man MIME::Lite::HTML (3): Provide routine to transform a HTML page in a MIME-Lite mail

SYNOPSIS

perl -MMIME::Lite::HTML -e '
new MIME::Lite::HTML
From => "MIME-Lite\@alianwebserver.com",
To => "alian\@cpan.org",
Url => "http://localhost/server-status";'

VERSION

$Revision: 1.23 $

DESCRIPTION

This module is a Perl mail client interface for sending message that support HTML format and build them for you.. This module provide routine to transform a HTML page in MIME::Lite mail. So you need this module to use MIME-Lite-HTML possibilities

What's happen ?

The job done is:

Get the file (LWP) if needed
Parse page to find include images (gif, jpg, flash)
Attach them to mail with adequat header if asked (default)
Include external CSS,Javascript file
Replace relative url with absolute one
Build the final MIME-Lite object with each part found

Usage

Did you alread see link like ``Send this page to a friend'' ?. With this module, you can do script that to this in 3 lines.

It can be used too in a HTML newsletter. You make a classic HTML page, and give just url to MIME::Lite::HTML.

Construction

MIME-Lite-HTML use a MIME-Lite object, and RFC2557 construction:

If images and text are present, construction use is:

  --> multipart/alternative
  ------> text/plain
  ------> multipart/related
  -------------> text/html
  -------------> each images

If no images but text is present, this is that:

  ---> multipart/alternative
  -------> text/plain if present
  -------> text/html

If images but no text, this is:

  ---> multipart/related
  -------> text/html
  -------> each images

If no images and no text, this is:

  ---> text/html

Documentation

Additionnal documentation can be found here:

MIME-lite module
RFC 822, RFC 1521, RFC 1522 and specially RFC 2557 (MIME Encapsulation of Aggregate Documents, such as HTML)

Clients tested

HTML in mail is not full supported so this module can't work with all email clients. If some client recognize HTML, they didn't support images include in HTML. So in fact, they recognize multipart/relative but not multipart/related.

Netscape Messager (Linux-Windows): 100% ok
Outlook Express (Windows-Mac): 100% ok. Mac work only with Content-Location header. Thx to Steve Benbow for give mr this feedback and for his test.
Eudora (Windows): If this module just send HTML and text, (without images), 100% ok.
With images, Eudora didn't recognize multipart/related part as describe in RFC 2557 even if he can read his own HTML mail. So if images are present in HTML part, text and HTML part will be displayed both, text part in first. Two additional headers will be displayed in HTML part too in this case. Version 1.0 of this module correct major problem of headers displayed with image include in HTML part.
KMail (Linux): If this module just send HTML and text, (without images), 100% ok.
In other case, Kmail didn't support image include in HTML. So if you set in KMail ``Prefer HTML to text'', it display HTML with images broken. Otherwise, it display text part.
Pegasus (Windows): If this module just send HTML and text, (without images), 100% ok.
Pegasus didn't support images in HTML. When it find a multipart/related message, it ignore it, and display text part.

If you find others mail client who support (or not support) MIME-Lite-HTML module, give me some feedback ! If you want be sure that your mail can be read by maximum of people, (so not only OE and Netscape), don't include images in your mail, and use a text buffer too. If multipart/related mail is not recognize, multipart/alternative can be read by the most of mail client.

Install on WinX with ActiveState / PPM

Just do in DOS ``shell'':

  c:\ ppm
  > set repository alian http://www.alianwebserver.com/perl/CPAN
  > install MIME-Lite-HTML
  > quit

How know when next release will be ?

Subscribe on http://www.alianwebserver.com/cgi-bin/news_mlh.cgi

Public Interface

new(%hash)

Create a new instance of MIME::Lite::HTML.

The hash can have this key : [Url], [Proxy], [Debug], [IncludeType],
[HashTemplate], [LoginDetails], [TextCharset], [HTMLCharset],
[TextEncoding], [HTMLEncoding], [remove_jscript]

Url

... is url to parse and send. If this param is found, call of parse routine and send of mail is done. Else you must use parse routine of MIME::Lite::HTML and send of MIME::Lite.

Proxy

... is url of proxy to use.

  Eg: Proxy => 'http://192.168.100.166:8080'

remove_jscript

if set, remove all script code from html source

  Eg: remove_jscript => 1

Debug

... is trace to stdout during parsing.

  Eg: Debug => 1

IncludeType

... is method to use when finding images:

location: Default method is embed them in mail whith 'Content-Location' header.
cid: You use a 'Content-CID' header.
extern: Images are not embed, relative url are just replace with absolute, so images are fetch when user read mail. (Server must be reachable !)

ExternImages

This is a listref of regular expressions. If an image matches any of the regular expressions, it will be rendered as an <img> link, without being attached to the mail, regardless of the IncludeType setting above. For example:

  ExternImages => [ '.*cat\.jpg.*', 'external/.*' ]

...would mean that ``images/cat.jpg'' and ``external/foo.jpg'' would be sent as external <img> links, but ``images/dog.jpg'' would be sent using whatever the default IncludeType (above) is.

$hash{'HashTemplate'}

... is a reference to a hash. If present, MIME::Lite::HTML will substitute <? $name ?> with $hash{'HashTemplate'}{'name'} when parse url to send. $hash{'HashTemplate'} can be used too for include data for subelement. Eg:

  $hash{'HashTemplate'}{'http://www.al.com/images/sommaire.gif'}=\@data;

  $hash{'HashTemplate'}{'http://www.al.com/script.js'}="alert("Hello world");;

When module find the image http://www.alianwebserver.com/images/sommaire.gif in buffer, it don't get image with LWP but use data found in $hash{'HashTemplate'}. (See eg/example2.pl)

LoginDetails

... is the couple user:password for use with restricted url.

  Eg: LoginDetails => 'my_user:my_password'

TextCharset

... is the character set to use for the text part.

  Eg: TextCharset => 'iso-8859-7'

for Greek. If none specified, the default is used (iso-8859-1).

HTMLCharset

... is the character set to use for the html part.

  Eg:  HTMLCharset => 'iso-8859-7'

for Greek. If none specified, the default is used (iso-8859-1). Take care, as that option does NOT change the character set of the HTML page, it only changes the character set of the mime part.

TextEncoding

... is the Encoding to be used for the text part (if such a part exists). If none specified, the default is used (7bit).

  Eg: TextEncoding => 'base64'

HTMLEncoding

... is the Encoding to be used for the html part. If none specified, the default is used (quoted-printable).

  Eg: HTMLEncoding => 'base64'.

Others keys are use with MIME::Lite constructor.

This MIME-Lite keys are: Bcc, Encrypted, Received, Sender, Cc, From, References, Subject, Comments, Keywords, Reply-To To, Content-*, Message-ID,Resent-*, X-*,Date, MIME-Version, Return-Path, Organization

parse($html, [$url_txt], [$url_base])

Subroutine used for created HTML mail with MIME-Lite

Parameters:

$html

Url of HTML file to send, can be a local file. If $url is not an url (http or https or ftp or file or nntp), $url is used as a buffer. Example :

  http://www.alianwebserver.com
  file://c|/tmp/index.html
  <img src=toto.gif>

$url_txt

Url of text part to send for person who doesn't support HTML mail. As $html, $url_txt can be a simple buffer.

$url_base

$url_base is used if $html is a buffer, for get element found in HTML buffer.

: Return the MIME::Lite part to send

size()

Display size of mail in characters (so octets) that will be send. (So use it *after* parse method). Use this method for control size of mail send, I personnaly hate receive 500k by mail. I pay for a 33k modem :-(

Private methods

build_mime_object($html,[$txt],[@mail])

(private)

Build the final MIME-Lite object to send with each part read before

$html: Buffer of HTML part
$txt: Buffer of text part
@mail: List of images attached to HTML part. Each item is a MIME-Lite object.

: See ``Construction'' in ``Description'' for know how MIME-Lite object is build.

create_image_part($url)

(private)

Fetch if needed $url, and create a MIME part for it.

include_css($gabarit,$root)

(private)

Search in HTML buffer ($gabarit) to remplace call to extern CSS file with his content. $root is original absolute url where css file will be found.

include_javascript($gabarit,$root)

(private)

Search in HTML buffer ($gabarit) to remplace call to extern javascript file with his content. $root is original absolute url where javascript file will be found.

input_image($gabarit,$root)

(private)

Search in HTML buffer ($gabarit) to remplace input form image with his cid

Return final buffer and list of MIME::Lite part

link_form($gabarit,$root)

(private)

Replace link to formulaire with absolute link

fill_template($masque,$vars)

$masque: Path of template
$vars: hash ref with keys/val to substitue

Give template with remplaced variables Ex: if $$vars{age}=12, and $masque have

  J'ai <? $age ?> ans,

this function give:

  J'ai 12 ans,

Error Handling

The set_err routine is used privately. You can ask for an array of all the errors which occured inside the parse routine by calling:

@errors = $mailHTML->errstr;

If no errors where found, it'll return undef.

CGI Example

  #!/usr/bin/perl -w 
  # A cgi program that do "Mail this page to a friend";
  # Call this script like this :
  # [email protected]&url=http://www.go.com
  use strict;
  use CGI qw/:standard/;
  use CGI::Carp qw/fatalsToBrowser/;
  use MIME::Lite::HTML;
  
  my $mailHTML = new MIME::Lite::HTML
     From     => '[email protected]',
     To       => param('email'),
     Subject => 'Your url: '.param('url');
  
  my $MIMEmail = $mailHTML->parse(param('url'));
  $MIMEmail->send; # or for win user : $mail->send_by_smtp('smtp.fai.com');
  print header,"Mail envoye (", param('url'), " to ", param('email'),")<br>\n";

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

  Copyright (c) 2000 by Alain BARBET alian (at) cpan.org

This software comes with NO WARRANTY of any kind. See the COPYING file in the distribution for details.

AUTHOR

Alain BARBET [email protected] , see file Changes for helpers.

SYNOPSIS

VERSION

DESCRIPTION

What's happen ?

Usage

Construction

Documentation

Clients tested

Install on WinX with ActiveState / PPM

How know when next release will be ?

Public Interface

Private methods

Error Handling

CGI Example

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

AUTHOR

LAST SEARCHED