In this book, the term MIME message refers to a complete, top-level MIME message that is made up of a set of message header fields (including the mandatory MIME Version header) and a body.

The term MIME entity refers to any block of data composed of header fields and a body. It can mean either a complete MIME message or a single body part within a multipart message.

Most MIME services provided by Integration Server do not operate directly on a MIME message or a MIME entity. Instead, they operate on a MIME object. A MIME object is a parsed representation of a MIME message that allows webMethods services to add and/or retrieve the message’s constituent elements (header fields and content). By convention, the variable that holds a MIME object is called mimeData.