/Doc/library/mimewriter.rst

 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`.  The :class:`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` 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` class.  The only argument
26   passed, *fp*, is a file object to be used for writing. Note that a
27   :class:`StringIO` object could also be used.
28
29
30.. _mimewriter-objects:
31
32MimeWriter Objects
33------------------
34
35:class:`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` 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