Ubuntu Manpage: Mail::Message::Construct::Rebuild

Provided by: libmail-message-perl_3.015-1_all

NAME

       Mail::Message::Construct::Rebuild - modify a Mail::Message

SYNOPSIS

        my $cleanup = $msg->rebuild;

DESCRIPTION

       Modifying existing messages is a pain, certainly if this has to be done in an automated fashion.  The
       problems are especially had when multiparts have to be created or removed.  The rebuild() method tries to
       simplify this task and add some standard features.

METHODS

Constructing a message
$obj->rebuild(%options)
Reconstruct an existing message into something new. Returned is a new message when there were
modifications made, "undef" if the message has no body left, or the original message when no
modifications had to be made.

Examples of use: you have a message which only contains html, and you want to translate it into a
multipart which contains the original html and the textual translation of it. Or, you have a message
with parts flagged to be deleted, and you want those changes be incorparted in the memory structure.
Another possibility: clear all the resent groups (see Mail::Message::Head::ResentGroup) from the
header, before it is written to file.

Reconstructing is a hazardous task, where multi level multiparts and nested messages come into play.
The rebuild method tries to simplify handing these messages for you.

-Option --Default
extra_rules []
keep_message_id <false>
rules <see text>

extra_rules => ARRAY
The standard set of rules, which is the default for the "rules" option, is a moderest setting. In
stead of copying that list into a full set of rules of your own, you can also specify only some
additional rules which will be prependend to the default rule set.

The order of the rules is respected, which means that you do not always need to rewrite the whole
rule is (see "rule" option). For instance, the extra rule of "removeDeletedParts" returns an
"undef", which means that it cancels the effect of the default rule "replaceDeletedParts".

keep_message_id => BOOLEAN
The message-id is an unique identification of the message: no two messages with different content
shall exist anywhere. However in practice, when a message is changed during transmission, the id
is often incorrectly not changed. This may lead to complications in application which see both
messages with the same id.

rules => ARRAY
The ARRAY is a list of rules, which each describe an action which will be called on each part which
is found in the message. Most rules probably won't match, but some will bring changes to the
content. Rules can be specified as method name, or as code reference. See the "DETAILS" chapter
in this manual page, and recursiveRebuildPart().

By default, only the relatively safe transformations are performed: "replaceDeletedParts",
"descendMultiparts", "descendNested", "flattenMultiparts", "flattenEmptyMultiparts". In the
future, more safe transformations may be added to this list.

example:

# remove all deleted parts
my $cleaned = $msg->rebuild(keep_message_id => 1);
$folder->addMessage($cleaned) if defined $cleaned;

# Replace deleted parts by a place-holder
my $cleaned = $msg->rebuild
( keep_message_id => 1
, extra_rules => [ 'removeEmpty', 'flattenMultiparts' ]
);

Internals
$obj->recursiveRebuildPart($part, %options)
-Option--Default
rules <required>

rules => ARRAY-OF-RULES
Rules are method names which can be called on messages and message parts objects. The ARRAY can
also list code references which can be called. In any case, each rule will be called the same way:

$code->(MESSAGE, PART)

The return can be "undef" or any complex construct based on a Mail::Message::Part or coerceable
into such a part. For each part, all rules are called in sequence. When a rule returns a changed
object, the rules will start all over again, however "undef" will immediately stop it.

DETAILS

Rebuilding a message
Modifying an existing message is a complicated job. Not only do you need to know what you are willing to
change, but you have to take care about multiparts (possibly nested in multiple levels), rfc822
encapsulated messages, header field consistency, and so on. The rebuild() method let you focus on the
task, and takes care of the rest.

The rebuild() method uses rules to transform the one message into an other. If one or more of the rules
apply, a new message will be returned. A simple numeric comparison tells whether the message has
changed. For example

print "No change"
if $message == $message->rebuild;

Transformation is made with a set of rules. Each rule performs only a small step, which makes is easily
configurable. The rules are ordered, and when one makes a change to the result, the result will be
passed to all the rules again until no rule makes a change on the part anymore. A rule may also return
"undef" in which case the part will be removed from the (resulting) message.

General rules

This sections describes the general configuration rules: all quite straight forward transformations on
the message structure. The rules marked with (*) are used by default.

• descendMultiparts (*)

Apply the rules to the parts of (possibly nested) multiparts, not only to the top-level message.

• descendNested (*)

Apply the rules to the "message/rfc822" encapsulated message as well.

• flattenEmptyMultiparts (*)

Multipart messages which do not have any parts left are replaced by a single part which contains the
preamble, epilogue and a brief explanation.

• flattenMultiparts (*)

When a multipart contains only one part, that part will take the place of the multipart: the removal
of a level of nesting. This way, the preamble and epilogue of the multipart (which do not have a
meaning, officially) are lost.

• flattenNesting

Remove the "message/rfc822" encapsulation. Only the content related lines of the encapsulated body
are preserved one level higher. Other information will be lost, which is often not too bad.

• removeDeletedParts

All parts which are flagged for deletion are removed from the message without leaving a trace. If a
nested message is encountered which has its encapsulated content flagged for deletion, it will be
removed as a whole.

• removeEmptyMultiparts

Multipart messages which do not have any parts left are removed. The information in preamble and
epiloge is lost.

• removeEmptyBodies

Simple message bodies which do not contain any lines of content are removed. This will loose the
information which is stored in the headers of these bodies.

• replaceDeletedParts (*)

All parts of the message which are flagged for deletion are replace by a message which says that the
part is deleted.

You can specify a selection of these rules with rebuild(rules) and rebuild(extra_rules).

Conversion rules

This section describes the rules which try to be smart with the content. Please contribute with ideas
and implementations.

• removeHtmlAlternativeToText

When a multipart alternative is encountered, which contains both a plain text and an html part, then
the html part is deleted. Especially useful in combination with the "flattenMultiparts" rule.

• textAlternativeForHtml

Any "text/html" part which is not accompanied by an alternative plain text part will have one added.
You must have a working Mail::Message::Convert::HtmlFormatText, which means that HTML::TreeBuilder
and HTML::FormatText must be installed on your system.

When you are planning to create an automatic html to plain text filter for your email, then have a
look at https://github.com/logological/mimestrip

. Example: using parameter with "textAlternativeForHtml"

my $result = $msg->rebuild
( extra_rules => [ 'textAlternativeForHtml' ]
, textAlternativeForHtml => { leftmargin => 0 }
);

• removeExtraAlternativeText

[2.110] When a multipart alternative is encountered, deletes all its parts except for the last part
(the preferred part in accordance with RFC2046). In practice, this normally results in the
alternative plain text part being deleted of an html message. Useful in combination with the
"flattenMultiparts" rule.

Adding your own rules

If you have designed your own rule, please consider contributing this to Mail::Box; it may be useful for
other people as well.

Each rule is called

my $new = $code->($message, $part, %options)

where the %options are defined by the "rebuild()" method internals. At least the "rules" option is
passed, which is a full expansion of all the rules which will be applied.

Your subroutine shall return $part if no changes are needed, "undef" if the part should be removed, and
any newly constructed "Mail::Message::Part" when a change is required. It is easiest to start looking at
the source code of this package, and copy from a comparible routine.

When you have your own routine, you simply call:

my $rebuild_message = $message->rebuild
( extra_rules => [ \&my_own_rule, 'other_rule' ] );

DIAGNOSTICS

       Error: No rebuild rule $name defined.

LICENSE

       Copyrights 2001-2023 by [Mark Overmeer <markov@cpan.org>]. 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://dev.perl.org/licenses/

perl v5.36.0                                       2023-12-11             Mail::Message::Construct::Rebuild(3pm)