The MIME Package

SourcePro Net : Internet Protocols Module User’s Guide : PART II Packages of the Internet Protocols Module : The MIME Package

The MIME Package

Introduction

MIME Class Hierarchy

MIME Basics

The MIME Package Representation of a Message

Introduction

The MIME package represents Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) messages as C++ objects. The package provides a simple, convenient interface for creating and processing MIME messages.

The MIME message format allows arbitrary content to be transmitted over protocols designed to accept only 7-bit US-ASCII messages. The MIME format:

Defines conventions for nontextual content in message bodies.

Defines conventions for message bodies and message headers in character sets other than traditional 7-bit ASCII.

Defines a message structure that allows more than one document to be included in a single message.

Defines an extension process for adapting the format to new content types.

Although MIME was originally designed for use with mail applications, other protocols use the MIME format to structure nontextual or multipart message content.

MIME is specified in five RFCs, numbers 2045-2049. The MIME package also supports the multipart/related content type defined in RFC 2387, the -Content‑Disposition header defined in RFC 1806, and the Content‑Location header defined in RFC 2557 described on the IETF website at http://www.ietf.org.