Pocomail update

[scubaman]

Hmmm... sad news... lots of positive takes on Pocomail posted, I'm not as thrilled as other posters with poco overall. The poor html support is my main problem. I've been hanging in here, having migrated in when courier started hickupping under windows 7, been waiting for that new poco version ever since. So having run into the html frustrationonce again I figure I come over here to see if there is any scuttlebutt on the next version... and see that it's becoming an orphan also.

So now I am looking for a replacement. I would like to export my data and get into perhaps t'bird or postbox. Is this possible, other than exporting 1 folder at a time? I imagine there could be some macro or script that does a wholesale export and somehow preserves a directory structure. Does something like this exist?

[finding_mcflappy]

So now I am looking for a replacement. I would like to export my data and get into perhaps t'bird or postbox. Is this possible, other than exporting 1 folder at a time? I imagine there could be some macro or script that does a wholesale export and somehow preserves a directory structure. Does something like this exist?

It is certainly possible. I did it myself, see my post here for a couple of options on how to get your mail into Thunderbird - http://www.pocosystems.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=7949&start=30#p39186
It takes a while to export each folder from Poco, but if you shuffle your mail into only a few folders in Poco before exporting you can save a lot of time. I haven't tried the Aid4Mail route as I thought I'd save the cash and try it manually instead and am glad I did.

Hope this helps,

Bob

[Tomas]

Is this possible, other than exporting 1 folder at a time?

It takes a while to export each folder from Poco, but if you shuffle your mail into only a few folders in Poco before exporting you can save a lot of time.

Export in fact is not necessary. Pocomail stores the data in either exactly same format as Thunderbird, or very identical.
I have tested import by just copying all .mbx files from Pocomail to Thunderbird, and it worked, Thunderbird though doesn't use .mbx extension but no extension so it has to be removed, ie. mbx files copied as files with no extension.
That's very rough description, it's couple of months if not years when I did that, if you'll search the forum maybe you can find the procedure there. If not please post new topic (so that we don't go off-topic here) and I'll try and find or re-create whole procedure.

[finding_mcflappy]

I have tested import by just copying all .mbx files from Pocomail to Thunderbird, and it worked, Thunderbird though doesn't use .mbx extension but no extension so it has to be removed, ie. mbx files copied as files with no extension.

Just tested this and sure enough you can, wish someone had told me this sooner! Guess that's 20 minutes of my life I'm not going to get back!

[scubaman]

Thanks for all the info.

Tomas, I tried the direct route. But I am running into a problem. I found e.g. a file called 'boating.mbx'. There is also a directory call 'boating' containing more .mbx files. So I cannot rename 'boating.mbx' to 'boating'. Do I have to give up the directory structure? BTW I have over 300 mbx files...

[scubaman]

So I named all the folders foldername.sbd and I think it worked! Now I need to see about address book and perhaps filters - that woul dbe great but I don't have high hopes for that

[dskirk]

There is a nice Thunderbird plugin at https://nic-nac-project.org/~kaosmos/index-en.html that imports pocomail mailboxes rather easily, but does one level at a time. The URL gives a security warning.
david

[KevTech]

All you have to do is export your pocomail mailboxes as Netscape then place them in your thunderbird mail folder.

[Fueler]

Seems like the wrong place to be discussing this ...but what about the address book?

[KevTech]

Seems like the wrong place to be discussing this ...but what about the address book?

Export as CSV or LDIF then import.
If I remember correctly the LDIF file format worked better.

[FFF]

PMFJI, so it seems to be no greater problem to move mailboxes to TB, but what about the Attachments? Is there a way to point TB to Pocos Attachment folder, or how may the connection between mail and attachment be kept intact?

TIA
Karl

[Tomas]

PMFJI, so it seems to be no greater problem to move mailboxes to TB, but what about the Attachments? Is there a way to point TB to Pocos Attachment folder, or how may the connection between mail and attachment be kept intact?

you can use the reattach script: viewtopic.php?t=354

[Tomas]

Now I need to see about address book and perhaps filters - that woul dbe great but I don't have high hopes for that

Filters are not possible, address book is possible to be converted.
LDIF export shall suffice.

For users that have groups in their address books, I'm working on a conversion utility that will handle this. (it might take couple of weeks due to no free time and little coding skill, but I already have some core code in place, so if anyone has urgent conversion need and doesn't mind sending me the sensitive address book data, I'll probably be able to do conversion for you in such case, send me an email. It's mostly the "making it user friendly and for public consumption" part that'll delay it for next year).

[Robert_Charlton]

Slaven - Thanks for your updated post. I'm sorry to hear the news, which I know must not be easy for you.

I've been a Poco user since Windows 95, I think since version 2.x... and I've been very superstitious about changing. I've in fact purchased two updates that I've never used, the most recent to Barca some two or three years ago. I feel that Pocomail still offers features far beyond its competitors, even as some of the infrastructure is creaking. And I've been very reluctant to change a "mission-critical" application like an email client.

This is to add my thanks to the Thank you thread... viewtopic.php?f=16&t=14197 ... (the thread also goes into exporting to Outlook 2010), and also to wonder out loud about recommended courses to take. Like many Poco users, I'll now need to make some decisions about what to use. Since I'm at the point of upgrading to Windows 7 from XP and to Office 2010 as well, the migration to Outlook 2010 is one possibility. I haven't looked carefully, but it's likely that Outlook is the only email client around that offers comparable features to Poco, albeit its file-system (and its possible vulnerabilities) makes me shudder.

Another possible course of action... if there's some chance that Poco/Barca could turn into an open-source type project... might be to upgrade to the latest version of Poco/Barca and wait. You and others here can provide the best advice on that. Probably best also to wait for news about conversion utilities.

In any event, all best wishes. Thanks to Tomas for various help along the way. I'm sure the community will need to get active enough for us all to make the decisions we have to. I will be around more often.

Best,

Bob

[Robert_Charlton]

PS to the above, re program choices, folder export, etc. I've got thousands of messages and hundreds of folders, as I use the program practically as a project manager. I can't imagine merging all the messages together and then sorting them out. Losing color coding is going to be tough enough.

I'm also assuming that Thunderbird is lightweight compared to Pocomail, and that Outlook may in fact be the only choice for someone who uses email the way I do.

Thoughts?