NAME

MIME::Types - Definition of MIME types

INHERITANCE

 MIME::Types
   is a Exporter

SYNOPSIS

 use MIME::Types;
 my $mimetypes = MIME::Types->new;
 my MIME::Type $plaintext = $mimetypes->type('text/plain');
 my MIME::Type $imagegif  = $mimetypes->mimeTypeOf('gif');

DESCRIPTION

MIME types are used in MIME compliant lines, for instance as part of e-mail and HTTP traffic, to indicate the type of content which is transmitted. Sometimes real knowledge about a mime-type is need.

This module maintains a set of MIME::Type objects, which each describe one known mime type. There are many types defined by RFCs and vendors, so the list is long but not complete. Please don't hestitate to ask to add additional information.

If you wish to get access to the mime.types files, which are available on various places in UNIX and Linux systems, then have a look at File::TypeInfo.

METHODS

Instantiation

MIME::Types->new(OPTIONS)

Create a new MIME::Types object which manages the data. In the current implementation, it does not matter whether you create this object often within your program, but in the future this may change.

 Option       --Default
 only_complete  <false>

. only_complete => BOOLEAN

Only include complete MIME type definitions: requires at least one known extension. This will reduce the number of entries --and with that the amount of memory consumed-- considerably.

In your program you have to decide: the first time that you call the creator (new) determines whether you get the full or the partial information.

Knowledge

$obj->addType(TYPE, ...)

Add one or more TYPEs to the set of known types. Each TYPE is a MIME::Type which must be experimental: either the main-type or the sub-type must start with x-.

Please inform the maintainer of this module when registered types are missing. Before version MIME::Types version 1.14, a warning was produced when an unknown IANA type was added. This has been removed, because some people need that to get their application to work locally... broken applications...

$obj->extensions

Returns a list of all defined extensions.

$obj->mimeTypeOf(FILENAME)

Returns the MIME::Type object which belongs to the FILENAME (or simply its filename extension) or undef if the file type is unknown. The extension is used, and considered case-insensitive.

In some cases, more than one type is known for a certain filename extension. In that case, one of the alternatives is chosen at random.

example: use of mimeTypeOf()

 my MIME::Types $types = MIME::Types->new;
 my MIME::Type  $mime = $types->mimeTypeOf('gif');

 my MIME::Type  $mime = $types->mimeTypeOf('jpg');
 print $mime->isBinary;

$obj->type(STRING)

Return the MIME::Type which describes the type related to STRING. One type may be described more than once. Different extensions is use for this type, and different operating systems may cause more than one MIME::Type object to be defined. In scalar context, only the first is returned.

$obj->types

Returns a list of all defined mime-types

FUNCTIONS

The next functions are provided for backward compatibility with MIME::Types versions 0.06 and below. This code originates from Jeff Okamoto okamoto@corp.hp.com and others.

by_mediatype(TYPE)

This function takes a media type and returns a list or anonymous array of anonymous three-element arrays whose values are the file name suffix used to identify it, the media type, and a content encoding.

TYPE can be a full type name (contains '/', and will be matched in full), a partial type (which is used as regular expression) or a real regular expression.

by_suffix(FILENAME|SUFFIX)

Like mimeTypeOf, but does not return an MIME::Type object. If the file +type is unknown, both the returned media type and encoding are empty strings.

example: use of function by_suffix()

 use MIME::Types 'by_suffix';
 my ($mediatype, $encoding) = by_suffix 'image.gif';

 my $refdata =  by_suffix 'image.gif';
 my ($mediatype, $encoding) = @$refdata;

import_mime_types

This method has been removed: mime-types are only useful if understood by many parties. Therefore, the IANA assigns names which can be used. In the table kept by this MIME::Types module all these names, plus the most often used termporary names are kept. When names seem to be missing, please contact the maintainer for inclussion.

LICENSE

Copyrights 1999,2001-2008 by Mark Overmeer. For other contributors see ChangeLog.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html