Reading Microsoft Outlook Express .dbx files

[Aahz Maruch]

In article <mailman.979199831.22069.python-list at python.org>,

Have found that of only marginal use, and only then for plain-text msgs.
Still the case that, to the best of my knowledge, while recent Outlooks deal
with msgs in std Internet format fine, it's not possible to get them back in
that format from Outlook (as the original questioner wanted).

IIRC correctly, it's not possible from Outlook, but it *is* possible
from Exchange Server. If you set up Exchange as a POP3 server and move
the messages to a folder that you can access, any POP3 client can now
get the raw messages (*don't* ask me for the details, it's been two
years and a job ago).

[Robert Amesz]

In my trek through the various mail packages the Windoze user may be
confronted with I am currently battling with Outlook Express. It's
actually rather better than I feared.
Its native folder format appears to be a ".dbx" file, about which I
have no information. Does any reader have experience with either
reading these files, or automating OEx to provide them to a Python
program in RFC822-style formats?
Or, indeed, any other way of extracting mail items from the files
created by OEx.

As it so happens, i've come across a program recently which can convert
.dbx (OE5) to .mbx format.

Program:
ftp://ftp.micropop.com/pub/oe2mbx/oe2mbx.exe

Sources:
http://www.micropop.com/code/liboe-0.92.tar.gz

Read routines for .DBX files:
http://www.micropop.com/code/oe2mbx-1.21.tar.gz

Mind you, this is GPLed stuff. There's also *some* information to be
found on www.wotsit.org, but it's pretty sketchy. Oe2mbx.exe seems to
work well, though I haven't really tested it extensively. So your
mileage may vary.


HTH, Robert Amesz

[Steve Holden]

I'd like to thank everyone who responded to my query about reading OE5 .dbx
files. It no longer seems quite such a black art.

If any Python comes out of this I'll be sure to make it available.

regards
Steve

[Tim Peters]

[posted & mailed]

[Steve Holden]

In my trek through the various mail packages the Windoze user may be
confronted with I am currently battling with Outlook Express.
It's actually rather better than I feared.

Hint: The undocumented Ctrl+F3 brings up a box with the actual raw email,
headers and MIME separators and all (only in OE; Outlook doesn't support
this, and AFAICT Outlook doesn't even save the original stream).

Its native folder format appears to be a ".dbx" file, about which
I have no information.

Also undocumented.

Does any reader have experience with either reading these files, or
automating OEx to provide them to a Python program in RFC822-style
formats?

Check out this pragmatic reverse-engineering:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mbx2mbox/

Converts Outlook .mbx and .dbx files into standard RFC822
mail files. Mailboxes from newer versions of Outlook and
Outlook express may not be supported.

If you ever have to deal with Outlook .pst format, though, that's black
magic at a whole 'nother level, using both undocumented compression and
undocumented encryption schemes. Never found anything that understands
.pst. Best way to convert Outlook msgs to std form I ever found was to
*mail* Outlook msgs, as attachments, from Outlook to a Unixish client, and
pick them apart on the receiving end.

no-actual-need-to-break-the-code-ly y'rs - tim

[Steve Holden]

[posted and mailed]

Post by Tim Peters
[posted & mailed]
[Steve Holden]

In my trek through the various mail packages the Windoze user may be
confronted with I am currently battling with Outlook Express.
It's actually rather better than I feared.

Hint: The undocumented Ctrl+F3 brings up a box with the actual raw email,
headers and MIME separators and all (only in OE; Outlook doesn't support
this, and AFAICT Outlook doesn't even save the original stream).

Its native folder format appears to be a ".dbx" file, about which
I have no information.

Also undocumented.

Does any reader have experience with either reading these files, or
automating OEx to provide them to a Python program in RFC822-style
formats?

http://sourceforge.net/projects/mbx2mbox/
Converts Outlook .mbx and .dbx files into standard RFC822
mail files. Mailboxes from newer versions of Outlook and
Outlook express may not be supported.
If you ever have to deal with Outlook .pst format, though, that's black
magic at a whole 'nother level, using both undocumented compression and
undocumented encryption schemes. Never found anything that understands
.pst. Best way to convert Outlook msgs to std form I ever found was to
*mail* Outlook msgs, as attachments, from Outlook to a Unixish client, and
pick them apart on the receiving end.
no-actual-need-to-break-the-code-ly y'rs - tim

Thanks for your advice. Since I'm using a fairly recent edition of OE
(5.50.4133.2400) I suspect there'll be problems, but at the very worst I can
pick the mbx2mbox code apart (blerch: Perl!) and recast it in Python, if I'm
capable, updating as I go along. It will at least have some ideas in it,
whic puts me further down the orad than I am now.

The problem with the usual techniques of saving as text, and some mailing
solutions, is that attachments are frequently ignored. I overcame the
inability to deal with .pst files by importing from Outlook to OE. I also
imported my Netscape mail, though I had already managed to deal with that in
Python.

all-my-eggs-now-firmly-in-one-basket-ly y'rs - steve

[Steve Holden]

"Tim Peters" <tim.one at home.com> wrote in message

Post by Tim Peters
[Steve Holden]

...
The problem with the usual techniques of saving as text, and some
mailing solutions, is that attachments are frequently ignored.

Sorry, no idea what that means. Ignored by whom? If I tell Outlook to

mail

Post by Tim Peters
an attachment, Outlook does not ignore my suggestion <wink>. On the other
end, the attachment Outlook generates is ignored only if the receiver
intentionally ignores it.

I simply meant that some mailers forward messages without attachments, and
some don't. Haven't tested OE to see which category it falls in yet.

regards
Steve

[Greg Jorgensen]

"Tim Peters" <tim.one at home.com> wrote in message

Post by Tim Peters
Hint: The undocumented Ctrl+F3 brings up a box with the actual raw email,
headers and MIME separators and all (only in OE; Outlook doesn't support
this, and AFAICT Outlook doesn't even save the original stream).

Both Outlook and Outlook Express can show the original raw message source,
though it isn't obvious. In OE choose File | Properties | Details | Message
Source (or use ctrl+F3 to do the same thing). Outlook has a different path
to the message source; I don't have Outlook at home so I don't remember the
path, but it's there. Outlook can save selected messages to a text file,
which OE can't do.

--
Greg Jorgensen
PDXperts
Portland, Oregon, USA
gregj at pobox.com

[Eduard Hiti]

Go to www.freshmeat.net and type 'outlook' into the find box. You'll get
links to various Outlook .dbx converters which should be open sourced. Maybe
those will give you an idea about how to proceed.

Eduard

"Steve Holden" <sholden at holdenweb.com> wrote in message
news:h7_66.8949$X3.91000 at e420r-atl1.usenetserver.com...
| In my trek through the various mail packages the Windoze user may be
| confronted with I am currently battling with Outlook Express. It's
actually
| rather better than I feared.
|
| Its native folder format appears to be a ".dbx" file, about which I have
no
| information. Does any reader have experience with either reading these
| files, or automating OEx to provide them to a Python program in
RFC822-style
| formats?
|
| Or, indeed, any other way of extracting mail items from the files created
by
| OEx.
|
| regards
| Steve
| --
| Tools, training and technology can help you meet your information needs
|
|

[Greg Jorgensen]

"Steve Holden" <sholden at holdenweb.com> wrote in message

In my trek through the various mail packages the Windoze user may be
confronted with I am currently battling with Outlook Express. It's

actually

rather better than I feared.
Its native folder format appears to be a ".dbx" file, about which I have

no

information. Does any reader have experience with either reading these
files, or automating OEx to provide them to a Python program in

RFC822-style

formats?

I think the .dbx format is documented somewhere on MSDN. A few months ago I
was trying to save an Outlook Express mailbox as separate messages, and
after digging around with Google and DejaNews I found a couple of free tools
that did just that. They weren't very stable, though: one didn't seem to
work at all, and the other stopped processing messages halfway through the
mailbox. In the source code of one of them (I can't remember names, sorry)
the .dbx format was obvious. There's also a C library for Unix out there
that reads .dbx files, but I didn't play with that.

In the end I did the slacker thing: I used Outlook (not Express) to import
the .dbx file. Outlook can save a bunch of selected messages as individual
text files, which is what I wanted.

--
Greg Jorgensen
PDXperts
Portland, Oregon, USA
gregj at pobox.com

[Tim Peters]

[Greg Jorgensen]

Post by Greg Jorgensen
Both Outlook and Outlook Express can show the original raw message
source, though it isn't obvious. In OE choose
File | Properties | Details | Message Source
(or use ctrl+F3 to do the same thing).

Yes.

Post by Greg Jorgensen
Outlook has a different path to the message source;

Sorry, I don't believe that -- but I'm easy to convince <wink>. You may be
thinking of the menu item View -> Options in Outlook, but that only shows
the headers. Or you may be thinking of context-menu View -> Source while
reading a msg, but that only exists for HTML mail, and still doesn't show
the raw stream (MIME encodings, etc). There's nothing corresponding to OE's
(useful!) notion of "Message Source" in the Outlook object model, either.

Post by Greg Jorgensen
I don't have Outlook at home so I don't remember the path, but it's
there.

See above. One of OE's developers confirmed this for me wrt Outlook 98, but
that was about two years ago; if something fundamental changed in Outlook
2000, I haven't found it despite hours of looking.

Post by Greg Jorgensen
Outlook can save selected messages to a text file, which OE can't
do.

Have found that of only marginal use, and only then for plain-text msgs.
Still the case that, to the best of my knowledge, while recent Outlooks deal
with msgs in std Internet format fine, it's not possible to get them back in
that format from Outlook (as the original questioner wanted).

friend-of-a-friend-at-a-workplace-notwithstanding<wink>-ly y'rs
- tim

[Steve Holden]

"Aahz Maruch" <aahz at panix.com> wrote in message

Post by Aahz Maruch
In article <mailman.979199831.22069.python-list at python.org>,

Have found that of only marginal use, and only then for plain-text msgs.
Still the case that, to the best of my knowledge, while recent Outlooks deal
with msgs in std Internet format fine, it's not possible to get them back in
that format from Outlook (as the original questioner wanted).

IIRC correctly, it's not possible from Outlook, but it *is* possible
from Exchange Server. If you set up Exchange as a POP3 server and move
the messages to a folder that you can access, any POP3 client can now
get the raw messages (*don't* ask me for the details, it's been two
years and a job ago).

Which leaves me, as an (ex-)Outlook user who used it mostly for Internet
mail, with the same old "no support is available". Sheesh, you'd think some
comanies were planning world domination the way they ignore old-established
standards like RFC822.

not-to-mention-RFC823-for-long-enough-ly y'rs - steve

[Steve Holden]

In my trek through the various mail packages the Windoze user may be
confronted with I am currently battling with Outlook Express. It's actually
rather better than I feared.

Its native folder format appears to be a ".dbx" file, about which I have no
information. Does any reader have experience with either reading these
files, or automating OEx to provide them to a Python program in RFC822-style
formats?

Or, indeed, any other way of extracting mail items from the files created by
OEx.

regards
Steve
--
Tools, training and technology can help you meet your information needs

[Tim Peters]

[Steve Holden]

...
The problem with the usual techniques of saving as text, and some
mailing solutions, is that attachments are frequently ignored.

Sorry, no idea what that means. Ignored by whom? If I tell Outlook to mail
an attachment, Outlook does not ignore my suggestion <wink>. On the other
end, the attachment Outlook generates is ignored only if the receiver
intentionally ignores it.

I overcame the inability to deal with .pst files by importing
from Outlook to OE.

I don't recall the details now, but last time I tried that I found that
"some kinds" of info got lost systematically during Outlook -> OE transfers.
So test that very carefully. May have had something to do with HTML mail in
particular.

I also imported my Netscape mail, though I had already managed
to deal with that in Python.

Speaking of which, I believe some popular (with everyone but me <wink>)
non-MS Windows email clients offer to import your OE mail stores. Perhaps
even Netscape. So that's more code you could look at.

all-my-eggs-now-firmly-in-one-basket-ly y'rs - steve

just-don't-make-your-basket-so-full-that-bill-gates-gets-
envious<wink>-ly y'rs - tim