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NAME

Mail::Sender - module for sending mails with attachments through an SMTP server

Version 0.8.00

SYNOPSIS

 use Mail::Sender;
 $sender = new Mail::Sender
  {smtp => 'mail.yourdomain.com', from => 'your@address.com'};
 $sender->MailFile({to => 'some@address.com',
  subject => 'Here is the file',
  msg => "I'm sending you the list you wanted.",
  file => 'filename.txt'});

DESCRIPTION

Mail::Sender provides an object oriented interface to sending mails. It doesn't need any outer program. It connects to a mail server directly from Perl, using Socket.

Sends mails directly from Perl through a socket connection.

new Mail::Sender

 new Mail::Sender ([from [,replyto [,to [,smtp [,subject [,headers [,boundary]]]]]]])
 new Mail::Sender {[from => 'somebody@somewhere.com'] , [to => 'else@nowhere.com'] [...]}

Prepares a sender. This doesn't start any connection to the server. You have to use $Sender-Open> or $Sender-OpenMultipart> to start talking to the server.

The parameters are used in subsequent calls to $Sender-Open> and $Sender-OpenMultipart>. Each such call changes the saved variables. You can set smtp, from and other options here and then use the info in all messages.

Parameters

from

=> the sender's e-mail address

fake_from

=> the address that will be shown in headers.

If not specified we use the value of from.

replyto

=> the reply-to address

to

=> the recipient's address(es)

This parameter may be either a comma separated list of email addresses or a reference to a list of addresses.

fake_to

=> the recipient's address that will be shown in headers. If not specified we use the value of "to".

If the list of addresses you want to send your message to is long or if you do not want the recipients to see each other's address set the fake_to parameter to some informative, yet bogus, address or to the address of your mailing/distribution list.

cc

=> address(es) to send a copy (CC:) to

fake_cc

=> the address that will be shown in headers.

If not specified we use the value of "cc".

bcc

=> address(es) to send a copy (BCC: or blind carbon copy). these addresses will not be visible in the mail!

smtp

=> the IP or domain address of your SMTP (mail) server

This is the name of your LOCAL mail server, do NOT try to contact directly the adressee's mailserver! That would be slow and buggy, your script should only pass the messages to the nearest mail server and leave the rest to it. Keep in mind that the recipient's server may be down temporarily.

subject

=> the subject of the message

headers

=> the additional headers

You may use this parameter to add custon headers into the message.

boundary

=> the message boundary

You usualy do not have to change this, it might only come in handy if you need to attach a multipart mail created by Mail::Sender to your message as a single part. Even in that case any problems are unlikely.

multipart

=> the MIME subtype for the whole message (Mixed/Related/Alternative)

You may need to change this setting if you want to send a HTML body with some inline images, or if you want to post the message in plain text as well as HTML (alternative). See the examples at the end of the docs. You may also use the nickname "subtype".

Please keep in mind though that it's not currently possible to create nested parts with Mail::Sender. If you need that level of control you should try MIME::Lite.

ctype

=> the content type of a single part message

Please do not confuse these two. The 'multipart' parameter is used to specify the overall content type of a multipart message (for example a HTML document with inlined images) while ctype is an ordinary content type for a single part message. For example a HTML mail message without any inlines.

encoding

=> encoding of a single part message or the body of a multipart message.

If the text of the message contains some extended characters or very long lines you should use 'encoding => "Quoted-printable"' in the call to Open(), OpenMultipart(), MailMsg() or MailFile().

Keep in mind that if you use some encoding you should either use SendEnc() or encode the data yourself !

charset

=> the charset of the message

client

=> the name of the client computer.

During the connection you send the mailserver your computer's name. By default Mail::Sender sends (gethostbyname 'localhost')[0]. If that is not the address you need, you can specify a different one.

priority

=> the message priority number

1 = highest, 2 = high, 3 = normal, 4 = low, 5 = lowest

confirm

=> whether you request reading or delivery confirmations and to what addresses:

        "delivery" - only delivery, to the C<from> address
        "reading" - only reading, to the C<from> address
        "delivery, reading" - both confirmations, to the C<from> address
        "delivery: my.other@address.com" - only delivery, to my.other@address.com
        ...

Keep in mind though that neither of those is guaranteed to work. Some servers/mail clients do not support this feature and some users/admins may have disabled it. So it's possible that your mai was delivered and read, but you wount get any confirmation!

debug

=> "/path/to/debug/file.txt"

or

=> \*FILEHANDLE

or

=> $FH

All the conversation with the server will be logged to that file or handle. All lines in the file should end with CRLF (the Windows and Internet format). If even a single one of them does not, please let me know!

auth

the SMTP authentication protocol to use to login to the server currently the only ones supported are LOGIN, PLAIN and CRAM-MD5

authid

the username used to login to the server

authpwd

the password used to login to the server other authentication protocols may use other options as well. They should all start with "auth" though.

Please see the authentication section bellow.

Return codes

  ref to a Mail::Sender object =  success

  -1 = $smtphost unknown
  -2 = socket() failed
  -3 = connect() failed
  -4 = service not available
  -5 = unspecified communication error
  -6 = local user $to unknown on host $smtp
  -7 = transmission of message failed
  -8 = argument $to empty
  -9 = no message specified in call to MailMsg or MailFile
  -10 = no file name specified in call to SendFile or MailFile
  -11 = file not found
  -12 = not available in singlepart mode
  -13 = site specific error
  -14 = connection not established. Did you mean MailFile instead of SendFile?
  -15 = no SMTP server specified
  -16 = no From: address specified
  -17 = authentication protocol not accepted by the server
  -18 = login not accepted
  -19 = authentication protocol is not implemented

$Mail::Sender::Error contains a textual description of last error.

METHODS

Open

 Open([from [, replyto [, to [, smtp [, subject [, headers]]]]]])
 Open({[from => "somebody@somewhere.com"] , [to => "else@nowhere.com"] [...]})

Opens a new message. If some parameters are unspecified or empty, it uses the parameters passed to the "$Sender=new Mail::Sender(...)";

See new Mail::Sender for info about the parameters.

Returns ref to the Mail::Sender object if successfull, a negative error code if not.

OpenMultipart

 OpenMultipart([from [, replyto [, to [, smtp [, subject [, headers [, boundary]]]]]]])
 OpenMultipart({[from => "somebody@somewhere.com"] , [to => "else@nowhere.com"] [...]})

Opens a multipart message. If some parameters are unspecified or empty, it uses the parameters passed to the $Sender=new Mail::Sender(...).

See new Mail::Sender for info about the parameters.

Returns ref to the Mail::Sender object if successfull, a negative error code if not.

MailMsg

 MailMsg([from [, replyto [, to [, smtp [, subject [, headers]]]]]], message)
 MailMsg({[from => "somebody@somewhere.com"]
          [, to => "else@nowhere.com"] [...], msg => "Message"})

Sends a message. If a mail in $sender is opened it gets closed and a new mail is created and sent. $sender is then closed. If some parameters are unspecified or empty, it uses the parameters passed to the "$Sender=new Mail::Sender(...)";

See new Mail::Sender for info about the parameters.

The module was made so that you could create an object initialized with all the necesary options and then send several messages without need to specify the SMTP server and others each time. If you need to send only one mail using MailMsg() or MailFile() you do not have to create a named object and then call the method. You may do it like this :

 (new Mail::Sender)->MailMsg({smtp => 'mail.company.com', ...});

Returns ref to the Mail::Sender object if successfull, a negative error code if not.

MailFile

 MailFile([from [, replyto [, to [, smtp [, subject [, headers]]]]]], message, file(s))
 MailFile({[from => "somebody@somewhere.com"]
           [, to => "else@nowhere.com"] [...],
           msg => "Message", file => "File"})

Sends one or more files by mail. If a mail in $sender is opened it gets closed and a new mail is created and sent. $sender is then closed. If some parameters are unspecified or empty, it uses the parameters passed to the "$Sender=new Mail::Sender(...)";

The file parameter may be a "filename", a "list, of, file, names" or a \@list of file names.

see new Mail::Sender for info about the parameters.

Just keep in mind that parameters like ctype, charset and encoding will be used for the attached file, not the body of the message. If you want to specify those parameters for the body you have to use b_ctype, b_charset and b_encoding. Sorry.

Returns ref to the Mail::Sender object if successfull, a negative error code if not.

Send

 Send(@strings)

Prints the strings to the socket. Doesn't add any end-of-line characters. Doesn't encode the data! You should use \r\n as the end-of-line!

UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING YOU SHOULD USE SendEnc() INSTEAD!

Returns 1 if successfull.

SendLine

 SendLine(@strings)

Prints the strings to the socket. Adds the end-of-line character at the end. Doesn't encode the data! You should use \r\n as the end-of-line!

UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING YOU SHOULD USE SendEnc() INSTEAD!

Returns 1 if successfull.

print

Alias to SendEnc().

Keep in mind that you can't write :

        print $sender "...";

you have to use

        $sender->print("...");

If you want to be able to print into the message as if it was a normal file handle take a look at GetHandle()

SendEnc

 SendEnc(@strings)

Prints the strings to the socket. Doesn't add any end-of-line characters.

Encodes the text using the selected encoding (none/Base64/Quoted-printable)

Returns 1 if successfull.

SendLineEnc

 SendLineEnc(@strings)

Prints the strings to the socket. Add the end-of-line character at the end. Encodes the text using the selected encoding (none/Base64/Quoted-printable).

Do NOT mix up /Send(Line)?(Ex)?/ and /Send(Line)?Enc/! SendEnc does some buffering necessary for correct Base64 encoding, and /Send(Ex)?/ is not aware of that!

Usage of /Send(Line)?(Ex)?/ in non 7BIT parts not recommended. Using Send(encode_base64($string)) may work, but more likely it will not! In particular if you use several such to create one part, the data is very likely to get crippled.

Returns 1 if successfull.

SendEx

 SendEx(@strings)

Prints the strings to the socket. Doesn't add any end-of-line characters. Changes all end-of-lines to \r\n. Doesn't encode the data!

UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING YOU SHOULD USE SendEnc() INSTEAD!

Returns 1 if successfull.

SendLineEx

 SendLineEx(@strings)

Prints the strings to the socket. Adds an end-of-line character at the end. Changes all end-of-lines to \r\n. Doesn't encode the data!

UNLESS YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING YOU SHOULD USE SendEnc() INSTEAD!

Returns 1 if successfull.

Part

 Part( I<description>, I<ctype>, I<encoding>, I<disposition> [, I<content_id> [, I<msg>]]);
 Part( {[description => "desc"], [ctype => "content-type"], [encoding => "..."],
     [disposition => "..."], [content_id => "..."], [msg => ...]});

Prints a part header for the multipart message and (if specified) the contents. The undefined or empty variables are ignored.

description

The title for this part.

ctype

the content type (MIME type) of this part. May contain some other parameters, such as charset or name.

Defaults to "application/octet-stream".

Since 0.8.00 you may use even "multipart/..." types. Such a multipart part should be closed by a call to $sender->EndPart($ctype).

        ...
        $sender->Part({ctype => "multipart/related", ...});
                $sender->Part({ctype => 'text/html', ...});
                $sender->Attach({file => 'some_image.gif', content_id => 'foo', ...});
        $sender->EndPart("multipart/related");
        ...

Please see the examples below.

encoding

the encoding used for this part of message. Eg. Base64, Uuencode, 7BIT ...

Defaults to "7BIT".

disposition

This parts disposition. Eg: 'attachment; filename="send.pl"'.

Defaults to "attachment". If you specify "none" or "", the Content-disposition: line will not be included in the headers.

content_id

The content id of the part, used in multipart/related. If not specified, the header is not included.

msg

The content of the part. You do not have to specify the content here, you may use SendEnc() to add content to the part.

Returns the Mail::Sender object if successfull, negative error code if not.

Body

 Body([charset [, encoding [, content-type]]]);
 Body({charset => '...', encoding => '...', ctype => '...', msg => '...');

Sends the head of the multipart message body. You can specify the charset and the encoding. Default is "US-ASCII","7BIT",'text/plain'.

If you pass undef or zero as the parameter, this function uses the default value:

    Body(0,0,'text/html');

Returns the Mail::Sender object if successfull, negative error code if not.

SendFile

Alias to Attach()

Attach

 Attach( I<description>, I<ctype>, I<encoding>, I<disposition>, I<file>);
 Attach( { [description => "desc"] , [ctype => "ctype"], [encoding => "encoding"],
             [disposition => "disposition"], file => "file"});

 Sends a file as a separate part of the mail message. Only in multipart mode.
description

The title for this part.

ctype

the content type (MIME type) of this part. May contain some other parameters, such as charset or name.

Defaults to "application/octet-stream".

encoding

the encoding used for this part of message. Eg. Base64, Uuencode, 7BIT ...

Defaults to "Base64".

disposition

This parts disposition. Eg: 'attachment; filename="send.pl"'. If you use 'attachment; filename=*' the * will be replaced by the respective names of the sent files.

Defaults to "attachment; filename=*". If you do not want to include this header use "" as the value.

file

The name of the file to send or a 'list, of, names' or a ['reference','to','a','list','of','filenames']. Each file will be sent as a separate part.

content_id

The content id of the message part. Used in multipart/related.

 Special values:
  "*" => the name of the file
  "#" => autoincremented number (starting from 0)

Returns the Mail::Sender object if successfull, negative error code if not.

EndPart

 $sender->EndPart($ctype);

Closes a multipart part.

If the $ctype is not present or evaluates to false, only the current SIMPLE part is closed! Don't do that unless you are really sure you know what you are doing.

It's best to always pass to the ->EndPart() the content type of the corresponding ->Part().

Close

 $sender->Close;

Close and send the mail. This method should be called automatically when destructing the object, but you should call it yourself just to be sure it gets called. And you should do it as soon as possible to close the connection and free the socket.

The mail is being sent to server, but is not processed by the server till the sender object is closed!

Returns the Mail::Sender object if successfull, negative error code if not.

Cancel

 $sender->Cancel;

Cancel an opened message.

SendFile and other methods may set $sender->{'error'}. In that case "undef $sender" calls $sender->Cancel not $sender->Close!!!

Returns the Mail::Sender object if successfull, negative error code if not.

QueryAuthProtocols

        @protocols = $sender->QueryAuthProtocols();
        @protocols = $sender->QueryAuthProtocols( $smtpserver);

Queryies the server (specified either in the default options for Mail::Sender, the "new Mail::Sender" command or as a parameter to this method for the authentication protocols it supports.

GetHandle

Returns a "filehandle" to which you can print the message or file to attach or whatever. The data you print to this handle will be encoded as necessary. Closing this handle closes either the message (for single part messages) or the part.

        $sender->Open({...});
        my $handle = $sender->GetHandle();
        print $handle "Hello world.\n"
        my ($mday,$mon,$year) = (localtime())[3,4,5];
        printf $handle "Today is %04d/%02d/%02d.", $year+1900, $mon+1, $mday;
        close $handle;

P.S.: There is a big difference between the handle stored in $sender->{'socket'} and the handle returned by this function ! If you print something to $sender->{'socket'} it will be sent to the server without any modifications, encoding, escaping, ... You should NOT touch the $sender->{'socket'} unless you really really know what you are doing.

FUNCTIONS

GuessCType

        $ctype = GuessCType $filename;

Guesses the content type based on the filename (actually ... the extension). This function is used when you attach a file and do not specify the content type. It is not exported by default!

Currently there are only a few extensions defined, you may add other extensions this way:

        $Mail::Sender::CTypes{ext} = 'content/type';
        ...

The extension has to be in lowercase and will be matched case insensitively.

CONFIG

If you create a file named Sender.config in the same directory where Sender.pm resides, this file will be "require"d as soon as you "use Mail::Sender" in your script. Of course the Sender.config MUST "return a true value", that is it has to be succesfully compiled and the last statement must return a true value. You may use this to forbide the use of Mail::Sender to some users.

You may define the default settings for new Mail::Sender objects and do a few more things.

The default options are stored in hash %Mail::Sender::default. You may use all the options you'd use in new, Open, OpenMultipart, MailMsg or MailFile.

 Eg.
  %default = (
    smtp => 'mail.mccann.cz',
    from => getlogin.'@mccann.cz',
    client => getlogin.'mccann.cz'
  );
  # of course you will use your own mail server here !

The other options you may set here (or later of course) are $Mail::Sender::SITE_HEADERS, $Mail::Sender::NO_X_MAILER and $Mail::Sender::NO_DATE.

The $Mail::Sender::SITE_HEADERS may contain headers that will be added to each mail message sent by this script, the $Mail::Sender::NO_X_MAILER disables the header item specifying that the message was sent by Mail::Sender and $Mail::Sender::NO_DATE turns off the Date: header generation.

!!! $Mail::Sender::SITE_HEADERS may NEVER end with \r\n !!!

If you want to set the $Mail::Sender::SITE_HEADERS for every script sent from your server without your users being able to change it you may use this hack:

 $loginname = something_that_identifies_the_user();
 *Mail::Sender::SITE_HEADERS = \"X-Sender: $loginname via $0";

You may even "install" your custom function that will be evaluated for each message just before contacting the server. You may change all the options from within as well as stop sending the message.

All you have to do is to create a function named SiteHook in Mail::Sender package. This function will get the Mail::Sender object as its first argument. If it returns a TRUE value the message is sent, if it returns FALSE the sending is canceled and the user gets "Site specific error" error message.

If you want to give some better error message you may do it like this :

 sub SiteHook {
  my $self = shift;
  if (whatever($self)) {
    $self->{'error'} = SITEERROR;
    $Mail::Sender::Error = "I don't like this mail";
    return 0
  } else {
    return 1;
  }
 }

This example will ensure the from address is the users real address :

 sub SiteHook {
  my $self = shift;
  $self->{'fromaddr'} = getlogin.'@yoursite.com';
  $self->{'from'} = getlogin.'@yoursite.com';
  1;
 }

Please note that at this stage the from address is in two different object properties.

$self->{'from'} is the address as it will appear in the mail, that is it may include the full name of the user or any other comment ( "Jan Krynicky <jenda@krynicky.cz>" for example), while the $self->{'fromaddr'} is realy just the email address per se and it will be used in conversation with the SMTP server. It must be without comments ("jenda@krynicky.cz" for example)!

Without write access to .../lib/Mail/Sender.pm or .../lib/Mail/Sender.config your users will then be unable to get rid of this header. Well ... everything is doable, if they are cheeky enough ... :-(

So if you take care of some site with virtual servers for several clients and implement some policy via SiteHook() or $Mail::Sender::SITE_HEADERS search the clients' scripts for "SiteHook" and "SITE_HEADERS" from time to time. To see who's cheating.

AUTHENTICATION

There are many authentication protocols defined for ESTMP, Mail::Sender natively supports only PLAIN, LOGIN and CRAM-MD5 (please see the docs for new Mail::Sender).

It is easy to add another protocol though. All you have to do is to define a function Mail::Sender::Auth::PROTOCOL_NAME that will implement the login. The function gets one parameter ... the Mail::Sender object. It can access these properties:

        $obj->{socket} : the socket to print to and read from
                you may use the send_cmd() function to send a request
                and read a response from the server
        $obj->{authid} : the username specified in the new Mail::Sender,
                Open or OpenMultipart call
        $obj->{authid} : the password
        $obj->{auth...} : all unknown parameters passed to the constructor or the mail
                opening/creation methods are preserved in the object. If the protocol requires
                any other options, please use names starting with "auth". Eg. "authdomain", ...
        $obj->{error} : this should be set to a negative error number. Please use numbers
                below -1000 for custom errors.

        If the login fails you should
                1) Set $Mail::Sender::Error to the error message
                2) Set $obj->{error} to a negative number
                3) return a negative number
        If it succeeds, please return "nothing" :
                return;

Please use the protocols defined within Sender.pm as examples.

EXAMPLES

Object creation

 ref ($sender = new Mail::Sender { from => 'somebody@somewhere.com',
       smtp => 'mail.yourISP.com', boundary => 'This-is-a-mail-boundary-435427'})
 or die "Error in mailing : $Mail::Sender::Error\n";

or

 my $sender = new Mail::Sender { ... };
 die "Error in mailing : $Mail::Sender::Error\n" unless ref $sender;

You may specify the options either when creating the Mail::Sender object or later when you open a message. You may also set the default options when installing the module (See CONFIG section). This way the admin may set the SMTP server and even the authentication options and the users do not have to specify it again.

Simple single part message

 $sender->Open({to => 'mama@home.org, papa@work.com',
                cc => 'somebody@somewhere.com',
                subject => 'Sorry, I'll come later.'});
 $sender->SendLineEnc("I'm sorry, but due to a big load of work,
    I'll come at 10pm at best.");
 $sender->SendLineEnc("\nHi, Jenda");
 $sender->Close;

or

 ref $sender->Open({to => 'friend@other.com', subject => 'Hello dear friend'})
         or die "Error: $Mail::Sender::Error\n";
 my $FH = $sender->GetHandle();
 print $FH "How are you?\n\n";
 print $FH <<'*END*';
 I've found these jokes.

  Doctor, I feel like a pack of cards.
  Sit down and I'll deal with you later.

  Doctor, I keep thinking I'm a dustbin.
  Don't talk rubbish.

 Hope you like'em. Jenda
 *END*

 $sender->Close;
 # or
 # close $FH;

Multipart message with attachment

 $sender->OpenMultipart({to => 'Perl-Win32-Users@activeware.foo',
                         subject => 'Mail::Sender.pm - new module'});
 $sender->Body;
 $sender->SendEnc(<<'*END*');
 Here is a new module Mail::Sender.
 It provides an object based interface to sending SMTP mails.
 It uses a direct socket connection, so it doesn't need any
 additional program.

 Enjoy, Jenda
 *END*
 $sender->Attach(
  {description => 'Perl module Mail::Sender.pm',
   ctype => 'application/x-zip-encoded',
   encoding => 'Base64',
   disposition => 'attachment; filename="Sender.zip"; type="ZIP archive"',
   file => 'sender.zip'
  });
 $sender->Close;

or

 $sender->OpenMultipart({to => 'Perl-Win32-Users@activeware.foo',
                         subject => 'Mail::Sender.pm - new version'});
 $sender->Body({ msg => <<'*END*' });
 Here is a new module Mail::Sender.
 It provides an object based interface to sending SMTP mails.
 It uses a direct socket connection, so it doesn't need any
 additional program.

 Enjoy, Jenda
 *END*
 $sender->Attach(
  {description => 'Perl module Mail::Sender.pm',
   ctype => 'application/x-zip-encoded',
   encoding => 'Base64',
   disposition => 'attachment; filename="Sender.zip"; type="ZIP archive"',
   file => 'sender.zip'
  });
 $sender->Close;

Using exceptions (no need to test return values after each function)

 use Mail::Sender;
 eval {
 (new Mail::Sender)
        ->OpenMultipart({smtp=> 'jenda.krynicky.cz', to => 'jenda@krynicky.cz',subject => 'Mail::Sender.pm - new version'})
        ->Body({ msg => <<'*END*' })
 Here is a new module Mail::Sender.
 It provides an object based interface to sending SMTP mails.
 It uses a direct socket connection, so it doesn't need any
 additional program.

 Enjoy, Jenda
 *END*
        ->Attach({
                description => 'Perl module Mail::Sender.pm',
                ctype => 'application/x-zip-encoded',
                encoding => 'Base64',
                disposition => 'attachment; filename="Sender.zip"; type="ZIP archive"',
                file => 'W:\jenda\packages\Mail\Sender\Mail-Sender-0.7.14.3.tar.gz'
        })
        ->Close();
 } or print "Error sending mail: $Mail::Sender::Error\n";

Using MailMsg() shortcut to send simple messages

If everything you need is to send a simple message you may use:

 (ref ($sender->MailMsg({to =>'Jenda@Krynicky.czX', subject => 'this is a test',
                         msg => "Hi Johnie.\nHow are you?"}))
  and print "Mail sent OK."
 )
 or die "$Mail::Sender::Error\n";

or

 eval {
        (new Mail::Sender)
        ->MailMsg({smtp => 'mail.yourISP.com',
                from => 'somebody@somewhere.com',
                to =>'Jenda@Krynicky.czX',
                subject => 'this is a test',
                msg => "Hi Johnie.\nHow are you?"})
 }
 or die "$Mail::Sender::Error\n";

Using MailFile() shortcut to send an attachment

If you want to attach some files:

 (ref ($sender->MailFile(
  {to =>'you@address.com', subject => 'this is a test',
   msg => "Hi Johnie.\nI'm sending you the pictures you wanted.",
   file => 'image1.jpg,image2.jpg'
  }))
  and print "Mail sent OK."
 )
 or die "$Mail::Sender::Error\n";

Sending HTML messages

If you are sure the HTML doesn't contain any accentuated characters (with codes above 127).

 open IN, $htmlfile or die "Cannot open $htmlfile : $!\n";
 $sender->Open({ from => 'your@address.com', to => 'other@address.com',
        subject => 'HTML test',
        ctype => "text/html",
        encoding => "7bit"
 }) or die $Mail::Sender::Error,"\n";

 while (<IN>) { $sender->SendEx($_) };
 close IN;
 $sender->Close();

Otherwise use SendEnc() instead of SendEx() and "quoted-printable" instead of "7bit".

Another ... quicker way ... would be:

 open IN, $htmlfile or die "Cannot open $htmlfile : $!\n";
 $sender->Open({ from => 'your@address.com', to => 'other@address.com',
        subject => 'HTML test',
        ctype => "text/html",
        encoding => "quoted-printable"
 }) or die $Mail::Sender::Error,"\n";

 while (read IN, $buff, 4096) { $sender->SendEnc($buff) };
 close IN;
 $sender->Close();

Sending HTML messages with inline images

        if (ref $sender->OpenMultipart({
                from => 'someone@somewhere.net', to => $recipients,
                subject => 'Embedded Image Test',
                boundary => 'boundary-test-1',
                multipart => 'related'})) {
                $sender->Attach(
                         {description => 'html body',
                         ctype => 'text/html; charset=us-ascii',
                         encoding => '7bit',
                         disposition => 'NONE',
                         file => 'test.html'
                });
                $sender->Attach({
                        description => 'ed\'s gif',
                        ctype => 'image/gif',
                        encoding => 'base64',
                        disposition => "inline; filename=\"apache_pb.gif\";\r\nContent-ID: <img1>",
                        file => 'apache_pb.gif'
                });
                $sender->Close() or die "Close failed! $Mail::Sender::Error\n";
        } else {
                die "Cannot send mail: $Mail::Sender::Error\n";
        }

And in the HTML you'll have this : ... <IMG src="cid:img1"> ... on the place where you want the inlined image.

Please keep in mind that the image name is unimportant, it's the Content-ID what counts!

# or using the eval{ $obj->Method()->Method()->...->Close()} trick ...

        use Mail::Sender;
        eval {
        (new Mail::Sender)
                ->OpenMultipart({
                        to => 'someone@somewhere.com',
                        subject => 'Embedded Image Test',
                        boundary => 'boundary-test-1',
                        type => 'multipart/related'
                })
                ->Attach({
                        description => 'html body',
                        ctype => 'text/html; charset=us-ascii',
                        encoding => '7bit',
                        disposition => 'NONE',
                        file => 'c:\temp\zk\HTMLTest.htm'
                })
                ->Attach({
                        description => 'Test gif',
                        ctype => 'image/gif',
                        encoding => 'base64',
                        disposition => "inline; filename=\"test.gif\";\r\nContent-ID: <img1>",
                        file => 'test.gif'
                })
                ->Close()
        }
        or die "Cannot send mail: $Mail::Sender::Error\n";

Sending message with plaintext and HTML alternatives

        use Mail::Sender;

        eval {
                (new Mail::Sender)
                ->OpenMultipart({
                        to => 'someone@somewhere.com',
                        subject => 'Alternatives',
        #               debug => 'c:\temp\zkMailFlow.log',
                        multipart => 'mixed',
                })
                        ->Part({ctype => 'multipart/alternative'})
                                ->Part({ ctype => 'text/plain', disposition => 'NONE', msg => <<'*END*' })
        A long
        mail
        message.
        *END*
                                ->Part({ctype => 'text/html', disposition => 'NONE', msg => <<'*END*'})
        <html><body><h1>A long</h1><p align=center>
        mail
        message.
        </p></body></html>
        *END*
                        ->EndPart("multipart/alternative")
                ->Close();
        } or print "Error sending mail: $Mail::Sender::Error\n";

Sending message with plaintext and HTML alternatives with inline images

        use Mail::Sender;

        eval {
                (new Mail::Sender)
                ->OpenMultipart({
                        to => 'someone@somewhere.com',
                        subject => 'Alternatives with images',
        #               debug => 'c:\temp\zkMailFlow.log',
                        multipart => 'related',
                })
                        ->Part({ctype => 'multipart/alternative'})
                                ->Part({ ctype => 'text/plain', disposition => 'NONE', msg => <<'*END*' })
        A long
        mail
        message.
        *END*
                                ->Part({ctype => 'text/html', disposition => 'NONE', msg => <<'*END*'})
        <html><body><h1>A long</h1><p align=center>
        mail
        message.
        <img src="cid:img1">
        </p></body></html>
        *END*
                        ->EndPart("multipart/alternative")
                        ->Attach({
                                description => 'ed\'s jpg',
                                ctype => 'image/jpeg',
                                encoding => 'base64',
                                disposition => "inline; filename=\"0518m_b.jpg\";\r\nContent-ID: <img1>",
                                file => 'E:\pix\humor\0518m_b.jpg'
                        })
                ->Close();
        } or print "Error sending mail: $Mail::Sender::Error\n";

Keep in mind please that different mail clients display messages differently. You may need to try several ways to create messages so that they appear the way you need. These two examples looked like I expected in Pegasus Email and MS Outlook.

If this doesn't work with your mail client, please let me know and we might find a way.

Sending a file that was just uploaded from a HTML form

 use CGI;
 use Mail::Sender;

 $query = new CGI;

 # uploading the file...
 $filename = $query->param('mailformFile');
 if ($filename ne ""){
  $tmp_file = $query->tmpFileName($filename);
 }

 $sender = new Mail::Sender {from => 'script@krynicky.cz',smtp => 'mail.krynicky.czX'};
 $sender->OpenMultipart({to=> 'jenda@krynicky.czX',subject=> 'test CGI attach'});
 $sender->Body();
 $sender->Send(<<"*END*");
 This is just a test of mail with an uploaded file.

 Jenda
 *END*
 $sender->Attach({
    encoding => 'Base64',
    description => $filename,
    ctype => $query->uploadInfo($filename)->{'Content-Type'},
    disposition => "attachment; filename = $filename",
    file => $tmp_file
 });
 $sender->Close();

 print "Content-type: text/plain\n\nYes, it's sent\n\n";

WARNING

DO NOT mix Open(Multipart)|Send(Line)(Ex)|Close with MailMsg or MailFile. Both Mail(Msg/File) close any Open-ed mail. Do not try this:

 $sender = new Mail::Sender ...;
 $sender->OpenMultipart...;
 $sender->Body;
 $sender->Send("...");
 $sender->MailFile({file => 'something.ext');
 $sender->Close;

This WON'T work!!!

GOTCHAS

If you are able to connect to the mail server and scripts using Mail::Sendmail work, but Mail::Sender fails with "connect() failed", please review the settings in /etc/services. The port for SMTP should be 25.

BUGS

I'm sure there are many. Please let me know if you find any.

The problem with multiline responses from some SMTP servers (namely qmail) is solved. At last.

DISCLAIMER

This module is based on SendMail.pm Version : 1.21 that appeared in Perl-Win32-Users@activeware.com mailing list. I don't remember the name of the poster and it's not mentioned in the script. Thank you mr. undef.

AUTHOR

Jan Krynicky <Jenda@Krynicky.cz> http://Jenda.Krynicky.cz

With help of Rodrigo Siqueira <rodrigo@insite.com.br>, Ed McGuigan <itstech1@gate.net>, John Sanche <john@quadrant.net>, Brian Blakley <bblakley@mp5.net>, and others.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 1997-2002 Jan Krynicky <Jenda@Krynicky.cz>. All rights reserved.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. There is only one aditional condition, you may NOT use this module for SPAMing! NEVER! (see http://spam.abuse.net/ for definition)