Mail::Field - Base class for manipulation of mail header fields
Mail::Field is extended by Mail::Field::AddrList Mail::Field::Date Mail::Field::Generic
use Mail::Field;
my $field = Mail::Field->new('Subject', 'some subject text');
my $field = Mail::Field->new(Subject => 'some subject text');
print $field->tag,": ",$field->stringify,"\n";
my $field = Mail::Field->subject('some subject text');
Mail::Field creates and manipulates fields in MIME headers, collected
within a Mail::Header object. Different field types have their
own sub-class (extension), defining additional useful accessors to the
field content.
People are invited to merge their implementation to special fields into MailTools, to maintain a consistent set of packages and documentation.
Mail::Field (and it's sub-classes) define several methods which return new objects. These can all be categorized as constructor.
Mail::Field->combine(FIELDS)
Take a LIST of Mail::Field objects (which should all be of the same
sub-class) and create a new object in that same class.
Mail::Field->extract(TAG, HEAD [, INDEX ])
Takes as arguments the tag name, a Mail::Head object
and optionally an index.
If the index argument is given then extract will retrieve the given tag
from the Mail::Head object and create a new Mail::Field based object.
undef will be returned in the field does not exist.
If the index argument is not given the the result depends on the context
in which extract is called. If called in a scalar context the result
will be as if extract was called with an index value of zero. If called
in an array context then all tags will be retrieved and a list of
Mail::Field objects will be returned.
Mail::Field->new(TAG [, STRING | OPTIONS])
Create an object in the class which defines the field specified by the TAG argument.
$obj->create(OPTIONS)
This constructor is used internally with preprocessed field information. When called on an existing object, its original content will get replaced.
$obj->parse
Parse a field line.
$obj->set(OPTIONS)
Change the settings (the content, but then smart) of this field.
$obj->stringify
Returns the field as a string.
$obj->tag
Mail::Field->tag
Return the tag (in the correct case) for this item. Well, actually any casing is OK, because the field tags are treated case-insentitive; however people have some preferences.
$obj->text([STRING])
Without arguments, the field is returned as stringify() does. Otherwise, the STRING is parsed with parse() to replace the object's content.
It is more clear to call either stringify() or parse() directly, because this method does not add additional processing.
All sub-classes should be called Mail::Field::name where name is derived from the tag using these rules.
N is calculated by using the formula :-
int((7 + #elements) / #elements)
For an example of this take a look at the definition of the
_header_pkg_name() subroutine in Mail::Field
Error: Undefined subroutine <method> called
Mail::Field objects use autoloading to compile new functionality. Apparently, the mehod called is not implemented for the specific class of the field object.
This module is part of the MailTools distribution, http://perl.overmeer.net/mailtools/.
The MailTools bundle was developed by Graham Barr. Later, Mark Overmeer took over maintenance without development.
Mail::Cap by Gisle Aas <aas@oslonett.no>. Mail::Field::AddrList by Peter Orbaek <poe@cit.dk>. Mail::Mailer and Mail::Send by Tim Bunce <Tim.Bunce@ig.co.uk>. For other contributors see ChangeLog.
Copyrights 1995-2000 Graham Barr <gbarr@pobox.com> and 2001-2007 Mark Overmeer <perl@overmeer.net>.
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