1 :mod:`email`: Creating email and MIME objects from scratch
2 ----------------------------------------------------------
5 :synopsis: Build MIME messages.
8 Ordinarily, you get a message object structure by passing a file or some text to
9 a parser, which parses the text and returns the root message object. However
10 you can also build a complete message structure from scratch, or even individual
11 :class:`~email.message.Message` objects by hand. In fact, you can also take an
12 existing structure and add new :class:`~email.message.Message` objects, move them
13 around, etc. This makes a very convenient interface for slicing-and-dicing MIME
16 You can create a new object structure by creating :class:`~email.message.Message`
17 instances, adding attachments and all the appropriate headers manually. For MIME
18 messages though, the :mod:`email` package provides some convenient subclasses to
23 .. currentmodule:: email.mime.base
25 .. class:: MIMEBase(_maintype, _subtype, **_params)
27 Module: :mod:`email.mime.base`
29 This is the base class for all the MIME-specific subclasses of
30 :class:`~email.message.Message`. Ordinarily you won't create instances
31 specifically of :class:`MIMEBase`, although you could. :class:`MIMEBase`
32 is provided primarily as a convenient base class for more specific
33 MIME-aware subclasses.
35 *_maintype* is the :mailheader:`Content-Type` major type (e.g. :mimetype:`text`
36 or :mimetype:`image`), and *_subtype* is the :mailheader:`Content-Type` minor
37 type (e.g. :mimetype:`plain` or :mimetype:`gif`). *_params* is a parameter
38 key/value dictionary and is passed directly to :meth:`Message.add_header`.
40 The :class:`MIMEBase` class always adds a :mailheader:`Content-Type` header
41 (based on *_maintype*, *_subtype*, and *_params*), and a
42 :mailheader:`MIME-Version` header (always set to ``1.0``).
45 .. currentmodule:: email.mime.nonmultipart
47 .. class:: MIMENonMultipart()
49 Module: :mod:`email.mime.nonmultipart`
51 A subclass of :class:`~email.mime.base.MIMEBase`, this is an intermediate base
52 class for MIME messages that are not :mimetype:`multipart`. The primary
53 purpose of this class is to prevent the use of the :meth:`attach` method,
54 which only makes sense for :mimetype:`multipart` messages. If :meth:`attach`
55 is called, a :exc:`~email.errors.MultipartConversionError` exception is raised.
57 .. versionadded:: 2.2.2
60 .. currentmodule:: email.mime.multipart
62 .. class:: MIMEMultipart([_subtype[, boundary[, _subparts[, _params]]]])
64 Module: :mod:`email.mime.multipart`
66 A subclass of :class:`~email.mime.base.MIMEBase`, this is an intermediate base
67 class for MIME messages that are :mimetype:`multipart`. Optional *_subtype*
68 defaults to :mimetype:`mixed`, but can be used to specify the subtype of the
69 message. A :mailheader:`Content-Type` header of :mimetype:`multipart/_subtype`
70 will be added to the message object. A :mailheader:`MIME-Version` header will
73 Optional *boundary* is the multipart boundary string. When ``None`` (the
74 default), the boundary is calculated when needed (for example, when the
75 message is serialized).
77 *_subparts* is a sequence of initial subparts for the payload. It must be
78 possible to convert this sequence to a list. You can always attach new subparts
79 to the message by using the :meth:`Message.attach` method.
81 Additional parameters for the :mailheader:`Content-Type` header are taken from
82 the keyword arguments, or passed into the *_params* argument, which is a keyword
85 .. versionadded:: 2.2.2
88 .. currentmodule:: email.mime.application
90 .. class:: MIMEApplication(_data[, _subtype[, _encoder[, **_params]]])
92 Module: :mod:`email.mime.application`
94 A subclass of :class:`~email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart`, the
95 :class:`MIMEApplication` class is used to represent MIME message objects of
96 major type :mimetype:`application`. *_data* is a string containing the raw
97 byte data. Optional *_subtype* specifies the MIME subtype and defaults to
98 :mimetype:`octet-stream`.
100 Optional *_encoder* is a callable (i.e. function) which will perform the actual
101 encoding of the data for transport. This callable takes one argument, which is
102 the :class:`MIMEApplication` instance. It should use :meth:`get_payload` and
103 :meth:`set_payload` to change the payload to encoded form. It should also add
104 any :mailheader:`Content-Transfer-Encoding` or other headers to the message
105 object as necessary. The default encoding is base64. See the
106 :mod:`email.encoders` module for a list of the built-in encoders.
108 *_params* are passed straight through to the base class constructor.
110 .. versionadded:: 2.5
113 .. currentmodule:: email.mime.audio
115 .. class:: MIMEAudio(_audiodata[, _subtype[, _encoder[, **_params]]])
117 Module: :mod:`email.mime.audio`
119 A subclass of :class:`~email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart`, the
120 :class:`MIMEAudio` class is used to create MIME message objects of major type
121 :mimetype:`audio`. *_audiodata* is a string containing the raw audio data. If
122 this data can be decoded by the standard Python module :mod:`sndhdr`, then the
123 subtype will be automatically included in the :mailheader:`Content-Type` header.
124 Otherwise you can explicitly specify the audio subtype via the *_subtype*
125 parameter. If the minor type could not be guessed and *_subtype* was not given,
126 then :exc:`TypeError` is raised.
128 Optional *_encoder* is a callable (i.e. function) which will perform the actual
129 encoding of the audio data for transport. This callable takes one argument,
130 which is the :class:`MIMEAudio` instance. It should use :meth:`get_payload` and
131 :meth:`set_payload` to change the payload to encoded form. It should also add
132 any :mailheader:`Content-Transfer-Encoding` or other headers to the message
133 object as necessary. The default encoding is base64. See the
134 :mod:`email.encoders` module for a list of the built-in encoders.
136 *_params* are passed straight through to the base class constructor.
139 .. currentmodule:: email.mime.image
141 .. class:: MIMEImage(_imagedata[, _subtype[, _encoder[, **_params]]])
143 Module: :mod:`email.mime.image`
145 A subclass of :class:`~email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart`, the
146 :class:`MIMEImage` class is used to create MIME message objects of major type
147 :mimetype:`image`. *_imagedata* is a string containing the raw image data. If
148 this data can be decoded by the standard Python module :mod:`imghdr`, then the
149 subtype will be automatically included in the :mailheader:`Content-Type` header.
150 Otherwise you can explicitly specify the image subtype via the *_subtype*
151 parameter. If the minor type could not be guessed and *_subtype* was not given,
152 then :exc:`TypeError` is raised.
154 Optional *_encoder* is a callable (i.e. function) which will perform the actual
155 encoding of the image data for transport. This callable takes one argument,
156 which is the :class:`MIMEImage` instance. It should use :meth:`get_payload` and
157 :meth:`set_payload` to change the payload to encoded form. It should also add
158 any :mailheader:`Content-Transfer-Encoding` or other headers to the message
159 object as necessary. The default encoding is base64. See the
160 :mod:`email.encoders` module for a list of the built-in encoders.
162 *_params* are passed straight through to the :class:`~email.mime.base.MIMEBase`
166 .. currentmodule:: email.mime.message
168 .. class:: MIMEMessage(_msg[, _subtype])
170 Module: :mod:`email.mime.message`
172 A subclass of :class:`~email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart`, the
173 :class:`MIMEMessage` class is used to create MIME objects of main type
174 :mimetype:`message`. *_msg* is used as the payload, and must be an instance
175 of class :class:`~email.message.Message` (or a subclass thereof), otherwise
176 a :exc:`TypeError` is raised.
178 Optional *_subtype* sets the subtype of the message; it defaults to
182 .. currentmodule:: email.mime.text
184 .. class:: MIMEText(_text[, _subtype[, _charset]])
186 Module: :mod:`email.mime.text`
188 A subclass of :class:`~email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart`, the
189 :class:`MIMEText` class is used to create MIME objects of major type
190 :mimetype:`text`. *_text* is the string for the payload. *_subtype* is the
191 minor type and defaults to :mimetype:`plain`. *_charset* is the character
192 set of the text and is passed as a parameter to the
193 :class:`~email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart` constructor; it defaults
194 to ``us-ascii``. If *_text* is unicode, it is encoded using the
195 *output_charset* of *_charset*, otherwise it is used as-is.
197 .. versionchanged:: 2.4
198 The previously deprecated *_encoding* argument has been removed. Content
199 Transfer Encoding now happens happens implicitly based on the *_charset*