Groupwise Archive and/Or Export

One of the main advantages to Groupwise for managing email and scheduling is the fact that all data is stored on a server so it can be accessed, in it's entirety from any machine connected to the internet. One problem, however, is extracting large numbers of files and folders from the server for things like collaboration and relocation. There are many ways to extract email messages, folders, and your entire email 'presence' from the Groupwise server. Most programs cost quite a bit of money. One such utility (MailSaver) is freely downloaded and installed and it works very well in most situations.

MailSaver:

"MailSaver 3 Open Source" Readme, 2004 June 28

With kind permission of my employer, Associated Engineering, I am pleased to release this GroupWise Client Plug-in as an open source tool free for all interested parties.

Please not that messages saved with MailSaver should be carefully checked to ensuer that all the messages you need to keep are saved before deleting them from within GroupWise.

What Is MailSaver?

MailSaver is a plug-in (c3po) for the Windows GroupWise client. It lets GroupWise user to do bulk-saves of messages from GroupWise to text-files on disk, along with any attachments. The messages are saved with customisable names. It extends the pop-up menu on folders in the GroupWise client to allow this to occur. It also adds a dialog box for configuration to the Tools menu in the GroupWise client.

What's it for?

Our company does a lot of work based on separate projects. Many staff members work on many shared projects, and much of the e-mail transacted on a day-to-day basis is related to one project or another. While working on projects, users file the messages related to a given project in it's own folder in thier GroupWise cabinets. When the project is completed, the user can use MailSaver to write out the entire folder to a shared project directory on a server, and then all the messages get archived with the rest of the project documentation. It provides a fast, easy, open format for saving e-mail messages.

Features

MailSaver saves messages to plain text files with only the pertinent information included. -Sender, recipients, subject, date, body, and attached messages. -Optionally, saves attachments in native format. -Will not delete messages in GroupWise, or affect the message store in any way, other than setting the "message read" status on any unread messages it saves. -Will not over-write existing attachment files. Adds a -1, -2, -3, etc. to any attachment when a pre-existing file of the same name exists on disk. -Can be used to save messages in the same folder structure as you have within GroupWise.

It works best with plain text messages but it does handle HTML messages also. Attachments are optionally saved with the messages.

How to Configure and Use:

MailSaver settings are available from the Tools menu of GroupWise. MailSaver functions are available by clicking on a folder in the left pane of GroupWise, and then popping up the context menu of that folder by right-clicking it.

The menu selections work as follows:

MailSaver/Save Messages: Saves all messages in the selected folder to the directory you set in the MailSaver configuration dialog box. Includes the mailbox path when saving.

MailSaver/Save Messages To: Saves all messages in the selected folder to the directory that you select in the popup window that comes up when you click the menu item.

MailSaver/Save All: Saves all messages and attachments in the selected folder to the directory you set in the MailSaver configuration dialog box. Includes the mailbox path when saving.

MailSaver/Save All To: Saves all messages and attachments in the selected folder to the directory that you select in the popup window that comes up when you click the menu item.

Have fun.

Scott Flowers,
June 2004.