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<div class="section" id="module-email.mime">
<h1>18.1.4. <a title="Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents." class="reference external" href="email.html#module-email"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a>: Creating email and MIME objects from scratch<a class="headerlink" href="#module-email.mime" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
<p>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
<a title="email.message.Message" class="reference external" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> objects by hand. In fact, you can also take an
existing structure and add new <a title="email.message.Message" class="reference external" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> objects, move them
around, etc. This makes a very convenient interface for slicing-and-dicing MIME
messages.</p>
<p>You can create a new object structure by creating <a title="email.message.Message" class="reference external" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a>
instances, adding attachments and all the appropriate headers manually. For MIME
messages though, the <a title="Package supporting the parsing, manipulating, and generating email messages, including MIME documents." class="reference external" href="email.html#module-email"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email</span></tt></a> package provides some convenient subclasses to
make things easier.</p>
<p>Here are the classes:</p>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="email.mime.base.MIMEBase">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.mime.base.</tt><tt class="descname">MIMEBase</tt><big>(</big><em>_maintype</em>, <em>_subtype</em>, <em>**_params</em><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.mime.base.MIMEBase" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Module: <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.base</span></tt></p>
<p>This is the base class for all the MIME-specific subclasses of
<a title="email.message.Message" class="reference external" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a>. Ordinarily you won’t create instances
specifically of <a title="email.mime.base.MIMEBase" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.base.MIMEBase"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEBase</span></tt></a>, although you could. <a title="email.mime.base.MIMEBase" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.base.MIMEBase"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEBase</span></tt></a>
is provided primarily as a convenient base class for more specific
MIME-aware subclasses.</p>
<p><em>_maintype</em> is the <em>Content-Type</em> major type (e.g. <em>text</em>
or <em>image</em>), and <em>_subtype</em> is the <em>Content-Type</em> minor
type (e.g. <em>plain</em> or <em>gif</em>). <em>_params</em> is a parameter
key/value dictionary and is passed directly to <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message.add_header()</span></tt>.</p>
<p>The <a title="email.mime.base.MIMEBase" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.base.MIMEBase"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEBase</span></tt></a> class always adds a <em>Content-Type</em> header
(based on <em>_maintype</em>, <em>_subtype</em>, and <em>_params</em>), and a
<em>MIME-Version</em> header (always set to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">1.0</span></tt>).</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.mime.nonmultipart.</tt><tt class="descname">MIMENonMultipart</tt><a class="headerlink" href="#email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Module: <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.nonmultipart</span></tt></p>
<p>A subclass of <a title="email.mime.base.MIMEBase" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.base.MIMEBase"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEBase</span></tt></a>, this is an intermediate base
class for MIME messages that are not <em>multipart</em>. The primary
purpose of this class is to prevent the use of the <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">attach()</span></tt> method,
which only makes sense for <em>multipart</em> messages. If <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">attach()</span></tt>
is called, a <a title="email.errors.MultipartConversionError" class="reference external" href="email.errors.html#email.errors.MultipartConversionError"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MultipartConversionError</span></tt></a> exception is raised.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.2.</span></p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="email.mime.multipart.MIMEMultipart">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.mime.multipart.</tt><tt class="descname">MIMEMultipart</tt><big>(</big><span class="optional">[</span><em>_subtype</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>boundary</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_subparts</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_params</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.mime.multipart.MIMEMultipart" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Module: <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.multipart</span></tt></p>
<p>A subclass of <a title="email.mime.base.MIMEBase" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.base.MIMEBase"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEBase</span></tt></a>, this is an intermediate base
class for MIME messages that are <em>multipart</em>. Optional <em>_subtype</em>
defaults to <em>mixed</em>, but can be used to specify the subtype of the
message. A <em>Content-Type</em> header of <em>multipart/_subtype</em>
will be added to the message object. A <em>MIME-Version</em> header will
also be added.</p>
<p>Optional <em>boundary</em> is the multipart boundary string. When <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">None</span></tt> (the
default), the boundary is calculated when needed (for example, when the
message is serialized).</p>
<p><em>_subparts</em> 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 <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message.attach()</span></tt> method.</p>
<p>Additional parameters for the <em>Content-Type</em> header are taken from
the keyword arguments, or passed into the <em>_params</em> argument, which is a keyword
dictionary.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.2.2.</span></p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="email.mime.application.MIMEApplication">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.mime.application.</tt><tt class="descname">MIMEApplication</tt><big>(</big><em>_data</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_subtype</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_encoder</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>**_params</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.mime.application.MIMEApplication" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Module: <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.application</span></tt></p>
<p>A subclass of <a title="email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMENonMultipart</span></tt></a>, the
<a title="email.mime.application.MIMEApplication" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.application.MIMEApplication"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEApplication</span></tt></a> class is used to represent MIME message objects of
major type <em>application</em>. <em>_data</em> is a string containing the raw
byte data. Optional <em>_subtype</em> specifies the MIME subtype and defaults to
<em>octet-stream</em>.</p>
<p>Optional <em>_encoder</em> 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 <a title="email.mime.application.MIMEApplication" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.application.MIMEApplication"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEApplication</span></tt></a> instance. It should use <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_payload()</span></tt> and
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_payload()</span></tt> to change the payload to encoded form. It should also add
any <em>Content-Transfer-Encoding</em> or other headers to the message
object as necessary. The default encoding is base64. See the
<a title="Encoders for email message payloads." class="reference external" href="email.encoders.html#module-email.encoders"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.encoders</span></tt></a> module for a list of the built-in encoders.</p>
<p><em>_params</em> are passed straight through to the base class constructor.</p>
<p class="versionadded">
<span class="versionmodified">New in version 2.5.</span></p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="email.mime.audio.MIMEAudio">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.mime.audio.</tt><tt class="descname">MIMEAudio</tt><big>(</big><em>_audiodata</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_subtype</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_encoder</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>**_params</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.mime.audio.MIMEAudio" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Module: <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.audio</span></tt></p>
<p>A subclass of <a title="email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMENonMultipart</span></tt></a>, the
<a title="email.mime.audio.MIMEAudio" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.audio.MIMEAudio"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEAudio</span></tt></a> class is used to create MIME message objects of major type
<em>audio</em>. <em>_audiodata</em> is a string containing the raw audio data. If
this data can be decoded by the standard Python module <a title="Determine type of a sound file." class="reference external" href="sndhdr.html#module-sndhdr"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">sndhdr</span></tt></a>, then the
subtype will be automatically included in the <em>Content-Type</em> header.
Otherwise you can explicitly specify the audio subtype via the <em>_subtype</em>
parameter. If the minor type could not be guessed and <em>_subtype</em> was not given,
then <a title="exceptions.TypeError" class="reference external" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.TypeError"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></tt></a> is raised.</p>
<p>Optional <em>_encoder</em> 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 <a title="email.mime.audio.MIMEAudio" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.audio.MIMEAudio"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEAudio</span></tt></a> instance. It should use <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_payload()</span></tt> and
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_payload()</span></tt> to change the payload to encoded form. It should also add
any <em>Content-Transfer-Encoding</em> or other headers to the message
object as necessary. The default encoding is base64. See the
<a title="Encoders for email message payloads." class="reference external" href="email.encoders.html#module-email.encoders"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.encoders</span></tt></a> module for a list of the built-in encoders.</p>
<p><em>_params</em> are passed straight through to the base class constructor.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="email.mime.image.MIMEImage">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.mime.image.</tt><tt class="descname">MIMEImage</tt><big>(</big><em>_imagedata</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_subtype</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_encoder</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>**_params</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.mime.image.MIMEImage" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Module: <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.image</span></tt></p>
<p>A subclass of <a title="email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMENonMultipart</span></tt></a>, the
<a title="email.mime.image.MIMEImage" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.image.MIMEImage"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEImage</span></tt></a> class is used to create MIME message objects of major type
<em>image</em>. <em>_imagedata</em> is a string containing the raw image data. If
this data can be decoded by the standard Python module <a title="Determine the type of image contained in a file or byte stream." class="reference external" href="imghdr.html#module-imghdr"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">imghdr</span></tt></a>, then the
subtype will be automatically included in the <em>Content-Type</em> header.
Otherwise you can explicitly specify the image subtype via the <em>_subtype</em>
parameter. If the minor type could not be guessed and <em>_subtype</em> was not given,
then <a title="exceptions.TypeError" class="reference external" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.TypeError"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></tt></a> is raised.</p>
<p>Optional <em>_encoder</em> 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 <a title="email.mime.image.MIMEImage" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.image.MIMEImage"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEImage</span></tt></a> instance. It should use <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">get_payload()</span></tt> and
<tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">set_payload()</span></tt> to change the payload to encoded form. It should also add
any <em>Content-Transfer-Encoding</em> or other headers to the message
object as necessary. The default encoding is base64. See the
<a title="Encoders for email message payloads." class="reference external" href="email.encoders.html#module-email.encoders"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.encoders</span></tt></a> module for a list of the built-in encoders.</p>
<p><em>_params</em> are passed straight through to the <a title="email.mime.base.MIMEBase" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.base.MIMEBase"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEBase</span></tt></a>
constructor.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="email.mime.message.MIMEMessage">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.mime.message.</tt><tt class="descname">MIMEMessage</tt><big>(</big><em>_msg</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_subtype</em><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.mime.message.MIMEMessage" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Module: <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.message</span></tt></p>
<p>A subclass of <a title="email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMENonMultipart</span></tt></a>, the
<a title="email.mime.message.MIMEMessage" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.message.MIMEMessage"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEMessage</span></tt></a> class is used to create MIME objects of main type
<em>message</em>. <em>_msg</em> is used as the payload, and must be an instance
of class <a title="email.message.Message" class="reference external" href="email.message.html#email.message.Message"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">Message</span></tt></a> (or a subclass thereof), otherwise
a <a title="exceptions.TypeError" class="reference external" href="exceptions.html#exceptions.TypeError"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">TypeError</span></tt></a> is raised.</p>
<p>Optional <em>_subtype</em> sets the subtype of the message; it defaults to
<em>rfc822</em>.</p>
</dd></dl>
<dl class="class">
<dt id="email.mime.text.MIMEText">
<em class="property">class </em><tt class="descclassname">email.mime.text.</tt><tt class="descname">MIMEText</tt><big>(</big><em>_text</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_subtype</em><span class="optional">[</span>, <em>_charset</em><span class="optional">]</span><span class="optional">]</span><big>)</big><a class="headerlink" href="#email.mime.text.MIMEText" title="Permalink to this definition">¶</a></dt>
<dd><p>Module: <tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">email.mime.text</span></tt></p>
<p>A subclass of <a title="email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMENonMultipart</span></tt></a>, the
<a title="email.mime.text.MIMEText" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.text.MIMEText"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMEText</span></tt></a> class is used to create MIME objects of major type
<em>text</em>. <em>_text</em> is the string for the payload. <em>_subtype</em> is the
minor type and defaults to <em>plain</em>. <em>_charset</em> is the character
set of the text and is passed as a parameter to the
<a title="email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart" class="reference internal" href="#email.mime.nonmultipart.MIMENonMultipart"><tt class="xref docutils literal"><span class="pre">MIMENonMultipart</span></tt></a> constructor; it defaults
to <tt class="docutils literal"><span class="pre">us-ascii</span></tt>. If <em>_text</em> is unicode, it is encoded using the
<em>output_charset</em> of <em>_charset</em>, otherwise it is used as-is.</p>
<p class="versionchanged">
<span class="versionmodified">Changed in version 2.4: </span>The previously deprecated <em>_encoding</em> argument has been removed. Content
Transfer Encoding now happens happens implicitly based on the <em>_charset</em>
argument.</p>
</dd></dl>
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