Email:MIME, sending in multipart with attachment? - perl

Question

This is driving me nuts. I must be missing something stupid. I have the following sub:
sub send_email {
use MIME::Lite;
use MIME::Base64;
use Encode;
my $to = 'support#foobar.co.uk'; #$rec{'Email'};
my $from = $admin_email;
my $subject = "webform $html_title";
my $html = "some test <b>message</b> foo bar test";
my $text = "some test message some plain version";
# $html = decode( 'utf-8', $html );
# $text = decode( 'utf-8', $text );
my ($status,$attach,$newfile);
use Email::MIME;
use Email::Address::XS;
use Email::Sender::Simple qw(sendmail);
use IO::All;
use GT::MIMETypes;
# multipart message
my #alternative_parts = (
Email::MIME->create(
body_str => $text,
attributes => {
encoding => 'quoted-printable',
content_type => "text/plain",
disposition => "inline",
charset => "UTF-8",
}
),
Email::MIME->create(
body_str => $html,
attributes => {
encoding => 'quoted-printable',
charset => "UTF-8",
content_type => "text/html",
disposition => "inline",
}
)
);
my #attachment_parts;
my $attach = "/path/to/file/tables.cgi";
if ($attach) {
my $filename = (reverse split /\//, $attach)[0]; # also change
+d in body => below
my $content;
my $mime = GT::MIMETypes::guess_type($filename);
push #parts, Email::MIME->create(
attributes => {
filename => $filename,
content_type => $mime,
encoding => "base64",
name => $filename,
attachment => "attachment"
},
body => io( $attach )->binary->all,
)
}
my $email = Email::MIME->create(
header_str => [
From => $from,
To => [ $to ],
Subject => $subject
],
parts => \#parts,
attributes => {
encoding => 'base64',
charset => "UTF-8",
content_type => "multipart/multipart",
#disposition => "inline",
}
);
sendmail($email->as_string);
print "EMAIL: " . $email->as_string. "\n\n"; # print for andy
}
What it needs to do is include both a plain text and HTML body of the email. Then, also attached is a file (a .cgi just for testing :)).
While the emails come through fine on Gmail - it buggers up on Outlook/Thunderbird. I have a feeling its the way I'm breaking up the "parts". From my understanding, you need a "main" body part, which can be split into a plain text and HTML version - and then the attachment as another part of the main "part". I'm not too sure how to achieve this though?
This is how the "debug_structure" comes out:
Structure: + multipart/multipart; boundary="15846317930.c94ff7.26547"
+ text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
+ text/html; charset="UTF-8"
+ text/plain; attachment="attachment"; name="tables.cgi"
UPDATE: As suggested, I'm now trying nested parts:
# multipart message
my #message_parts = (
Email::MIME->create(
body_str => $text,
attributes => {
encoding => 'quoted-printable',
content_type => "text/plain",
disposition => "inline",
charset => "UTF-8",
}
),
Email::MIME->create(
body_str => $html,
attributes => {
encoding => 'quoted-printable',
charset => "UTF-8",
content_type => "text/html",
disposition => "inline",
}
)
);
my #all_parts;
push #all_parts, Email::MIME->create(
parts => [\#message_parts], # add all the message parts into here...
attributes => {
content_type => "multipart/alternative"
}
);
my $attach = "/home/user/web/public_html/cgi-bin/admin/tables.cgi";
if ($attach) {
my $filename = (reverse split /\//, $attach)[0]; # also changed in body => below
# better to use GT::MIMETypes if you have it with Fileman (pretty sure you do?)
my $mime = GT::MIMETypes::guess_type($filename);
push #all_parts, Email::MIME->create(
attributes => {
filename => $filename,
content_type => $mime,
encoding => "base64",
name => $filename
},
body => io( $attach )->binary->all,
)
}
my $email = Email::MIME->create(
header_str => [
From => $from,
To => [ $to ],
Subject => $subject
],
parts => [\#all_parts],
attributes => {
encoding => 'base64',
content_type => "multipart/mixed"
}
);
print qq|Structure: | . $email->debug_structure. "\n\n";
But I get an error:
Can't call method "as_string" on unblessed reference at
/usr/local/share/perl/5.22.1/Email/MIME.pm line 771.
Line 771 is in parts_set in Email::MIME - so I must be doing something wrong setting?
UPDATE 2: Thanks Steffen for your help! So this is the final working code, with the correct structure:
use Email::MIME;
use Email::Address::XS;
use Email::Sender::Simple qw(sendmail);
use IO::All;
use GT::MIMETypes;
my $to = 'support#foo.co.uk'; #$rec{'Email'};
my $from = $admin_email;
my $subject = "some title";
my $html = "some test <b>message</b> foo bar test";
my $text = "some test message some plain version";
$html = decode( 'utf-8', $html );
$text = decode( 'utf-8', $text );
# multipart message
my #message_parts = (
Email::MIME->create(
body_str => $text,
attributes => {
encoding => 'quoted-printable',
content_type => "text/plain",
disposition => "inline",
charset => "UTF-8",
}
),
Email::MIME->create(
body_str => $html,
attributes => {
encoding => 'quoted-printable',
charset => "UTF-8",
content_type => "text/html",
disposition => "inline",
}
)
);
my #all_parts;
push #all_parts, Email::MIME->create(
parts => \#message_parts, # add all the message parts into here...
attributes => {
content_type => "multipart/alternative"
}
);
my $attach = "/home/user/web/foo.co.uk/public_html/cgi-bin/admin/tables.cgi";
if ($attach) {
my $filename = (reverse split /\//, $attach)[0]; # also changed in body => below
# better to use GT::MIMETypes if you have it with Fileman (pretty sure you do?)
my $mime = "plain/text"; # hard coded in this example, but you want to set the correct type for the attachment type
push #all_parts, Email::MIME->create(
attributes => {
filename => $filename,
content_type => $mime,
encoding => "base64",
name => $filename
},
body => io( $attach )->binary->all,
)
}
my $email = Email::MIME->create(
header_str => [
From => $from,
To => [ $to ],
Subject => $subject
],
parts => \#all_parts,
attributes => {
encoding => 'base64',
content_type => "multipart/mixed"
}
);
print qq|Structure: | . $email->debug_structure. "\n\n";
sendmail($email->as_string);
The structure now comes out correctly as:
Structure: + multipart/mixed; boundary="15846944601.d6aF.12245"
+ multipart/alternative; boundary="15846944600.d79D2A2.12245"
+ text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
+ text/html; charset="UTF-8"
+ text/plain; name="tables.cgi"

Answer 1

There is no such thing as a multipart/multipart which you use. Your mail should have the following structure instead:
multipart/mixed
|- multipart/alternative << mail client will choose which of the parts to display
| | text/plain << the mail as plain text
| | text/html << the mail as HTML
|- text/plain << the attachment
As for the attachment it might be useful to choose a content-type which better matches the attachment type. If the attachment is actually plain text then text/plain might be fine but if it is an image, office document, archive ... different content-type should be used.
Apart from that neither encoding nor charset nor disposition make any sense in a multipart definition. These are only relevant for final parts (text/plain etc), not for container parts (multipart/whatever)
attributes => {
encoding => 'base64',
charset => "UTF-8",
content_type => "multipart/multipart",
#disposition => "inline",
}