Mail::Message::Field::Structured(3)

NAME
Mail::Message::Field::Structured - one line of a structured message header

INHERITANCE
 Mail::Message::Field::Structured
   is a Mail::Message::Field::Full
   is a Mail::Message::Field
   is a Mail::Reporter

 Mail::Message::Field::Structured is extended by
   Mail::Message::Field::Addresses
   Mail::Message::Field::AuthResults
   Mail::Message::Field::DKIM
   Mail::Message::Field::Date
   Mail::Message::Field::URIs

SYNOPSIS
  my $f = Mail::Message::Field::Full
             ->new('Content-Type' => 'text/html');

  my @encode = (charset => 'jp', use_continuations => 1);
  $f->attribute('filename=passwd');
  $f->attribute(filename => 'passwd', @encode);

  my $attr = Mail::Message::Field::Attribute->new(...);
  $f->attribute($attr);

DESCRIPTION
Extends "DESCRIPTION" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

OVERLOADED
Extends "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

overload: "" stringification
    Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

overload: '""' stringification
    Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field

overload: '0+' numification
    Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field

overload: '<='> numeric comparison
    Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field

overload: bool boolean
    Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field

overload: cmp string comparison
    Inherited, see "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Message::Field

METHODS
Extends "METHODS" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

  Constructors
Extends "Constructors" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$obj->clone()
    Inherited, see "Constructors" in Mail::Message::Field

$class->from($field, %options)
    Inherited, see "Constructors" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$class->new(($line | $name, $body, @attributes), %options)
    •   new($line)

        Pass a $line as it could be found in a file: a (possibly folded) line which is terminated by a new-line.

    •   new($name, $body, @attributes, %options)

        A set of values which shape the line.

    The $name is a wellformed header name (you may use wellformedName()) to be sure about the casing. The $body is a string, one body object, or an ARRAY of body objects. In case of objects, they must fit to the constructor of the field: the types which are accepted may differ. The @attributes LIST contains Mail::Message::Field::Attribute objects. Finally, there are some %options. Improves base, see "METHODS" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

     -Option    --Defined in                --Default
      attributes                              +[ ]
      charset     Mail::Message::Field::Full  undef
      datum                                   undef
      encoding    Mail::Message::Field::Full  'q'
      force       Mail::Message::Field::Full  false
      language    Mail::Message::Field::Full  undef

    attributes => \@attributes|\%attributes
        There are various ways to specify these attributes: pass an ARRAY which list of key-value pairs representing @attributes, or an HASH containing these pairs, or an ARRAY with Mail::Message::Field::Attribute objects.

    charset => $charset
    datum => $date
        The method name body is very confusing, even in the RFC. In MailBox, for historical reasons, body() returns the part of the field contents before the first semi-colon. foldedBody() and unfoldedBody() address the whole field.

        There is no common name for the piece of data before the parameters (attributes) in the field-content mentioned in the RFCs, so let's call it "datum".

    encoding => 'q'|'Q'|'b'|'B'
    force => BOOLEAN
    language => $language

    » example: of a structured field

      my @attrs   = (Mail::Message::Field::Attribute->new(...), ...);
      my %options = (extra => 'the color blue');
      my $t = Mail::Message::Field::Full->new(To => \@addrs, @attrs, %options);

  Attributes
Extends "Attributes" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$obj->Name()
    Inherited, see "Attributes" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->body()
    Inherited, see "Attributes" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->folded()
    Inherited, see "Attributes" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->foldedBody( [$body] )
    Inherited, see "Attributes" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->name()
    Inherited, see "Attributes" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->unfoldedBody( [$body, [$wrap]] )
    Inherited, see "Attributes" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->wellformedName( [STRING] )
    Inherited, see "Attributes" in Mail::Message::Field

  The field
Extends "The field" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$any->isStructured( [$name] )
    Inherited, see "The field" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->length()
    Inherited, see "The field" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->nrLines()
    Inherited, see "The field" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->print( [$fh] )
    Inherited, see "The field" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->size()
    Inherited, see "The field" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->string( [$wrap] )
    Inherited, see "The field" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->toDisclose()
    Inherited, see "The field" in Mail::Message::Field

  Access to the body
Extends "Access to the body" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$obj->decodedBody(%options)
    Inherited, see "Access to the body" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

  Access to the content
Extends "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$obj->addresses()
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->attrPairs()
    Returns a list with attribute name and value pairs.

$obj->attribute( $object|<STRING, %options>|<$name,$value,%options> )
    Add an attribute to the field. The attributes are added left-to-right into the string representation of the field, although the order of the attributes is un-important, according to the RFCs.

    You may pass a fully prepared Mail::Message::Field::Attribute $object, if you like to do all preparations for correct representation of the data yourself. You may also pass one "STRING", which is a fully prepared attribute. This "STRING" will not be changed, so be careful about quoting and encodings.

    As third possibility, you can specify an attribute $name and its $value. An attribute object will be created for you implicitly in both cases where such object is not supplied, passing the %options. See Mail::Message::Field::Attribute::new() about the available %options.

    The attribute object is returned, however, when continuations are used this may be an object you already know about. "undef" is returned when construction fails (when the attribute is incorrect). Improves base, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

    » example:

      $f->attribute(filename => 'passwd');
      $f->attribute(filename => 'passwd', use_continuations => 0);

      my $attr = Mail::Message::Field::Attribute->new(...);
      $f->attribute($attr);

$obj->attributes()
    Returns a list with all attributes, which are all Mail::Message::Field::Attribute objects. The attributes are not ordered in any way. The list may be empty. Double attributes or continuations are folded into one. Improves base, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->beautify()
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$obj->comment( [STRING] )
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

$any->createComment(STRING, %options)
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$any->createPhrase(STRING, %options)
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$any->dateToTimestamp(STRING)
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

$any->stripCFWS( [STRING] )
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->study()
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

$any->toDate( [$time] )
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->toInt()
    Inherited, see "Access to the content" in Mail::Message::Field

  Internals
Extends "Internals" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$any->decode(STRING, %options)
    Inherited, see "Internals" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$obj->encode(STRING, %options)
    Inherited, see "Internals" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

  Parsing
Extends "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$obj->consume( $line | <$name,<$body|$objects>> )
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field

$any->consumeComment(STRING)
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$obj->consumeDotAtom(STRING)
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$any->consumePhrase(STRING)
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$obj->datum( [$value] )
    The part of the field before the semi-colon (";").

$obj->defaultWrapLength( [$length] )
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field

$any->fold( $name, $body, [$maxchars] )
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->parse(STRING)
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$obj->produceBody()
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field::Full

$obj->setWrapLength( [$length] )
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->stringifyData(STRING|ARRAY|$objects)
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field

$obj->unfold(STRING)
    Inherited, see "Parsing" in Mail::Message::Field

  Error handling
Extends "Error handling" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$obj->AUTOLOAD()
    Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

$obj->notImplemented()
    Inherited, see "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

  Cleanup
Extends "Cleanup" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

$obj->DESTROY()
    Inherited, see "Cleanup" in Mail::Reporter

DETAILS
Extends "DETAILS" in Mail::Message::Field::Full.

DIAGNOSTICS

Error: class $package does not implement method $method.
    Fatal error: the specific $package (or one of its superclasses) does not implement this method where it should. This message means that some other related classes do implement this method however the class at hand does not. Probably you should investigate this and probably inform the author of the package. Cast by notImplemented()

Warning: field content is not numerical: $content
    The numeric value of a field is requested (for instance the "Lines" or "Content-Length" fields should be numerical), however the data contains weird characters. Cast by toInt()

Error: field name too long (max $count), in '$name'.
    It is not specified in the RFCs how long a field name can be, but at least it should be a few characters shorter than the line wrap. Cast by fold()

Warning: illegal character in charset '$name'.
    The field is created with an utf8 string which only contains data from the specified character set. However, that character set can never be a valid name because it contains characters which are not permitted. Cast by encode()

Warning: illegal character in field name $name.
    A new field is being created which does contain characters not permitted by the RFCs. Using this field in messages may break other e-mail clients or transfer agents, and therefore mutulate or extinguish your message. Cast by consume()

Warning: illegal character in language '$name'.
    The field is created with data which is specified to be in a certain language, however, the name of the language cannot be valid: it contains characters which are not permitted by the RFCs. Cast by encode()

Warning: illegal encoding '$name', using 'q'.
    The RFCs only permit base64 ("b " or "B ") or quoted-printable ("q" or "Q") encoding. Other than these four options are illegal. Cast by encode()

SEE ALSO
This module is part of Mail-Message version 4.05, built on April 10, 2026. Website: http://perl.overmeer.net/mailbox/

LICENSE
For contributors see file ChangeLog.

This software is copyright (c) 2001-2026 by Mark Overmeer.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.