NAME

       Mail::Box::Tie::ARRAY - access an existing message folder as array

SYNOPSIS

        use Mail::Box::Manager;
        my $mgr    = Mail::Box::Manager->new;
        my $folder = $mgr->open(folder => 'inbox');

        use Mail::Box::Tie::ARRAY;
        tie my(@inbox), 'Mail::Box::Tie::ARRAY', $folder;

        # deprecated, but works too
        use Mail::Box::Tie;
        tie my(@inbox), 'Mail::Box::Tie', $folder;

        foreach (@inbox) {print $_->short}
        print $_->print foreach @inbox;
        my $emails = @inbox;

        print $inbox[3];
        print scalar @inbox;
        push @inbox, Mail::Box::Message->new(...);
        delete $inbox[6];
        print $inbox[0]->head->get('status');

        my $folder = tied @inbox;
        untie @inbox;

DESCRIPTION

       Certainly when you look at a folder as a list of messages, it is logical to access the
       folder through an array.

       Not all operations on arrays are supported.  Actually, most functions which would reduce
       the size of the array are modified instead to mark messages for deletion.

       Examples what you cannot do:

        shift/unshift/pop/splice @inbox;

METHODS

   Constructors
       TIEARRAY('Mail::Box::Tie::ARRAY', FOLDER)
           Create the tie on an existing folder.

           example: tie an array to a folder

            my $mgr   = Mail::Box::Manager->new;
            my $inbox = $mgr->new(folder => $ENV{MAIL});
            tie my(@inbox), 'Mail::Box::Tie::Array', ref $inbox, $inbox;

   Tied Interface
       $obj->DELETE()
           Flag a message to be removed.  Be warned that the message stays in the folder, and is
           not removed before the folder is written.

           example:

            delete $inbox[5];
            $inbox[5]->delete;   #same

       $obj->FETCH($index)
           Get the message which is at the indicated location in the list of messages contained
           in this folder.  Deleted messages will be returned as "undef".

           example:

            print $inbox[3];     # 4th message in the folder
            print @inbox[3,0];   # 4th and first of the folder
            print $inbox[-1];    # last message

       $obj->FETCHSIZE()
           Return the total number of messages in a folder.  This is called when the folder-array
           is used in scalar context, for instance.

           example:

            if(@inbox > 10)    # contains more than 10 messages?
            my $nrmsgs = @inbox;

       $obj->PUSH(@messages)
           Add @messages to the end of the folder.

           example:

               push @inbox, $newmsg;

       $obj->STORE($index, $message)
           Random message replacement is not permitted --doing so would disturb threads etc.  An
           error occurs if you try to do this. The only thing which is allowed is to store a
           message at the first free index at the end of the folder (which is also achievable
           with PUSH()).

           example:

            $inbox[8] = $add;
            $inbox[-1] = $add;
            push @inbox, $add;

       $obj->STORESIZE($length)
           Sets all messages behind from $length to the end of folder to be deleted.

DETAILS

   Folder tied as array
       Limitations

       This module implements "TIEARRAY", "FETCH", "STORE", "FETCHSIZE", "STORESIZE", "DELETE",
       "PUSH", and "DESTROY".

       This module does not implement all other methods as described in the Tie::Array
       documentation, because the real array of messages is not permitted to shrink or be
       mutilated.

SEE ALSO

       This module is part of Mail-Box distribution version 3.004, built on December 22, 2017.

       Do not forget to read Mail::Box-Overview, Mail::Box-Cookbook, and Mail::Box-Index.
       Examples are included in the Mail-Box distribution, directories 'examples' and 'scripts'.

       Browseable manuals, papers, and other released material van be found at  Website:
       http://perl.overmeer.net/mailbox/

       The central modules (in separate distributions) in the MailBox suite are: Mail::Message,
       Mail::Box, Mail::Box::IMAP4, Mail::Box::POP3, Mail::Box::Parser::C, Mail::Box::Dbx
       (unpublished), Mail::Transport, Object::Realize::Later, and User::Identity.

       Please post questions or ideas to the author markov@cpan.org.

LICENSE

       Copyrights 2001-2017 by [Mark Overmeer]. For other contributors see ChangeLog.

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same
       terms as Perl itself.  See http://dev.perl.org/licenses/