[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: NFC: RE: Current Bids




Here is a quick skinny on MIME.

Email systems are basically text based at their core. Email servers on the
Internet (SMTP servers, POP servers, IMAP servers) all expect and process
text only. However, people like to see colors and images (i.e. HTML'ized
text). 

HTML itself (i.e. the formatting that changes color and font) is plain
text tags.

The problem is images (or Word documents, or Excel spreadsheets or
PowerPoint files) which are pure data. Email servers cannot handle pure
data; they can handle only pure plain text.

So, how do you send an HTML email which consists of plain text and images
over the Internet?
 
Well, you convert the images into plain text, attach them to the plain
text email, send them and reconvert them back from text to images+text on
the other side. MIME is what is used to convert images to and from text.

You send: 
                 HTML+plaintext+image+HTML

Before sending, your message gets converted to:
            HTML+plaintext+MIME-encoded-image+HTML 
and is sent over the internet.

When you received email (and your email software is capable of doing
this), it gets converted to 
                 HTML+plaintext+image+HTML 
before you read it. 

And, if you get the digest or your email software does not understand
MIME, you get .... 
            HTML+plaintext+MIME-encoded-image+HTML 
(no conversion possible). 


Hopefully this will clear up some confusion.

an aquarium rookie and email junkie,
Sajjad 


References: