:mod:`email.mime`: Creating email and MIME objects from scratch

.. module:: email.mime
   :synopsis: Build MIME messages.

Ordinarily, you get a message object structure by passing a file or some text to a parser, which parses the text and returns the root message object. However you can also build a complete message structure from scratch, or even individual :class:`~email.message.Message` objects by hand. In fact, you can also take an existing structure and add new :class:`~email.message.Message` objects, move them around, etc. This makes a very convenient interface for slicing-and-dicing MIME messages.

You can create a new object structure by creating :class:`~email.message.Message` instances, adding attachments and all the appropriate headers manually. For MIME messages though, the :mod:`email` package provides some convenient subclasses to make things easier.

Here are the classes:

.. currentmodule:: email.mime.base

Module: :mod:`email.mime.base`

This is the base class for all the MIME-specific subclasses of :class:`~email.message.Message`. Ordinarily you won't create instances specifically of :class:`MIMEBase`, although you could. :class:`MIMEBase` is provided primarily as a convenient base class for more specific MIME-aware subclasses.

_maintype is the :mailheader:`Content-Type` major type (e.g. :mimetype:`text` or :mimetype:`image`), and _subtype is the :mailheader:`Content-Type` minor type (e.g. :mimetype:`plain` or :mimetype:`gif`). _params is a parameter key/value dictionary and is passed directly to :meth:`Message.add_header <email.message.Message.add_header>`.

The :class:`MIMEBase` class always adds a :mailheader:`Content-Type` header (based on _maintype, _subtype, and _params), and a :mailheader:`MIME-Version` header (always set to 1.0).

.. currentmodule:: email.mime.nonmultipart

Module: :mod:`email.mime.nonmultipart`

A subclass of :class:`~email.mime.base.MIMEBase`, this is an intermediate base class for MIME messages that are not :mimetype:`multipart`. The primary purpose of this class is to prevent the use of the :meth:`~email.message.Message.attach` method, which only makes sense for :mimetype:`multipart` messages. If :meth:`~email.message.Message.attach` is called, a :exc:`~email.errors.MultipartConversionError` exception is raised.

.. versionadded:: 2.2.2

.. currentmodule:: email.mime.multipart

Module: :mod:`email.mime.multipart`

A subclass of :class:`~email.mime.base.MIMEBase`, this is an intermediate base class for MIME messages that are :mimetype:`multipart`. Optional _subtype defaults to :mimetype:`mixed`, but can be used to specify the subtype of the message. A :mailheader:`Content-Type` header of :mimetype:`multipart/_subtype` will be added to the message object. A :mailheader:`MIME-Version` header will also be added.

Optional boundary is the multipart boundary string. When None (the default), the boundary is calculated when needed (for example, when the message is serialized).

_subparts is a sequence of initial subparts for the payload. It must be possible to convert this sequence to a list. You can always attach new subparts to the message by using the :meth:`Message.attach <email.message.Message.attach>` method.

Additional parameters for the :mailheader:`Content-Type` header are taken from the keyword arguments, or passed into the _params argument, which is a keyword dictionary.

.. versionadded:: 2.2.2

.. currentmodule:: email.mime.application

Module: :mod:`email.mime.application`

A subclass of :class:`~email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart`, the :class:`MIMEApplication` class is used to represent MIME message objects of major type :mimetype:`application`. _data is a string containing the raw byte data. Optional _subtype specifies the MIME subtype and defaults to :mimetype:`octet-stream`.

Optional _encoder is a callable (i.e. function) which will perform the actual encoding of the data for transport. This callable takes one argument, which is the :class:`MIMEApplication` instance. It should use :meth:`~email.message.Message.get_payload` and :meth:`~email.message.Message.set_payload` to change the payload to encoded form. It should also add any :mailheader:`Content-Transfer-Encoding` or other headers to the message object as necessary. The default encoding is base64. See the :mod:`email.encoders` module for a list of the built-in encoders.

_params are passed straight through to the base class constructor.

.. versionadded:: 2.5

.. currentmodule:: email.mime.audio

Module: :mod:`email.mime.audio`

A subclass of :class:`~email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart`, the :class:`MIMEAudio` class is used to create MIME message objects of major type :mimetype:`audio`. _audiodata is a string containing the raw audio data. If this data can be decoded by the standard Python module :mod:`sndhdr`, then the subtype will be automatically included in the :mailheader:`Content-Type` header. Otherwise you can explicitly specify the audio subtype via the _subtype parameter. If the minor type could not be guessed and _subtype was not given, then :exc:`TypeError` is raised.

Optional _encoder is a callable (i.e. function) which will perform the actual encoding of the audio data for transport. This callable takes one argument, which is the :class:`MIMEAudio` instance. It should use :meth:`~email.message.Message.get_payload` and :meth:`~email.message.Message.set_payload` to change the payload to encoded form. It should also add any :mailheader:`Content-Transfer-Encoding` or other headers to the message object as necessary. The default encoding is base64. See the :mod:`email.encoders` module for a list of the built-in encoders.

_params are passed straight through to the base class constructor.

.. currentmodule:: email.mime.image

Module: :mod:`email.mime.image`

A subclass of :class:`~email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart`, the :class:`MIMEImage` class is used to create MIME message objects of major type :mimetype:`image`. _imagedata is a string containing the raw image data. If this data can be decoded by the standard Python module :mod:`imghdr`, then the subtype will be automatically included in the :mailheader:`Content-Type` header. Otherwise you can explicitly specify the image subtype via the _subtype parameter. If the minor type could not be guessed and _subtype was not given, then :exc:`TypeError` is raised.

Optional _encoder is a callable (i.e. function) which will perform the actual encoding of the image data for transport. This callable takes one argument, which is the :class:`MIMEImage` instance. It should use :meth:`~email.message.Message.get_payload` and :meth:`~email.message.Message.set_payload` to change the payload to encoded form. It should also add any :mailheader:`Content-Transfer-Encoding` or other headers to the message object as necessary. The default encoding is base64. See the :mod:`email.encoders` module for a list of the built-in encoders.

_params are passed straight through to the :class:`~email.mime.base.MIMEBase` constructor.

.. currentmodule:: email.mime.message

Module: :mod:`email.mime.message`

A subclass of :class:`~email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart`, the :class:`MIMEMessage` class is used to create MIME objects of main type :mimetype:`message`. _msg is used as the payload, and must be an instance of class :class:`~email.message.Message` (or a subclass thereof), otherwise a :exc:`TypeError` is raised.

Optional _subtype sets the subtype of the message; it defaults to :mimetype:`rfc822`.

.. currentmodule:: email.mime.text

Module: :mod:`email.mime.text`

A subclass of :class:`~email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart`, the :class:`MIMEText` class is used to create MIME objects of major type :mimetype:`text`. _text is the string for the payload. _subtype is the minor type and defaults to :mimetype:`plain`. _charset is the character set of the text and is passed as a parameter to the :class:`~email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart` constructor; it defaults to us-ascii. If _text is unicode, it is encoded using the output_charset of _charset, otherwise it is used as-is.

.. versionchanged:: 2.4
   The previously deprecated *_encoding* argument has been removed.  Content
   Transfer Encoding now happens implicitly based on the *_charset*
   argument.

Unless the _charset parameter is explicitly set to None, the MIMEText object created will have both a :mailheader:`Content-Type` header with a charset parameter, and a :mailheader:`Content-Transfer-Endcoding` header. This means that a subsequent set_payload call will not result in an encoded payload, even if a charset is passed in the set_payload command. You can "reset" this behavior by deleting the Content-Transfer-Encoding header, after which a set_payload call will automatically encode the new payload (and add a new :mailheader:`Content-Transfer-Encoding` header).