Exam reply

000419-1

Describe the functionality of the Multipart/alternative MIME content-type.

Answer

Multipart/alternative allows the delivery of several variants of the same document in different formats, for example one variant in plain text format and one variant in HTML format. The user is expected to want to see only one of the variants. The variants should be ordered with the simplest variant first, and the most advanced at the end, so that a mailer which does not understand this (and which probably does not understand the more advanced format) will show the simplest format first. Some mailers choose the variant to show automatically, other mailers ask their users which variant they want to see.

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000419-1	Describe the functionality of the Multipart/alternative MIME content-type.
Answer	Multipart/alternative allows the delivery of several variants of the same document in different formats, for example one variant in plain text format and one variant in HTML format. The user is expected to want to see only one of the variants. The variants should be ordered with the simplest variant first, and the most advanced at the end, so that a mailer which does not understand this (and which probably does not understand the more advanced format) will show the simplest format first. Some mailers choose the variant to show automatically, other mailers ask their users which variant they want to see.