Need a utility to import mail to Outlook via print dialog... or some other way to import proprietary

[Alan]

Hello,

We need to migrate 100s of proprietary PSTs from a little-known mail
system to Outlook/Exchange but the file format of the PSTs is binary,
proprietary and undocumented.

One option is to leave the PSTs and let the users consult them in
offline mode forever. The problem there is that they wouldn't be able
to reply to or forward the messages, only read or print them. Not very
user-friendly, they have GBs of mail in them.

Has anyone seen an application which lets you print a message into an
Outlook mail message, much like you print to a PDF file? Any other
suggestions for workarounds for importing unknown formats into Outlook?

Otherwise, any tips about how to reverse-engineer the PSTs? I'm not
having much luck with a hex editor.

Thanks in advance. Feeling desperate!

- Alan.

 

[William Lefkovics [MVP]]

So, what is this 'little-known mail system'?

BMail Postbox?

 

[Alan]

Team Ware Mail and its off line (same idea as PST) mailboxes.

The silence now should be deafening.

 

[Brian Tillman]

Team Ware Mail and its off line (same idea as PST) mailboxes.

The silence now should be deafening.

If the product you have is Teamware Office, have you consulted
http://support.teamware.com/ to search the knowledgebase for references to
exporting?

 

[Alan]

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

The offline mailbox format is proprietary, unpublished and devoid of an
export tool to *any* other format; that's why I'm looking for another
solution here.

Some outside the box thinking needed, please.

 

[William Lefkovics [MVP]]

If Teamware offers no assistance in working with their product, I see no
incentive to consider their product for any solutions in the future. Thanks
for showing that.

As an Exchange guy and given that Teamware supports IMAP, I would probably
install Teamware and get that content back 'online' use the Exchange
Migration Wizard in a lab. The Migration Wizard moves content from IMAP4
compliant systems to an Exchange mailbox, which of course can be exported to
a .pst with Outlook or ExMerge.

Sorry, that's all I can come up with.

 

[Alan]

Problem is that the offline messages can only be returned online by
sending them to yourself. Aside from the online space that'd be needed
on the servers and losing the original, top-level message headers,
offline messages can only be forwarded 1 by 1.

Personally, I'm recommending leaving the client installed in offline
mode to access the offline messages, but my customer isn't happy with
that.

There must be a way outside the standard strategy to handle them.

Thanks anyway.

 

[Alan]

One thing I omitted to mention. It's been said that the vendor you're
migrating to should provide the import tools to their system, as they
are the ones who are benefiting commercially. For example, would MS
develop tools to export to Lotus Notes?

I think that's a valid point, within reason.

 

[Brian Tillman]

The offline mailbox format is proprietary, unpublished and devoid of
an export tool to *any* other format; that's why I'm looking for
another solution here.

I recall seeing mention of export tools when visiting the site I mentioned,
but I think Mr. Lefkovics is a good one and perhaps less hassle.

 

[Alan]

There are no export tools for offline mail. Like I said, getting it all
online again (so that the Exchange IMAP Migration Wizard can be used)
is not feasible.

It's not an insignificant mail system (my customer alone has several
thousand users), so I would have hoped for more innovation from MS.

Back to the real world then.