1:mod:`MimeWriter` --- Generic MIME file writer 2============================================== 3 4.. module:: MimeWriter 5 :synopsis: Write MIME format files. 6 :deprecated: 7 8.. sectionauthor:: Christopher G. Petrilli <petrilli@amber.org> 9 10 11.. deprecated:: 2.3 12 The :mod:`email` package should be used in preference to the :mod:`MimeWriter` 13 module. This module is present only to maintain backward compatibility. 14 15This module defines the class :class:`~MimeWriter.MimeWriter`. The :class:`~MimeWriter.MimeWriter` 16class implements a basic formatter for creating MIME multi-part files. It 17doesn't seek around the output file nor does it use large amounts of buffer 18space. You must write the parts out in the order that they should occur in the 19final file. :class:`~MimeWriter.MimeWriter` does buffer the headers you add, allowing you 20to rearrange their order. 21 22 23.. class:: MimeWriter(fp) 24 25 Return a new instance of the :class:`~MimeWriter.MimeWriter` class. The only argument 26 passed, *fp*, is a file object to be used for writing. Note that a 27 :class:`~StringIO.StringIO` object could also be used. 28 29 30.. _mimewriter-objects: 31 32MimeWriter Objects 33------------------ 34 35:class:`~MimeWriter.MimeWriter` instances have the following methods: 36 37 38.. method:: MimeWriter.addheader(key, value[, prefix]) 39 40 Add a header line to the MIME message. The *key* is the name of the header, 41 where the *value* obviously provides the value of the header. The optional 42 argument *prefix* determines where the header is inserted; ``0`` means append 43 at the end, ``1`` is insert at the start. The default is to append. 44 45 46.. method:: MimeWriter.flushheaders() 47 48 Causes all headers accumulated so far to be written out (and forgotten). This is 49 useful if you don't need a body part at all, e.g. for a subpart of type 50 :mimetype:`message/rfc822` that's (mis)used to store some header-like 51 information. 52 53 54.. method:: MimeWriter.startbody(ctype[, plist[, prefix]]) 55 56 Returns a file-like object which can be used to write to the body of the 57 message. The content-type is set to the provided *ctype*, and the optional 58 parameter *plist* provides additional parameters for the content-type 59 declaration. *prefix* functions as in :meth:`addheader` except that the default 60 is to insert at the start. 61 62 63.. method:: MimeWriter.startmultipartbody(subtype[, boundary[, plist[, prefix]]]) 64 65 Returns a file-like object which can be used to write to the body of the 66 message. Additionally, this method initializes the multi-part code, where 67 *subtype* provides the multipart subtype, *boundary* may provide a user-defined 68 boundary specification, and *plist* provides optional parameters for the 69 subtype. *prefix* functions as in :meth:`startbody`. Subparts should be created 70 using :meth:`nextpart`. 71 72 73.. method:: MimeWriter.nextpart() 74 75 Returns a new instance of :class:`~MimeWriter.MimeWriter` which represents an individual 76 part in a multipart message. This may be used to write the part as well as 77 used for creating recursively complex multipart messages. The message must first 78 be initialized with :meth:`startmultipartbody` before using :meth:`nextpart`. 79 80 81.. method:: MimeWriter.lastpart() 82 83 This is used to designate the last part of a multipart message, and should 84 *always* be used when writing multipart messages. 85 86