CLOANTO MAILBX 1.1
INTRODUCTION
MailBX is a utility which was originally written in less than three hours
to convert AmigaElm mail archive files to the MBX format (used by Internet
Mail and News, and Outlook Express). The MBX format can then in turn be
imported into other programs, including Exchange Server.
MailBX worked perfectly the first time it was used, converting more than
100 Mbytes of message data. MailBX has not been tested in any other
configuration but the one in which it was needed. Nevertheless, MailBX is
made available to the Amiga community at large, and especially the users
who already use Amiga Forever to share data between the Amiga and another
platform. Please do not expect much support for this software, but feel
free to send feedback to <support cloanto.com>.
In theory, MailBX should be flexible enough to process a variety of
"unixoid" mail archive formats, where each message in the input text
file is introduced by one of the following:
"From *!*" followed by internet header lines
"From **" followed by internet header lines
"From *(ARCHIVE)" followed by internet header lines
"From username weekday*" followed by internet header lines
Both LF and CR+LF are accepted as end of line terminators, and are
processed appropriately.
This initial "From " line is an application-specific message separator,
and is not exported to the MBX file. This is different from the "From:"
(note the colon) line used in internet headers, which is exported.
Putting multiple messages in a single text file and resorting to a "From *"
string to recognize the boundaries between messages may lead to unexpected
results if the message body itself contains a line beginning with "From ".
Many mail programs are confused by such a condition. If an email quotes
the message headers of another email, and there is a "From *" separator
quoted with the other header lines, it is in most cases impossible for the
mail program to "know" that this is not a new message (but instead a
message quoted inside a message). Mail programs should automatically indent
such a "From *" line before sending the mail, but this is not always the
case, so these (rare) messages may end up being stored in the mail archive
files of the receiving mail software. This could lead to a message being
incorrectly reopened and/or converted as if it were more than one message.
MailBX checks a number of things, including the preceding and following
lines to make sure that this does not happen, and issues a warning in case
of doubt (informing whether a "From " line was disregarded or accepted as
a message header line). If this happens, you should check the line
indicated in the warning message, and manually indent the "From *" line by
putting a space in front of it, or find out why a valid message header
generated a warning message. A "safe" conversion is one that does not
generate any warnings at all. This also makes things more reliable should
the messages be then exported or processed again by another program.
Information messages are also issued if binary data is found in the source
messages. It is up to the receiving application how to handle this binary
data, which is preserved and saved unmodified.
MailBX is invoked from the Shell, using the format:
MailBX <inputfile> <outputfile>
The <outputfile> name should have a ".mbx" suffix in order to be recognized
by the destination mail software. Example:
MailBX mail_sent "Sent Items.mbx"
IMPORTANT: It is strongly recommended to make backup copies of all source
and destination files before using MailBX, and to experiment and get
familiar with a conversion involving a limited number of messages before
proceeding with more complex conversions.
EXPORTING TO INTERNET MAIL CLIENTS
On non-Amiga platforms, MBX files are usually stored in locations like:
C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\username\Mail\Inbox.mbx
or
C:\Program Files\Internet Mail and News\username\Mail\Inbox.mbx
Each MBX file is accompanied by an IDX file, which is an index file.
MailBX does not create IDX files, because these are created automatically,
if missing, by programs like Outlook Express, and can be created manually
(using the Repair or Compact mailbox commands) with Internet Mail and News.
One possible conversion process is as follows:
1) Make sure that the mail software on the destination platform is not
running
2) Move the original "Inbox.mbx", "Inbox.idx", "Sent Items.mbx" and
"Sent Items.idx" files to a safe location
3) Use MailBX to create new "Inbox.mbx" and/or "Sent Items.mbx" files.
Important: there must be no IDX file having the same base name as the
new MBX files.
Using programs like Outlook Express, nothing else is necessary: the
converted messages should appear properly, with all fields converted,
and the original internet headers available by selecting Properties...
The IDX files are generated automatically the first time the new
mail folders are accessed.
With older mail programs, including Internet Mail and News, it may be
necessary to manually create the IDX files, which can be done either with
the Inbox Repair tool, or by selecting the Compact Folder command (which
may display a message saying that the mailbox is damaged, in which case
selecting OK is sufficient to "repair" it, i.e. create the IDX file).
The procedure described for "Inbox.mbx" also works for subfolders of
the Inbox, in which case the file names are named "Folder1.mbx",
"Folder2.mbx", etc.
IMPORTING INTO EXCHANGE SERVER
Once the files have been converted, and each MBX has its associated IDX
file (following the steps described above, i.e. using an internet mail
client such as Outlook Express), the mail folders can be imported into
Exchange Server, if so desired.
In order to preserve the "To:" and "From:" email addresses, the date
information and the internet headers, it is strongly discouraged to use
older programs such as Internet Mail and News, or Outlook 97. Instead,
Outlook Express and Outlook 98 have improved export/import features which
preserve the original fields.
Using the above-mentioned programs, two methods have been successfully
tried in order to transfer the mail data to Exchange Server:
A) Import Internet Mail from Outlook 98 (used as the Exchange client)
B) Export Messages to Exchange from Outlook Express (internet mail client)
Both A and B convert the "To:" and "From:" fields fully and completely
(whereas older programs would sometimes import the names of the sender and
the recipients, but not their email addresses, and in some case even date
information would be lost).
Method A imports all mail folders (Inbox, Mail Sent, Drafts, etc.),
whereas method B gives a choice on which folders to process. Method B,
however, does not convert the original mail headers, so this data is lost.
Most email users have never seen these header fields, but some of the more
sophisticated users do not like the idea of losing any data at all.
For these reasons, method A is the method that was used to complete the
mail conversion job for which MailBX was written. With method A, care
should be taken to leave all source folders empty except those containing
the data to be imported to the Exchange Server.
Subfolders of "Inbox" and "Sent Items" are preserved and imported
separately when importing into Exchange Server with clients like Outlook
98 (method A), making it efficient to import different mail archives (e.g.
"Postmaster", "Support", etc.), which can then easily be moved manually
from these subfolders of the default Inbox to the Inbox folders of the
appropriate accounts and mailboxes.
It is not necessary to import or export Addresses (Import/Export Messages
is sufficient).
VERSION HISTORY
1998-09-26 - v. 1.0: First version
1998-09-27 - v. 1.1: Added intelligence to handle various mailer bugs
Data displayed together with warning
Faster writing to output file
PAYMENT
This program is free!
If you find this program useful, may we suggest that you have a look
at some of the other fine programs from Cloanto, which are described
at http://www.cloanto.com.
Please support us by preferring original software!
LEGAL NOTES
MailBX is hereby licensed to you, the end user, for private,
non-commercial and non-profit use only.
All files in this archive are Copyright © 1998 Cloanto. This archive is
not freely distributable. It may only be distributed by Cloanto and on the
Aminet (by Urban Müller) internet collection. Other types of distribution
must be expressly agreed to in writing (not email) by Cloanto. Cloanto
reserves the right to change distribution channels for this archive at any
time. Publication or distribution of any part of this archive without the
prior written license from Cloanto constitutes acceptance of a licensing
contract and fee to be determined by Cloanto, at a cost in no case lower
than USD 5000.00, payable to Cloanto immediately upon publication or
distribution.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER
EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE. BY USING THE ARCHIVE AND
ITS CONTENTS, YOU ACCEPT THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO ITS QUALITY AND
PERFORMANCE. NEITHER CLOANTO NOR ANY OTHER PARTY INVOLVED IN THE
CREATION, PRODUCTION OR DELIVERY OF THE ARCHIVE AND ITS CONTENTS SHALL BE
LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR INCIDENTAL
DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, LOSS
OF USE OR LOSS OF ANTICIPATED COSTS, EXPENSES OR DAMAGES, AND ANY DATA OR
INFORMATION WHICH MAY BE LOST OR RENDERED INACCURATE, EVEN IF CLOANTO IS
ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.
Amiga is a registered trademark of Amiga International, Inc. Cloanto,
the Cloanto logo, Accenti and WebShift are registered trademarks, and
Amiga Forever, ColorType, DirDiff, MailBX, Personal Paint, Personal Suite
and The Kara Collection are trademarks of Cloanto. Outlook, Outlook
Express and Exchange are trademarks or registered trademarks of the
respective owners.
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