Object oriented mail server framework mechanism

A framework for use with object-oriented programming systems provides a common message processing system structure that can be placed on any OOP platform and be configured to support any e-mail message protocol standard or specific mail server function. The framework defines an e-mail message as a number of distinct objects, each of which contains information that describes some portion of the message. All messages received by a system in which the framework is implemented are defined on this core object structure. Another set of objects and methods define the processing steps required for a mail server to process a message. A message is received as a class of message objects, which are assigned a message type that determines the subsequent processing steps to which the message object is subjected. As a message is processed, the objects of which it is comprised are changed, so that the message processing can be interrupted and then resumed without loss or duplication of processing steps.