eMail Question

Question

Hello

Im searching an overview of "eMail Compose" or "How To create an eMail". I have written some code (it works only with simple Text). But I look at Outlooks creation of email with HTML and an attachment, I retrieve a MIME Content multipart/related with the attachment and a mulipart/alternative with HTML and text. So my question: why related and not mixed? Are there any rules to fallow, while creating mails? Is there any overview with "if want send this so create eMail like this"?

Thanks and Regards
Tony

Answer 1

This is all about the MIME and how it is defined. Yes they are all different and
you need to use the right type when sending mail.
However if you use the System.net.mail, the APIs automatically do the right mime type for you.

multipart/alternative means the parts are all giving you different views of the same message. one is perhaps in text and other is in html and perhaps the the other is an image. the email client can decide what is the best way to render the email according to its capabilities

multipart/mixed means it is a loose collection of message parts.

multipart/related means the collection of parts is related to one another
like the html files and the related images that are embedded in the html file.

Please refer to a good email book or rfc for further detail