The thing about CPAN Perl is there are just too many Open Source modules. Besides reading the reviews (which can be biased), the best way is to test each module one by one.
I prefer CPAN modules to have as few dependencies as possible so it is easy to install. In fact I prefer CPAN modules to only depend on what is in the core Perl and that's it.
For email sending, I explored Mail::Sender and it is quite easy to use and support a lot of methods I want even though it is not updated for quite some time.
Attached is my testing script. You may want to play around to decide if you want this module over MIME::Lite (which is no longer Lite with too much dependencies).
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use warnings;
use threads;
use threads::shared;
use Mail::Sender;
my $sender = Mail::Sender->new({smtp=>'localhost',encoding=>"Quoted-printable"}) or die "Can't create the Mail::Sender object: $Mail::Sender::Error\n";
#usually it is ->new, ->Open, ->SendEnc ->SendLineEnc or ->GetHandle.... finally ->Close
# or ->new, ->OpenMultipart, ->Body or ->Part ->EndPart, ->Attach... finally ->Close
#print $sender->QueryAuthProtocols('localhost');
sub testTextShortCut {
#simple text message email - MailMsg is a shortcut method!
if ($sender->MailMsg({
from => 'abc@abc.com',
to =>'def@abc.com',
subject => 'this is a test using shortcut method',
msg => "Hi Guan Hoe.\nHello World can see ?"
}) < 0) {
die "$Mail::Sender::Error\n";
}
}
sub testTextAttachShortcut {
#simple text message with attachment email - MailFile is a shortcut method!
if ($sender->MailFile({
from => 'abc@abc.com',
to =>'def@abc.com',
subject => 'this is a test with attachments using shortcut methods',
msg => "Hi Guan Hoe.\nI'm sending you the attachments you wanted.",
file => 'abc.pl,def.pl'
}) < 0) {
die "$Mail::Sender::Error\n";
}
}
sub testTextTraditional {
#simple text message email - traditional way
$sender->Open({
from => 'abc@abc.com',
to =>'def@abc.com',
subject => 'this is a test using traditional method'}) or die "$Mail::Sender::Error\n";
$sender->SendLineEnc("Hi Guan Hoe.\nHello World can see ?");
$sender->Close() or die "$Mail::Sender::Error\n";
}
sub testTextAttachTraditional {
#simple text message with attachment email - traditional way!
$sender->OpenMultipart({
from => 'abc@abc.com',
to =>'def@abc.com',
subject => 'this is a test with attachments using traditional method'}
) or die "$Mail::Sender::Error\n";
$sender->Body({ msg => <<'*END*' });
Hi Guan Hoe.
I'm sending you the attachments you wanted.
*END*
$sender->Part({ctype => "multipart/mixed",
encoding => 'base64',
disposition => 'attachment'
});
$sender->Attach(
{ disposition=>'attachment; filename="abc.pl"', file=>'abc.pl', description=>'Perl Abc'
}
); #filename is for display on email client. actual filename can be different
$sender->Attach(
{ disposition=>'attachment; filename="def.pl"', file=>'def.pl', description=>'Perl Def'
}
);
$sender->EndPart("multipart/mixed");
$sender->Close()or die "$Mail::Sender::Error\n";
}
sub testHTMLTraditional {
#simple html message email - traditional way
$sender->Open({
from => 'abc@abc.com',
to =>'def@abc.com',
ctype => 'text/html',
encoding => 'quoted-printable',
subject => 'this is a test html using traditional method'}) or die "$Mail::Sender::Error\n";
my $line = qx[cat <<'EOF';
<html>
<body>
<title>Hello World</title>
<h1>Hi Guan Hoe.</h1>
<p>
Can see me ?<br>
<ol>
<li>Coffee</li>
<li>Tea</li>
<li>Milk</li>
</ol>
<ul>
<li>Coffee</li>
<li>Tea</li>
<li>Milk</li>
</ul>
</body>
</html>
EOF
];
$sender->SendLineEnc($line);
$sender->Close() or die "$Mail::Sender::Error\n";
}
sub testHTMLAttachTraditional {
#simple HTML message with attachment email - traditional way!
$sender->OpenMultipart({
from => 'abc@abc.com',
to =>'def@abc.com',
subject => 'this is a test html with attachments using traditional method'}
) or die "$Mail::Sender::Error\n";
$sender->Body(
{ ctype=>"text/html", encoding=>'quoted-printable', msg=> << '*EOF*' });
<html>
<body>
<h1>A long</h1>
Hi Guan Hoe
<p align=center>
mail
message.
</p>
</body>
</html>
*EOF*
$sender->Part({ctype=>"multipart/mixed",encoding=>'base64',disposition=>'attachment'});
$sender->Attach(
{ file=>'abc.pl', description=>'Perl Abc'
}
);
$sender->Attach(
{ file=>'def.pl', description=>'Perl Def'
}
);
$sender->EndPart("multipart/mixed");
$sender->Close()or die "$Mail::Sender::Error\n";
}
sub testHTMLInlineImageTraditional {
#simple HTML message with inline images email - traditional way!
$sender->OpenMultipart({
from => 'abc@abc.com',
to =>'def@abc.com',
boundary =>'boundary-test-1',
subject => 'this is a test html with inline images using traditional method'}
) or die "$Mail::Sender::Error\n";
$sender->Body(
{ ctype=>"text/html", encoding=>'quoted-printable', msg=> << '*EOF*' });
<html>
<body>
<h1>A long</h1><p align=center>
mail
message.
<ul>
<li><img src="cid:img1"></li>
<li><img src="cid:img2"></li>
<li><img src="cid:img3"></li>
<li><img src="cid:img4"></li>
</ul>
</p>
</body>
</html>
*EOF*
$sender->Part({ctype => "multipart/related" });
$sender->Attach(
{ ctype=>'image/gif', encoding=>'base64', disposition=>"inline; filename=\"spade.gif\";\r\nContent-ID: <img1>", file=>'spade.gif', description=>'Spade GIF'
}
);
$sender->Attach(
{ ctype=>'image/gif', encoding=>'base64', disposition=>"inline; filename=\"heart.gif\";\r\nContent-ID: <img2>", file=>'heart.gif', description=>'Heart GIF'
}
);
$sender->Attach(
{ ctype=>'image/gif', encoding=>'base64', disposition=>"inline; filename=\"club.gif\";\r\nContent-ID: <img3>", file=>'club.gif', description=>'Club GIF'
}
);
$sender->Attach(
{ ctype=>'image/gif', encoding=>'base64', disposition=>"inline; filename=\"diamond.gif\";\r\nContent-ID: <img4>", file=>'diamond.gif', description=>'Diamond GIF'
}
);
$sender->EndPart("multipart/related");
$sender->Close()or die "$Mail::Sender::Error\n";
}
my $thrDesc = "Thread ".threads->self()->tid()." ";
print $thrDesc."started... ",qx(date),"\n";
testTextShortCut;
testTextAttachShortcut;
testTextTraditional;
testTextAttachTraditional;
testHTMLTraditional;
testHTMLAttachTraditional;
testHTMLInlineImageTraditional;
print "Mail sent OK.\n";
print $thrDesc."exited... ",qx(date),"\n";