[pmmail-list] How to export multiple address books in multiple files?

[Matthew Nicoll]

Hi Rip,
For exporting, I suggest that instead of backing up the db files, 
editing them and restoring them,  you copy them somewhere else first, 
then edit the copied versions.  Same effect, but it leaves the 
originals undisturbed.

If I didn't have paying programming work to do, I would write a 
general utility to do import and export functions on PMmail addresses.

I wish PMmail was being maintained too.  
I am not looking forward to finding and migrating to another program.

... Matthew
www.cypherconsulting.com

--Original Message Text---
From: Rip Edmundson
Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:52:58 -0600

Wonderful analysis Matthew. It will occupy a lot of my time figuring it out in the future.

In the meantime. When I had to transfer a CSV file of one of my address books to someone else, 

(1) I backed up ADDR.DB and BOOKS.DB (they are in a TOOLS folder in the root directory, not the PMMAIL folder)

(2) deleted all address books except the one I wanted to copy (I closed everything and rebooted, just for safety)

(3) created a CSV file of that one address book

(4) restored the backed up copies of ADDR.DB and BOOKS.DB 

That worked okay, although I would not want to do it all the time.

Sure wish PMMAIL was still being supported.

Rip Edmundson
DeltaHawk Engines, Inc.
Racine, Wisconsin USA



On Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:21:15 -0800, Matthew Nicoll wrote:

On Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:56:52 +0100, Ben Stover wrote:


>As I noticed PMMail exports all address book entries into ONE csv file.
>I have multiple address books but the assignments of email addresses to address books are lost during export.
>When I re-import them then ALL addresses are put into one (=defualt) address book.

>Is there a trick to keep the email address in seperate address books as in the origin installation?

>Ben

On Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:56:52 +0100, Ben Stover wrote:


>As I noticed PMMail exports all address book entries into ONE csv file.
>I have multiple address books but the assignments of email addresses to address books are lost during export.
>When I re-import them then ALL addresses are put into one (=defualt) address book.

>Is there a trick to keep the email address in seperate address books as in the origin installation?

>Ben


Hello Ben,

I gave up trying to use the address export function.
I work with the PMMAIL address book files directly.

The addresses are stored in SOUTHSDE\TOOLS\ADDR.DB.

This file is similar to a CSV file, except that the field separators
are ASCII 222, and empty (null) fields contain an ASCII 225.

The address book number is in field 24 (there are 26 fields in total).

The address books themselves are defined in BOOKS.DB, 
where the book name is the first field, and the book number is field 4.

You can look at these files in a text editor such as Textpad.
You could use Textpad to convert an addr.db file into a CSV file.
(A Tab-Separated Value file would be better, if you have commas in any
of your address book fields.)

To convert the an addr.db file into a CSV file:
-Make a copy of your addr.db file, and work on the copy (in case of accidents).
-Open the file in textpad (other text editors will be similar)
-Highlight one of the many funny-looking p's , and press Ctrl-C
-Press Ctrl-H to open the search & replace dialog
-Insert (Ctrl-V) into the search field
-put a comma (or a tab) into the replace field.
-click Replace All.

You could repeat the last 5 steps to change all the accented a's into blanks.

I wrote myself a little Fortran program which I use to convert a list of
email addresses & names into an addr.db-like file which I can append to
my addr.db file, thus loading an external list of email addresses into
my PMMAIL address book.

Let me know if you need help with a particular address job.


Matthew Nicoll
menicoll at telus.net
phone: 250-337-8491, business & fax: 250-337-8441





  


Matthew Nicoll
menicoll at telus.net
phone: 250-337-8491, business & fax: 250-337-8441