OpenEuphoria

Re: How to access *.dbx files from OutlookExpress 5.0

• Posted by gebrandariz <gebrandariz at YAHOO.COM> Sep 21, 2000
• 475 views

Hugo:

----- Original Message -----
From: Hugo Rozas M. <hrm at TERRA.COM.PE>
To: <EUPHORIA at LISTSERV.MUOHIO.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2000 7:59 AM
Subject: How to access *.dbx files from OutlookExpress 5.0


> Hi 2 All:
>
> Anyone knows if there is any way to access the stored
> messages from OE 5.0 (dbx format)?
> I have thousands of saved e-mails and would like to
> know if it's possible to create a program that let's me
> search the data the way of the search-engines (using
> expressions :  *, ? , & and the like )
>
> Thanx in advance
>
> Hugo

1) Pedestrian method, requires no additional software or processing: open
each OE5 folder you want to process, click on the messages list (usually
upper right window), select all (Ctrl-E) or some, drag selected files to
your favorite file manager. This will copy each message and save it
separately in .eml format, a text file with all mail headers included. Then
you can merge them into one or more big text files, or upload them to your
favorite database.

2) Semi-pedestrian method, requires Netscape Messenger (I tested it with
Communicator 4.74 on Windows): import your OE5 folder(s), which will usually
result in a new "Oulook Express Mail" folder; then you can open each folder,
select all or some messages, then a) right click and "save as"; or b) File
menu and also "save as", choose "text file", and this will result in a
combined text file containg all the messages you selected.

3) Some interesting (untested) freeware programs at:
mbx2mbox  http://mbx2mbox.sourceforge.net/, for Linux, saves as uucp
DBXtract http://webattack.com/freeware/comm/fwmiscmail.shtml,

4) VB code you may test, at

5) At www.stack.com  and at
http://www.midnightdreary.com/Documents/Definitions/FILEF.htm they say the
.dbx may be a Visual Foxpro table file. If such is the case, you might try a
standalone viewer at http://www.genexus.com/forum/tips/gxrview.htm.

Note 1: If you try to view or edit the .dbx files with a standard ASCII or
ANSI editor, it is possible (not very probable, but possible) that some
clear text may appear. This text does not belong to the mail file, which is
completely encrypted, but appears due to the suppression of certain binary
codes those editors can't interpret or will filter out, resulting in
spurious physical disk reads beyond eof.

Note 2: Procedures resulting in text files result in text files [ couldn't
help it  ], which means losing all HTML tags, images, etc.

Good luck!

Gerardo E. Brandariz


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