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<title>12.2.2.3 Additional notes
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<H3><A NAME=
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12.2.2.3 Additional notes
</A>
Here are some notes on the parsing semantics:
<LI>Most non-
<span class=
"mimetype">multipart
</span> type messages are parsed as a single
message object with a string payload. These objects will return
<code>False
</code> for
<tt class=
"method">is_multipart()
</tt>. Their
<tt class=
"method">get_payload()
</tt> method will return a string object.
<LI>All
<span class=
"mimetype">multipart
</span> type messages will be parsed as a
container message object with a list of sub-message objects for
their payload. The outer container message will return
<code>True
</code> for
<tt class=
"method">is_multipart()
</tt> and their
<tt class=
"method">get_payload()
</tt> method will return the list of
<tt class=
"class">Message
</tt> subparts.
<LI>Most messages with a content type of
<span class=
"mimetype">message/*
</span>
(e.g.
<span class=
"mimetype">message/delivery-status
</span> and
<span class=
"mimetype">message/rfc822
</span>) will also be parsed as container
object containing a list payload of length
1. Their
<tt class=
"method">is_multipart()
</tt> method will return
<code>True
</code>. The
single element in the list payload will be a sub-message object.
<LI>Some non-standards compliant messages may not be internally consistent
about their
<span class=
"mimetype">multipart
</span>-edness. Such messages may have a
<span class=
"mailheader">Content-Type:
</span> header of type
<span class=
"mimetype">multipart
</span>, but their
<tt class=
"method">is_multipart()
</tt> method may return
<code>False
</code>. If such
messages were parsed with the
<tt class=
"class">FeedParser
</tt>, they will have an
instance of the
<tt class=
"class">MultipartInvariantViolationDefect
</tt> class in their
<var>defects
</var> attribute list. See
<tt class=
"module"><a href=
"module-email.Errors.html">email.Errors
</a></tt> for
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<span class=
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2.4.2, documentation updated on
28 September
2005.
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