Remove header name from ->getHeader()

[ThomasLandauer]

Is there a limit for issues per day? ;-)

I think that the main function for reading a header (i.e. ->getHeader()) should return just the value/content, not the header name:

If this is in the email

From: [email protected]

->getHeader('from') now returns (see AbstractHeader::__toString()):

From: [email protected]

but should return:

[email protected]

Why?

• Semantics: The string From: is not part of the information
• Pragmatics: If I ask for the From header, there's no need to prefix the answer with something like "Here comes the From header". And if I store it in a database (in a column probably called from), there's no need to store "From:" over and over.

I think it's a good idea to do have a function that returns the full line, it just shouldn't be the "main" function. Maybe something like getFullHeader()? Speaking of naming: What was your idea behind ->getHeaderValue()? For e.g. the Subject this would be what I'm asking for here, but for From it just returns the email address, not the person's name.

And I spotted a (somewhat related) inconsistency in README.md: getPersonName() vs. getName():

echo $message
    ->getHeader('from')                         // AddressHeader
    ->getPersonName();                          // Person Name
echo $message
    ->getHeader('to')                           // also AddressHeader
    ->getAddresses()[0]                         // AddressPart
    ->getName();                                // Person Name

The former is a method of AddressHeader. But since the latter is a method of the more generic ParameterPart, you probably cannot change it in the code?

[zbateson]

I disagree with this one, although there may be less use for a user looking at the entire header, the object itself doesn't care that you called getHeader('from'), and in this case the __toString is telling you about the whole object you're looking at... essentially "this is the String representation of this object"... i.e. __toString.

It's also used when writing out an email, essentially the "string" representation of a Message is all the headers and body... I don't assume that because you're looking at a Message you know that the Subject is X, that you're only interested in the text content, etc..., etc..., I'm assuming __toString should give the "string" representation of whatever object it is you're looking at.

This may not be consistent in every project, etc... but I think it makes the most sense. If you only want a specific part of it, you'd call $message->getTextContent or $header->getSomethingSpecific, etc....

[ThomasLandauer]

I see what you mean by "string representation of the object". However, if I have a Person entity, my __toString() looks like this:

return $this->getFirstName() . $this->getLastName();

not like this:

return 'Person: ' . $this->getFirstName() . $this->getLastName();

you'd call $header->getSomethingSpecific, etc....

But there just is no function that gives me the entire header without the name-prefix! (That's what I'm saying) Or is it?

[zbateson]

However, if I have a Person entity, my __toString() looks like this

Yes, but this is not an "Address" entity, it's an "AddressHeader" entity, this makes sense to me. You can echo $message; and get the whole message (which internally calls __toString() on each header, so you can change headers and the whole message will get written out cleanly for example), and it's also not returning "Address: user [email protected]" it's returning "From: user [email protected]", From being the name of the AddressHeader itself.

It certainly wouldn't make sense to put "Person: " in front of some random Person object's "__toString", but if it were PersonHeader as part of a mime object, the name of which is "Person", then I think it would 😄

In another ticket I proposed maybe $header->getDisplayValue that could be written to do something like that potentially?

[ThomasLandauer]

You can echo $message; and get the whole message (which internally calls __toString() on each header, so you can change headers and the whole message will get written out cleanly for example)

Since you mentioned this repeatedly: Is there a use-case for this? I mean, this is an email parser, not an email creator. So if I want to see the entire message, I can take a look at what I passed into $mailParser->parse(); :-)

[zbateson]

Yeah, you can modify a parsed email (add attachments/parts, etc..., change content, whatever you want) and do what you will with it after.

It's a bit simplistic in that you have to do all the header formatting and such yourself, but yes, it's used.

I don't think anyone's using this to create a fresh mime message though...

[ThomasLandauer]

and do what you will with it after.

But you can't send it? Or can you?

[zbateson]

There's nothing in zbateson/mail-mime-parser to help with sending emails.

[ThomasLandauer]

I still think that the Headers main string representation (i.e. __toString()) should not include the header name. Your argument

You can echo $message; and get the whole message (which internally calls __toString() on each header

...doesn't convince me since the very sense of an email parser is to look at single parts/headers, not at the entire message. However, I'm closing this in favor of #122, since changing the current behavior only makes sense as part of a larger overhaul of the nomenclature, which we're discussing there.