perldoc > Mail::Message::Construct::Forward

NAME
    Mail::Message::Construct::Forward - forwarding a Mail::Message

SYNOPSIS
     my Mail::Message $forward = $message->forward(To => 'you');
     $forward->send;

DESCRIPTION
    Complex functionality on Mail::Message objects is implemented in different files which are
    autoloaded. This file implements the functionality related to creating forwarded messages.

METHODS
  Constructing a message
    $obj->forward(%options)
        Forward the content of this message. The body of the message to be forwarded is encapsulated
        in some accompanying text (if you have no wish for that, than "bounce" is your choice). A
        Mail::Message object is returned on success.

        You may forward a whole message, but also message parts. You may wish to overrule some of
        the default header settings for the reply immediately, or you may do that later with "set"
        on the header.

        When a multi-part body is encountered, and the message is included to ATTACH, the parts
        which look like signatures will be removed. If only one message remains, it will be the
        added as single attachment, otherwise a nested multipart will be the result. The value of
        this option does not matter, as long as it is present. See "Mail::Message::Body::Multipart".

         -Option    --Default
          Bcc         undef
          Cc          undef
          Date        <now>
          From        <'to' in current>
          Message-ID  <uniquely generated>
          Subject     forwardSubject()
          To          <required>
          body        undef
          include     <if body then 'NO' else C<'INLINE'>>
          preamble    constructed from prelude and postlude
          signature   undef

        Bcc => ADDRESSES
          Receivers of blind carbon copies: their names will not be published to other message
          receivers.

        Cc => ADDRESSES
          The carbon-copy receivers, by default none.

        Date => DATE
          The date to be used in the message sent.

        From => ADDRESSES
          Your identification, by default taken from the "To" field of the source message.

        Message-ID => STRING
          Supply a STRING as specific message-id for the forwarded message. By default, one is
          generated for you. If there are no angles around your id, they will be added.

        Subject => STRING|CODE
          Force the subject line to the specific STRING, or the result of the subroutine specified
          by CODE. The subroutine will be called passing the subject of the original message as only
          argument. By default, the forwardSubject() method is used.

        To => ADDRESSES
          The destination of your message. Obligatory. The ADDRESSES may be specified as string, a
          Mail::Address object, or as array of Mail::Address objects.

        body => OBJECT
          If you specify a fully prepared body OBJECT, it will be used as forwarded message
          contents. In this case, only the headers are constructed for you.

        include => 'NO'|'INLINE'|'ATTACH'|'ENCAPSULATE'
          Must the message where this is a reply to be included in the message? When "INLINE" is
          given, you may pass the options of forwardInline() as well.

          In many applications, the forward option "as attachment" results in a structure which is
          produced when this option is set to "ENCAPSULATE". Their default behavior is usually
          "INLINE".

          It is only possible to inline textual messages, therefore binary or multi-part messages
          will always be enclosed as attachment. Read the details in section "Creating a forward"..

        preamble => STRING|BODY
          Part which is attached before the forwarded message. If no preamble is given, then it is
          constructed from the prelude and postlude. When these are also not present, you will still
          get a one liner: the result of forwardPrelude()

        signature => BODY|MESSAGE
          The signature to be added in case of a multi-part forward. The mime-type of the signature
          body should indicate this is a used as such. However, in INLINE mode, the body will be
          taken, a line containing '-- ' added before it, and added behind the epilogue.

    $obj->forwardAttach(%options)
        Forward the message as *flat* attachment to the specified "preamble". You can specify all
        options available to forward(), although a "preamble" which is provided as body object is
        required, and any specified "body" is ignored.

         -Option  --Default
          preamble  <required>

        preamble => BODY|PART

    $obj->forwardEncapsulate(%options)
        Like forwardAttach(), but in this case the original message is first encapsulated as nested
        message in a Mail::Message::Body::Nested, and then joint into a multipart.

        You can specify all options available to forward(), although a "preamble" which is provided
        as body object is required, and any specified "body" is ignored. Signatures are not
        stripped. Signatures are not stripped.

         -Option  --Default
          preamble  <required>

        preamble => BODY|PART

    $obj->forwardInline(%options)
        This method is equivalent in behavior to forward() with the option "include" set to
        'INLINE'. You can specify most of the fields which are available to forward() except
        "include" and "body".

         -Option         --Default
          is_attached      "[The forwarded message is attached]\n"
          max_signature    10
          postlude         undef
          prelude          undef
          quote            undef
          strip_signature  qr/^--\s/

        is_attached => STRING
          A forward on binary messages can not be inlined. Therefore, they are automatically
          translated into an attachment, as made by forwardAttach(). The obligatory preamble option
          to that method may be specified as option to this method, to be used in case of such a
          forward of a binary, but is otherwise constructed from the prelude, the value of this
          option, and the postlude.

        max_signature => INTEGER
          Passed to Mail::Message::Body::stripSignature(max_lines). Only effective for single-part
          messages.

        postlude => BODY
          The line(s) which to be added after the quoted reply lines. Create a body for it first.
          This should not include the signature, which has its own option. The signature will be
          added after the postlude when the forwarded message is "INLINE"d.

        prelude => BODY
          The line(s) which will be added before the quoted forwarded lines. If nothing is
          specified, the result of the forwardPrelude() method is used. When "undef" is specified,
          no prelude will be added.

        quote => CODE|STRING
          Mangle the lines of an "INLINE"d reply with CODE, or by prepending a STRING to each line.
          The routine specified by CODE is called when the line is in $_.

          By default, nothing is added before each line. This option is processed after the body has
          been decoded.

        strip_signature => REGEXP|STRING|CODE
          Remove the signature of the sender. The value of this parameter is passed to
          Mail::Message::Body::stripSignature(pattern), unless the source text is not included. The
          signature is stripped from the message before quoting.

    $obj->forwardNo(%options)
        Construct a forward, where the whole body of the message is already constructed. That
        complex body is usually produced in forwardInline(), forwardAttach(), or
        forwardEncapsulate().

        The %options are the same as for forward() except that "body" is required. Some other
        options, like "preamble", are ignored.

         -Option--Default
          body    <required>

        body => BODY

    $obj->forwardPostlude()
        Added after the forwarded message.

        example:

         ---- END forwarded message

    $obj->forwardPrelude()
        Create a few lines to be included before the forwarded message content. The return is an
        array of lines.

        example:

         ---- BEGIN forwarded message
         From: him AT somewhere.nl (Original Sender)
         To: me AT example.com (Me the receiver)
         Cc: the.rest AT world.net
         Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2000 15:44:05 -0500
         <blank line>

    $obj->forwardSubject(STRING)
        Create a subject for a message which is a forward from this one. This routine tries to count
        the level of reply in subject field, and transform it into a standard form. Please
        contribute improvements.

        example:

         subject                 --> Forw: subject
         Re: subject             --> Forw: Re: subject
         Re[X]: subject          --> Forw: Re[X]: subject
         <blank>                 --> Forwarded

DETAILS
  Creating a forward
    The main difference between bounce() and forward() is the reason for message processing. The
    *bounce* has no intention to modify the content of message: the same information is passed-on to
    someplace else. This may mean some conversions, but for instance, the Message-ID does not need
    to be changed.

    The purpose of *forward()* is to pass on information which is modified: annotated or reduced.
    The information is not sent back to the author of the original message (which is implemented by
    reply()), but to someone else.

    So: some information comes in, is modified, and than forwarded to someone else. Currently, there
    are four ways to get the original information included, which are explained in the next
    sections.

    After the creation of the forward, you may want to rebuild() the message to remove unnecessary
    complexities. Of course, that is not required.

   forward, specify a body
    When you specify forward(body), you have created your own body object to be used as content of
    the forwarded message. This implies that forward(include) is 'NO': no automatic generation of
    the forwarded body.

   forward, inline the original
    The forward(include) is set to 'INLINE' (the default) This is the most complicated situation,
    but most often used by MUAs: the original message is inserted textually in the new body. You can
    set-up automatic stripping of signatures, the way of encapsulation, and texts which should be
    added before and after the encapsulated part.

    However, the result may not always be what you expect. For instance, some people use very long
    signatures which will not be automatically stripped because the pass the threshold. So, you
    probably need some manual intervention after the message is created and before it is sent.

    When a binary message is encountered, inlining is impossible. In that case, the message is
    treated as if 'ENCAPSULATE' was requested.

   forward, attach the original
    When forward(include) is explicitly set to 'ATTACH' the result will be a multipart which
    contains two parts. The first part will be your message, and the second the body of the original
    message.

    This means that the headers of the forwarded message are used for the new message, and detached
    from the part which now contains the original body information. Content related headers will (of
    course) still be part of that part, but lines line "To" and "Subject" will not be stored with
    that part.

    As example of the structural transformation:

     # code: $original->printStructure;
     multipart/alternative: The source message
       text/plain: content in raw text
       text/html: content as html

     # code: $fwd = $original->forward(include => 'ATTACH');
     # code: $fwd->printStructure
     multipart/mixed: The source message
       text/plain: prelude/postlude/signature
       multipart/alternative
         text/plain: content in raw text
         text/html: content as html

   forward, encapsulate the original
    When forward(include) is explicitly set to 'ENCAPSULATE', then the original message is left
    in-tact as good as possible. The lines of the original message are used in the main message
    header but also enclosed in the part header.

    The encapsulation is implemented using a nested message, content type "message/rfc822". As
    example of the structural transformation:

     # code: $original->printStructure;
     multipart/alternative: The source message
       text/plain: content in raw text
       text/html: content as html

     # code: $fwd = $original->forward(include => 'ENCAPSULATE');
     # code: $fwd->printStructure
     multipart/mixed: The source message
       text/plain: prelude/postlude/signature
       message/rfc822
          multipart/alternative: The source message
             text/plain: content in raw text
             text/html: content as html

    The message structure is much more complex, but no information is lost. This is probably the
    reason why many MUAs use this when the forward an original message as attachment.

DIAGNOSTICS
    Error: Cannot include forward source as $include.
        Unknown alternative for the forward(include). Valid choices are "NO", "INLINE", "ATTACH",
        and "ENCAPSULATE".

    Error: Method forwardAttach requires a preamble
    Error: Method forwardEncapsulate requires a preamble
    Error: No address to create forwarded to.
        If a forward message is created, a destination address must be specified.

SEE ALSO
    This module is part of Mail-Message distribution version 3.015, built on December 11, 2023.
    Website: http://perl.overmeer.net/CPAN/

LICENSE
    Copyrights 2001-2023 by [Mark Overmeer <markov AT cpan.org>]. For other contributors see ChangeLog.

    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as
    Perl itself. See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/