NAME
Email::Address 1.892 - RFC 2822 Address Parsing and Creation
SYNOPSIS
use Email::Address;
my @addresses = Email::Address->parse($line);
my $address = Email::Address->new(Casey => 'casey@localhost');
print $address->format;
DESCRIPTION
This class implements a complete RFC 2822 parser that locates email addresses in strings and returns a list of "Email::Address" objects found. Alternatley you may construct objects manually. The goal of this software is to be correct, and very very fast.
Package Variables
Several regular expressions used in this package are useful to others.
For convenience, these variables are declared as package variables that
you may access from your program.
These regular expressions conform to the rules specified in RFC 2822.
You can access these variables using the full namespace. If you want short names, define them yourself.
my $addr_spec = $Email::Address::addr_spec;
$Email::Address::addr_spec
This regular expression defined what an email address is allowed to
look like.
$Email::Address::angle_addr
This regular expression defines an $addr_spec wrapped in angle
brackets.
$Email::Address::name_addr
This regular expression defines what an email address can look like
with an optional preceeding display name, also known as the
"phrase".
$Email::Address::mailbox
This is the complete regular expression defining an RFC 2822 emial
address with an optional preceeding display name and optional
following comment.
Class Methods
parse
my @addrs = Email::Address->parse(
q[me@local, Casey <me@local>, "Casey" <me@local> (West)]
);
This method returns a list of "Email::Address" objects it finds in
the input string.
The specification for an email address allows for infinitley
nestable comments. That's nice in theory, but a little over done. By
default this module allows for two (2) levels of nested comments. If
you think you need more, modify the
$Email::Address::COMMENT_NEST_LEVEL package variable to allow more.
$Email::Address::COMMENT_NEST_LEVEL = 10; # I'm deep
The reason for this hardly limiting limitation is simple:
efficiency.
new
my $address = Email::Address->new(undef, 'casey@local');
my $address = Email::Address->new('Casey West', 'casey@local');
my $address = Email::Address->new(undef, 'casey@local', '(Casey)');
Constructs and returns a new "Email::Address" object. Takes four
positional arguments: phrase, email, and comment, and original
string.
The original string should only really be set using "parse".
purge_cache
Email::Address->purge_cache;
One way this module stays fast is with internal caches. Caches live
in memory and there is the remote possibility that you will have a
memory problem. In the off chance that you think you're one of those
people, this class method will empty those caches.
I've loaded over 12000 objects and not encountered a memory problem.
Instance Methods
phrase
my $phrase = $address->phrase;
$address->phrase( "Me oh my" );
Accessor and mutator for the phrase portion of an address.
address
my $addr = $address->address;
$addr->address( "me@PROTECTED.com" );
Accessor and mutator for the address portion of an address.
comment
my $comment = $address->comment;
$address->comment( "(Work address)" );
Accessor and mutator for the comment portion of an address.
original
my $orig = $address->original;
Accessor for the original address found when parsing, or passed to
"new".
host
my $host = $address->host;
Accessor for the host portion of an address's address.
user
my $user = $address->user;
Accessor for the user portion of an address's address.
format
my $printable = $address->format;
Returns a properly formatted RFC 2822 address representing the
object.
name
my $name = $address->name;
This method tries very hard to determine the name belonging to the
address. First the "phrase" is checked. If that doesn't work out the
"comment" is looked into. If that still doesn't work out, the "user"
portion of the "address" is returned.
This method does not try to massage any name it identifies and
instead leaves that up to someone else. Who is it to decide if
someone wants their name capitalized, or if they're Irish?
Overloaded Operators
stringify
print "I have your email address, $address.";
Objects stringify to "format" by default. It's possible that you
don't like that idea. Okay, then, you can change it by modifying
$Email:Address::STRINGIFY. Please consider modifying this package
variable using "local". You might step on someone else's toes if you
don't.
{
local $Email::Address::STRINGIFY = 'address';
print "I have your address, $address.";
# geeknest.com
}
print "I have your address, $address.";
# "Casey West" <casey@geeknest.com>
Did I Mention Fast?
On my 877Mhz 12" Apple Powerbook I can run the distributed benchmarks
and get results like this.
$ perl -Ilib bench/ea-vs-ma.pl bench/corpus.txt 5
s/iter Mail::Address Email::Address
Mail::Address 1.59 -- -31%
Email::Address 1.10 45% --
$ perl -Ilib bench/ea-vs-ma.pl bench/corpus.txt 25
s/iter Mail::Address Email::Address
Mail::Address 1.58 -- -60%
Email::Address 0.630 151% --
$ perl -Ilib bench/ea-vs-ma.pl bench/corpus.txt 50
s/iter Mail::Address Email::Address
Mail::Address 1.58 -- -65%
Email::Address 0.558 182% --
SEE ALSO
Email::Simple, perl.
AUTHOR
Casey West, <casey@geeknest.com>.
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2004 Casey West. All rights reserved.
This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.