Mail::Box::Tie::ARRAY(3)

NAME
Mail::Box::Tie::ARRAY - access an existing message folder as array

SYNOPSIS
 use Mail::Box::Manager;
 my $mgr    = Mail::Box::Manager->new;
 my $folder = $mgr->open(folder => 'inbox');

 use Mail::Box::Tie::ARRAY;
 tie my(@inbox), 'Mail::Box::Tie::ARRAY', $folder;

 # deprecated, but works too
 use Mail::Box::Tie;
 tie my(@inbox), 'Mail::Box::Tie', $folder;

 foreach (@inbox) {print $_->short}
 print $_->print foreach @inbox;
 my $emails = @inbox;

 print $inbox[3];
 print scalar @inbox;
 push @inbox, Mail::Box::Message->new(...);
 delete $inbox[6];
 print $inbox[0]->head->get('status');

 my $folder = tied @inbox;
 untie @inbox;

DESCRIPTION
Certainly when you look at a folder as a list of messages, it is logical to access the folder through an array.

Not all operations on arrays are supported. Actually, most functions which would reduce the size of the array are modified instead to mark messages for deletion.

Examples what you cannot do:

 shift/unshift/pop/splice @inbox;

METHODS

  Constructors

TIEARRAY('Mail::Box::Tie::ARRAY', FOLDER)
    Create the tie on an existing folder.

    example: tie an array to a folder

     my $mgr   = Mail::Box::Manager->new;
     my $inbox = $mgr->new(folder => $ENV{MAIL});
     tie my(@inbox), 'Mail::Box::Tie::Array', ref $inbox, $inbox;

  Tied Interface

$obj->DELETE()
    Flag a message to be removed. Be warned that the message stays in the folder, and is not removed before the folder is written.

    example:

     delete $inbox[5];
     $inbox[5]->delete;   #same

$obj->FETCH(INDEX)
    Get the message which is at the indicated location in the list of messages contained in this folder. Deleted messages will be returned as "undef".

    example:

     print $inbox[3];     # 4th message in the folder
     print @inbox[3,0];   # 4th and first of the folder
     print $inbox[-1];    # last message

$obj->FETCHSIZE()
    Return the total number of messages in a folder. This is called when the folder-array is used in scalar context, for instance.

    example:

     if(@inbox > 10)    # contains more than 10 messages?
     my $nrmsgs = @inbox;

$obj->PUSH(MESSAGES)
    Add MESSAGES to the end of the folder.

    example:

        push @inbox, $newmsg;

$obj->STORE(INDEX, MESSAGE)
    Random message replacement is not permitted --doing so would disturb threads etc. An error occurs if you try to do this. The only thing which is allowed is to store a message at the first free index at the end of the folder (which is also achievable with PUSH()).

    example:

     $inbox[8] = $add;
     $inbox[-1] = $add;
     push @inbox, $add;

$obj->STORESIZE(LENGTH)
    Sets all messages behind from LENGTH to the end of folder to be deleted.

DETAILS

  Folder tied as array
Limitations

This module implements "TIEARRAY", "FETCH", "STORE", "FETCHSIZE", "STORESIZE", "DELETE", "PUSH", and "DESTROY".

This module does not implement all other methods as described in the Tie::Array documentation, because the real array of messages is not permitted to shrink or be mutilated.

SEE ALSO
This module is part of Mail-Box distribution version 2.106, built on August 15, 2012. Website: http://perl.overmeer.net/mailbox/

LICENSE
Copyrights 2001-2012 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