Email::Abstract - unified interface to mail representations my $message = Mail::Message->read($rfc822) || Email::Simple->new($rfc822) || Mail::Internet->new([split /\n/, $rfc822]) || ... || $rfc822; my $email = Email::Abstract->new($message); my $subject = $email->get_header("Subject"); $email->set_header(Subject => "My new subject"); my $body = $email->get_body; $email->set_body("Hello\nTest message\n"); $rfc822 = $email->as_string; my $mail_message = $email->cast("Mail::Message"); "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. All of these methods may be called either as object methods or as class methods. When called as class methods, the email object (of any class supported by Email::Abstract) must be prepended to the list of arguments.

new
my $email = Email::Abstract->new($message); Given a message, either as a string or as an object for which an adapter is installed, this method will return a Email::Abstract object wrapping the message. If the message is given as a string, it will be used to construct an object, which will then be wrapped.

get_header
my $header = $email->get_header($header_name); my $header = Email::Abstract->get_header($message, $header_name); my @headers = $email->get_header($header_name); my @headers = Email::Abstract->get_header($message, $header_name); This returns the value or list of values of the given header.

set_header
$email->set_header($header => @lines); Email::Abstract->set_header($message, $header => @lines); This sets the $header header to the given one or more values.

get_body
my $body = $email->get_body; my $body = Email::Abstract->get_body($message); This returns the body as a string.

set_body
$email->set_body($string); Email::Abstract->set_body($message, $string); This changes the body of the email to the given string.

as_string
my $string = $email->as_string; my $string = Email::Abstract->as_string($message); This returns the whole email as a string.

cast
my $mime_entity = $email->cast('MIME::Entity'); my $mime_entity = Email::Abstract->cast($message, 'MIME::Entity'); This method will convert a message from one message class to another. It will throw an exception if no adapter for the target class is known, or if the adapter does not provide a "construct" method.

object
my $message = $email->object; This method returns the message object wrapped by Email::Abstract. If called as a class method, it returns false. Note that, because strings are converted to message objects before wrapping, this method will return an object when the Email::Abstract was constructed from a string. This module is maintained by the Perl Email Project L<http://emailproject.perl.org/wiki/Email::Abstract> Casey West, <casey@geeknest.com> Simon Cozens, <simon@cpan.org> Ricardo SIGNES, <rjbs@cpan.org> 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.