:mod:`MimeWriter` --- Generic MIME file writer

==============================================

.. module:: MimeWriter

   :synopsis: Write MIME format files.

   :deprecated:

.. sectionauthor:: Christopher G. Petrilli <petrilli@amber.org>

.. deprecated:: 2.3

   The :mod:`email` package should be used in preference to the :mod:`MimeWriter`

   module.  This module is present only to maintain backward compatibility.

This module defines the class :class:`MimeWriter`.  The :class:`MimeWriter`

class implements a basic formatter for creating MIME multi-part files.  It

doesn't seek around the output file nor does it use large amounts of buffer

space. You must write the parts out in the order that they should occur in the

final file. :class:`MimeWriter` does buffer the headers you add, allowing you

to rearrange their order.

.. class:: MimeWriter(fp)

   Return a new instance of the :class:`MimeWriter` class.  The only argument

   passed, *fp*, is a file object to be used for writing. Note that a

   :class:`StringIO` object could also be used.

.. _mimewriter-objects:

MimeWriter Objects

------------------

:class:`MimeWriter` instances have the following methods:

.. method:: MimeWriter.addheader(key, value[, prefix])

   Add a header line to the MIME message. The *key* is the name of the header,

   where the *value* obviously provides the value of the header. The optional

   argument *prefix* determines where the header  is inserted; ``0`` means append

   at the end, ``1`` is insert at the start. The default is to append.

.. method:: MimeWriter.flushheaders()

   Causes all headers accumulated so far to be written out (and forgotten). This is

   useful if you don't need a body part at all, e.g. for a subpart of type

   :mimetype:`message/rfc822` that's (mis)used to store some header-like

   information.

.. method:: MimeWriter.startbody(ctype[, plist[, prefix]])

   Returns a file-like object which can be used to write to the body of the

   message.  The content-type is set to the provided *ctype*, and the optional

   parameter *plist* provides additional parameters for the content-type

   declaration. *prefix* functions as in :meth:`addheader` except that the default

   is to insert at the start.

.. method:: MimeWriter.startmultipartbody(subtype[, boundary[, plist[, prefix]]])

   Returns a file-like object which can be used to write to the body of the

   message.  Additionally, this method initializes the multi-part code, where

   *subtype* provides the multipart subtype, *boundary* may provide a user-defined

   boundary specification, and *plist* provides optional parameters for the

   subtype. *prefix* functions as in :meth:`startbody`.  Subparts should be created

   using :meth:`nextpart`.

.. method:: MimeWriter.nextpart()

   Returns a new instance of :class:`MimeWriter` which represents an individual

   part in a multipart message.  This may be used to write the  part as well as

   used for creating recursively complex multipart messages. The message must first

   be initialized with :meth:`startmultipartbody` before using :meth:`nextpart`.

.. method:: MimeWriter.lastpart()

   This is used to designate the last part of a multipart message, and should

   *always* be used when writing multipart messages.