new <a title="email.message.Message" class="reference external" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> objects, move them around, etc. This makes a very convenient interface for slicing-and-dicing MIME messages.</p> <p>You can create a new object structure by creating <a title="email.message.Message" class="reference external" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> instances, adding attachments and all the appropriate headers manually. For MIME messages though, the <a title="Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents." class="reference external" href="email.html#module-email"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package provides some convenient subclasses to make things easier.</p> <p>Here are the classes:</p> <dl class="class"> <dt id="email.mime.base.MIMEBase"> <em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.mime.base.</tt><tt class="descname">MIMEBase</tt><big>(</big><em>_maintype</em>, <em>_subtype</em>, <em>**_params</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.mime.base.MIMEBase" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Module: <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.base</span></tt></p> <p>This is the base class for all the MIME-specific subclasses of <a title="email.message.Message" class="reference external" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a>. Ordinarily you won’t create instances specifically of <a title="email.mime.base.MIMEBase" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.base.MIMEBase"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEBase</span></tt></a>, although you could. <a title="email.mime.base.MIMEBase" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.base.MIMEBase"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEBase</span></tt></a> is provided primarily as a convenient base class for more specific MIME-aware subclasses.</p> <p><em>_maintype</em> is the <em>Content-Type</em> major type (e.g. <em>text</em> or <em>image</em>), and <em>_subtype</em> is the <em>Content-Type</em> minor type (e.g. <em>plain</em> or <em>gif</em>). <em>_params</em> is a parameter key/value dictionary and is passed directly to <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message.add_header()</span></tt>.</p> <p>The <a title="email.mime.base.MIMEBase" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.base.MIMEBase"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEBase</span></tt></a> class always adds a <em>Content-Type</em> header (based on <em>_maintype</em>, <em>_subtype</em>, and <em>_params</em>), and a <em>MIME-Version</em> header (always set to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">1.0</span></tt>).</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="class"> <dt id="email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart"> <em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.mime.nonmultipart.</tt><tt class="descname">MIMENonMultipart</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Module: <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.nonmultipart</span></tt></p> <p>A subclass of <a title="email.mime.base.MIMEBase" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.base.MIMEBase"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEBase</span></tt></a>, this is an intermediate base class for MIME messages that are not <em>multipart</em>. The primary purpose of this class is to prevent the use of the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">attach()</span></tt> method, which only makes sense for <em>multipart</em> messages. If <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">attach()</span></tt> is called, a <a title="email.errors.MultipartConversionError" class="reference external" href="email.errors.html#email.errors.MultipartConversionError"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MultipartConversionError</span></tt></a> exception is raised.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="class"> <dt id="email.mime.multipart.MIMEMultipart"> <em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.mime.multipart.</tt><tt class="descname">MIMEMultipart</tt><big>(</big><span class="optional">[</span><em>_subtype</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>boundary</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_subparts</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_params</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.mime.multipart.MIMEMultipart" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Module: <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.multipart</span></tt></p> <p>A subclass of <a title="email.mime.base.MIMEBase" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.base.MIMEBase"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEBase</span></tt></a>, this is an intermediate base class for MIME messages that are <em>multipart</em>. Optional <em>_subtype</em> defaults to <em>mixed</em>, but can be used to specify the subtype of the message. A <em>Content-Type</em> header of <em>multipart/_subtype</em> will be added to the message object. A <em>MIME-Version</em> header will also be added.</p> <p>Optional <em>boundary</em> is the multipart boundary string. When <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> (the default), the boundary is calculated when needed (for example, when the message is serialized).</p> <p><em>_subparts</em> is a sequence of initial subparts for the payload. It must be possible to convert this sequence to a list. You can always attach new subparts to the message by using the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message.attach()</span></tt> method.</p> <p>Additional parameters for the <em>Content-Type</em> header are taken from the keyword arguments, or passed into the <em>_params</em> argument, which is a keyword dictionary.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.2.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="class"> <dt id="email.mime.application.MIMEApplication"> <em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.mime.application.</tt><tt class="descname">MIMEApplication</tt><big>(</big><em>_data</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_subtype</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_encoder</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>**_params</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.mime.application.MIMEApplication" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Module: <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.application</span></tt></p> <p>A subclass of <a title="email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMENonMultipart</span></tt></a>, the <a title="email.mime.application.MIMEApplication" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.application.MIMEApplication"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEApplication</span></tt></a> class is used to represent MIME message objects of major type <em>application</em>. <em>_data</em> is a string containing the raw byte data. Optional <em>_subtype</em> specifies the MIME subtype and defaults to <em>octet-stream</em>.</p> <p>Optional <em>_encoder</em> is a callable (i.e. function) which will perform the actual encoding of the data for transport. This callable takes one argument, which is the <a title="email.mime.application.MIMEApplication" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.application.MIMEApplication"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEApplication</span></tt></a> instance. It should use <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_payload()</span></tt> and <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_payload()</span></tt> to change the payload to encoded form. It should also add any <em>Content-Transfer-Encoding</em> or other headers to the message object as necessary. The default encoding is base64. See the <a title="Encoders for email message payloads." class="reference external" href="email.encoders.html#module-email.encoders"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.encoders</span></tt></a> module for a list of the built-in encoders.</p> <p><em>_params</em> are passed straight through to the base class constructor.</p> <p class="versionadded"> <span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.5.</span></p> </dd></dl> <dl class="class"> <dt id="email.mime.audio.MIMEAudio"> <em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.mime.audio.</tt><tt class="descname">MIMEAudio</tt><big>(</big><em>_audiodata</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_subtype</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_encoder</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>**_params</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.mime.audio.MIMEAudio" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Module: <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.audio</span></tt></p> <p>A subclass of <a title="email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMENonMultipart</span></tt></a>, the <a title="email.mime.audio.MIMEAudio" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.audio.MIMEAudio"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEAudio</span></tt></a> class is used to create MIME message objects of major type <em>audio</em>. <em>_audiodata</em> is a string containing the raw audio data. If this data can be decoded by the standard Python module <a title="Determine type of a sound file." class="reference external" href="sndhdr.html#module-sndhdr"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">sndhdr</span></tt></a>, then the subtype will be automatically included in the <em>Content-Type</em> header. Otherwise you can explicitly specify the audio subtype via the <em>_subtype</em> parameter. If the minor type could not be guessed and <em>_subtype</em> was not given, then <a title="exceptions.TypeError" class="reference external" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.TypeError"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></tt></a> is raised.</p> <p>Optional <em>_encoder</em> is a callable (i.e. function) which will perform the actual encoding of the audio data for transport. This callable takes one argument, which is the <a title="email.mime.audio.MIMEAudio" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.audio.MIMEAudio"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEAudio</span></tt></a> instance. It should use <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_payload()</span></tt> and <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_payload()</span></tt> to change the payload to encoded form. It should also add any <em>Content-Transfer-Encoding</em> or other headers to the message object as necessary. The default encoding is base64. See the <a title="Encoders for email message payloads." class="reference external" href="email.encoders.html#module-email.encoders"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.encoders</span></tt></a> module for a list of the built-in encoders.</p> <p><em>_params</em> are passed straight through to the base class constructor.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="class"> <dt id="email.mime.image.MIMEImage"> <em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.mime.image.</tt><tt class="descname">MIMEImage</tt><big>(</big><em>_imagedata</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_subtype</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_encoder</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>**_params</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.mime.image.MIMEImage" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Module: <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.image</span></tt></p> <p>A subclass of <a title="email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMENonMultipart</span></tt></a>, the <a title="email.mime.image.MIMEImage" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.image.MIMEImage"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEImage</span></tt></a> class is used to create MIME message objects of major type <em>image</em>. <em>_imagedata</em> is a string containing the raw image data. If this data can be decoded by the standard Python module <a title="Determine the type of image contained in a file or byte stream." class="reference external" href="imghdr.html#module-imghdr"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">imghdr</span></tt></a>, then the subtype will be automatically included in the <em>Content-Type</em> header. Otherwise you can explicitly specify the image subtype via the <em>_subtype</em> parameter. If the minor type could not be guessed and <em>_subtype</em> was not given, then <a title="exceptions.TypeError" class="reference external" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.TypeError"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></tt></a> is raised.</p> <p>Optional <em>_encoder</em> is a callable (i.e. function) which will perform the actual encoding of the image data for transport. This callable takes one argument, which is the <a title="email.mime.image.MIMEImage" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.image.MIMEImage"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEImage</span></tt></a> instance. It should use <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_payload()</span></tt> and <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_payload()</span></tt> to change the payload to encoded form. It should also add any <em>Content-Transfer-Encoding</em> or other headers to the message object as necessary. The default encoding is base64. See the <a title="Encoders for email message payloads." class="reference external" href="email.encoders.html#module-email.encoders"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.encoders</span></tt></a> module for a list of the built-in encoders.</p> <p><em>_params</em> are passed straight through to the <a title="email.mime.base.MIMEBase" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.base.MIMEBase"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEBase</span></tt></a> constructor.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="class"> <dt id="email.mime.message.MIMEMessage"> <em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.mime.message.</tt><tt class="descname">MIMEMessage</tt><big>(</big><em>_msg</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_subtype</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.mime.message.MIMEMessage" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Module: <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.message</span></tt></p> <p>A subclass of <a title="email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMENonMultipart</span></tt></a>, the <a title="email.mime.message.MIMEMessage" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.message.MIMEMessage"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEMessage</span></tt></a> class is used to create MIME objects of main type <em>message</em>. <em>_msg</em> is used as the payload, and must be an instance of class <a title="email.message.Message" class="reference external" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> (or a subclass thereof), otherwise a <a title="exceptions.TypeError" class="reference external" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.TypeError"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></tt></a> is raised.</p> <p>Optional <em>_subtype</em> sets the subtype of the message; it defaults to <em>rfc822</em>.</p> </dd></dl> <dl class="class"> <dt id="email.mime.text.MIMEText"> <em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.mime.text.</tt><tt class="descname">MIMEText</tt><big>(</big><em>_text</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_subtype</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_charset</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.mime.text.MIMEText" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt> <dd><p>Module: <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.text</span></tt></p> <p>A subclass of <a title="email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMENonMultipart</span></tt></a>, the <a title="email.mime.text.MIMEText" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.text.MIMEText"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEText</span></tt></a> class is used to create MIME objects of major type <em>text</em>. <em>_text</em> is the string for the payload. <em>_subtype</em> is the minor type and defaults to <em>plain</em>. <em>_charset</em> is the character set of the text and is passed as a parameter to the <a title="email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMENonMultipart</span></tt></a> constructor; it defaults to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">us-ascii</span></tt>. If <em>_text</em> is unicode, it is encoded using the <em>output_charset</em> of <em>_charset</em>, otherwise it is used as-is.</p> <p class="versionchanged"> <span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.4: </span>The previously deprecated <em>_encoding</em> argument has been removed. Content Transfer Encoding now happens happens implicitly based on the <em>_charset</em> argument.</p> </dd></dl> </div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="sphinxsidebar"> <div class="sphinxsidebarwrapper"> <h4>Previous topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="email.generator.html" title="previous chapter">18.1.3. <tt class="docutils literal docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt>: Generating MIME documents</a></p> <h4>Next topic</h4> <p class="topless"><a href="email.header.html" title="next chapter">18.1.5. <tt class="docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt>: Internationalized headers</a></p> <h3>This Page</h3> <ul class="this-page-menu"> <li><a href="../bugs.html">Report a Bug</a></li> <li><a href="../_sources/library/email.mime.txt" rel="nofollow">Show Source</a></li> </ul> <div id="searchbox" style="display: none"> <h3>Quick search</h3> <form class="search" action="../search.html" method="get"> <input type="text" name="q" size="18" /> <input type="submit" value="Go" /> <input type="hidden" name="check_keywords" value="yes" /> <input type="hidden" name="area" value="default" /> </form> <p class="searchtip" style="font-size: 90%"> Enter search terms or a module, class or function name. </p> </div> <script type="text/javascript">$('#searchbox').show(0);</script> </div> </div> <div class="clearer"></div> </div> <div class="related"> <h3>Navigation</h3> <ul> <li class="right" style="margin-right: 10px"> <a href="../genindex.html" title="General Index" >index</a></li> <li class="right" > <a href="../modindex.html" title="Global Module Index" >modules</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="email.header.html" title="18.1.5. email: Internationalized headers" >next</a> |</li> <li class="right" > <a href="email.generator.html" title="18.1.3. email: Generating MIME documents" >previous</a> |</li> <li><img src="../_static/py.png" alt="" style="vertical-align: middle; margin-top: -1px"/></li> <li><a href="../index.html">Python v2.6.6 documentation</a> »</li> <li><a href="index.html" >The Python Standard Library</a> »</li> <li><a href="netdata.html" >18. Internet Data Handling</a> »</li> <li><a href="email.html" >18.1. <tt class="docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt> — An email and MIME handling package</a> »</li> </ul> </div> <div class="footer"> © <a href="../copyright.html">Copyright</a> 1990-2011, Python Software Foundation. <br /> The Python Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation. <a href="http://www.python.org/psf/donations/">Please donate.</a> <br /> Last updated on Jul 20, 2011. <a href="../bugs.html">Found a bug</a>? <br /> Created using <a href="http://sphinx.pocoo.org/">Sphinx</a> 0.6.6. </div> </body> </html>
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