NetCode Class

Properties   Methods   Events   Configuration Settings   Errors  

The NetCode component can be used to encode or decode files or strings using a variety of popular encoding formats such as: Base64, UUencode, URL, etc. UUEncode , MIME's Base64 Quoted-Printable , URL encoding formats, as well as secure hash functions such as MD5 and SHA1, are currently supported.

Class Name

IPWorks_NetCode

Procedural Interface

 ipworks_netcode_open();
 ipworks_netcode_close($res);
 ipworks_netcode_register_callback($res, $id, $function);
 ipworks_netcode_get_last_error($res);
 ipworks_netcode_get_last_error_code($res);
 ipworks_netcode_set($res, $id, $index, $value);
 ipworks_netcode_get($res, $id, $index);
 ipworks_netcode_do_config($res, $configurationstring);
 ipworks_netcode_do_decode($res);
 ipworks_netcode_do_encode($res);
 ipworks_netcode_do_resetdata($res);

Remarks

The encoding format is specified by the Format property. The binary data, or the name of the file containing binary data, is specified by the DecodedData property and the encoded data or filename is specified by the EncodedData property. The FileName property may be used to override the default file names or to specify a directory during uuencoding. After uudecoding, the FileName property contains the fully specified file name of the decoded file.

Understanding Encoding/Decoding

Most of mail systems use only 7 bits to transmit messages. A binary file such as an archive or a non-plain text formatted file produced from a text processor should be first encoded in 7 bit code before email transfer.

Decoding is the inverse process: creation of the original file from the encoded data. Encoded data is often split over several files because of the size limit placed on the email message. Each message is preceded by information about this splitting, as well as the mail header. NetCode supports this case in both directions:

- During encoding setting the MaxFileSize config setting to the maximum size of a message body instructs NetCode to split the encoded data over several files. Multiple filenames can be specified by using question marks "?" (See the EncodedData property for more information).

- During decoding, the body messages can be saved in separate files named namexxx.ext where xxx is a numeral starting at 000 and ext is ".uue", ".b16", or ".q_p" according to Format. These multiple filenames should be given to EncodedData.