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Perl

Parse MIME Header Fields

See more MIME Examples

Demonstrates how to parse MIME header fields, including Content-Type, Content-Disposition, and Content-Transfer-Encoding.

This example uses a MIME test file located at http://www.chilkatsoft.com/testData/sampleMime2.txt. It contains the following MIME:

Content-Type: multipart/mixed;
 boundary="------------080707010302060306060800";

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

--------------080707010302060306060800
Content-Type: text/plain
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

This is the plain-text body.
--------------080707010302060306060800
Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="starfish.gif";
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-Type: image/gif; name="starfish.gif";

R0lGODlhIAAgAPcAAP///+/v7/f39+/n5/fv7//39/fn597OzufW1tbGxs69vffe3u/W1salpZQQ
EIQYEJwQCJQYCJwYCM6clL2Ee5wpGIwhEK0YANatpdalnHMYCKUhCJQYAKUYAM6Ec5QhCJwhCPfW
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--------------080707010302060306060800--

Chilkat Perl Downloads

Perl
use chilkat();

$success = 0;

# This example requires the Chilkat API to have been previously unlocked.
# See Global Unlock Sample for sample code.

$mime = chilkat::CkMime->new();

# Load the sampleMime2.txt file into the MIME object.
# (This file is available at http://www.chilkatsoft.com/testData/sampleMime2.txt )

$success = $mime->LoadMimeFile("sampleMime2.txt");
if ($success == 0) {
    print $mime->lastErrorText() . "\r\n";
    exit;
}

# The GIF image is the 2nd sub-part located directly under the
# top-level MIME node.  Indexing begins at 0, therefore the 2nd
# sub-part is at index 1.
$part2 = chilkat::CkMime->new();
$success = $mime->PartAt(1,$part2);
if ($success == 0) {
    print $mime->lastErrorText() . "\r\n";
    exit;
}

# -------------------------------
# Content-Disposition
# -------------------------------
# In this example, the Content-Disposition header field
# contains this value:
# attachment; filename="starfish.gif"

# To get the "filename", call GetHeaderFieldAttribute
# Header field names and attribute names are case insensitive.
$filename = $part2->getHeaderFieldAttribute("Content-Disposition","filename");
print "Filename: " . $filename . "\r\n";

# Because the "filename" is so often accessed, it is also available
# by accessing the "Filename" property:
print "Filename: " . $part2->filename() . "\r\n";

# The disposition (without attributes) which in this case 
# is the string "attachment" is accessed via the Disposition property:
print "Disposition: " . $part2->disposition() . "\r\n";

# To get the full value of the Content-Disposition header field,
# call GetHeaderField.
print "Content-Disposition: " . $part2->getHeaderField("Content-Disposition") . "\r\n";

# -------------------------------
# Content-Type
# -------------------------------
# In this example, the Content-Type header field
# contains this value:
# image/gif; name="starfish.gif"

# To get the "name", call GetHeaderFieldAttribute
$name = $part2->getHeaderFieldAttribute("Content-Type","name");
print "Content-Type name: " . $name . "\r\n";

# Because the "name" is so often accessed, it is also available
# by accessing the "Name" property:
print "Content-Type name: " . $part2->name() . "\r\n";

# The content-type without attributes is available in the
# ContentType property:
print "Content-Type: " . $part2->contentType() . "\r\n";

# To get the full value of the Content-Type header field,
# call GetHeaderField.
print "Content-Type: " . $part2->getHeaderField("Content-Type") . "\r\n";

# -------------------------------
# Content-Transfer-Encoding
# -------------------------------

# The Encoding property contains the value of the
# Content-Transfer-Encoding property. 
# Calling GetHeaderField("Content-Transfer-Encoding") is
# equivalent to accessing the Encoding property:
print "Content-Transfer-Encoding: " . $part2->encoding() . "\r\n";
print "Content-Transfer-Encoding: " . $part2->getHeaderField("Content-Transfer-Encoding") . "\r\n";

print "Finished." . "\r\n";