MIME Package Advanced Topics
Using the MIME Headers Effectively
This section presents each of the MIME headers supported by the MIME package with a focus on using the headers effectively. The section provides background reading and a quick reference rather than task lists or a complete specification of the headers. For step-by-step instructions, see
Chapter 9, Using the MIME Package. For the complete details on a specific header, see the RFC that defines the header.
The key to using MIME headers effectively is understanding how the headers describe the content of the body.
Figure 32 shows a simple MIME message containing nine headers and a part body that consists of a single line of data.
Example 32 – Example MIME headers
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Description: very simple MIME message
Content-ID: <part00909@roguewave.example>
Content-Location: http://roguewave.example/simple.txt
Content-Disposition: inline
This is the body of the message.
Each header contains a label, such as MIME-Version, and a value, such as 1.0. The first five header fields are specified by MIME in RFC 2045. The Content-Location header is specified in RFC 2557, and the Content-Disposition header is specified in RFC 1806. Each header in this example message is discussed in more detail below.
