# mime module

## Synopsis

The `mime` module provides a simple MIME-parsing class. It is only included because the standard Python `mimetools`/`multifile` libraries are too buggy to use for parsing `multipart/form-data` HTTP requests.

## class: Error(Exception)

The base class for all exceptions defined by the `mime` module.

## class: Entity(rfc822.Message)

`Entity` objects provide information about a MIME entity. You are not expected to create objects of this class yourself, but you will encounter them in the `cgi.Request.params` map if you use `multipart/form-data` HTTP requests.

### Public Instance Variables

#### `mime`

`mime` will reference a true value if this entity is a MIME entity (as opposed to a standard RFC822 entity) - i.e. if it has a `MIME-Version` header or it is a MIME `multipart` section.

#### `content_type`

This variable is only present if `mime` is true. If it is present, and the entity had no `Content-Type` header, it will be `None`. Otherwise, it will be a sequence containing two values. The first is the type of the entity, and the second is a map containing any additional parameters specified. Parameter names (but not values) are converted to lower-case before being entered into the map.

Example:

`>>> e.content_type
('multipart/form-data', {'boundary': 'AaB03x'})`

#### `content_disposition`

This variable is only present if `mime` is true. If it is present, and the entity had no `Content-Disposition` header, it will be `None`. Otherwise, it will be a sequence containing two values. The first is the disposition of the entity, and the second is a map containing any additional parameters specified. Parameter names (but not values) are converted to lower-case before being entered into the map.

Example:

`>>> e.entities[0].content_disposition
('form-data', {'name': 'pics', 'filename': 'file1.txt'})`

#### `entities`

This variable is only present if `mime` is true. If it is present, it will be a sequence of zero or more `mime.Entity` objects representing the MIME entities contained directly within this one. If this MIME entity cannot or does not contain any other MIME entities (i.e. if it is not a `multipart` message) then the sequence will be empty.

Note that this sequence only lists entities contained directly within this one, not entities contained within those entities. Thus to find all the entities contained within an entity you need to recursively scan the `entities` sequence in each entity found.

#### `body`

This contains the body of the entity. If a `Content-Transfer-Encoding` was used then it will have been decoded. If this entity is a MIME `multipart` then `body` will only contain the data preceding the first boundary.

Example:

`>>> e.entities[0].body
'foo'`

$Id: mime.html,v 1.4 2002/02/26 17:30:08 jribbens Exp $