The Perl Toolchain Summit needs more sponsors. If your company depends on Perl, please support this very important event.

NAME

Mail::Addressbook::Convert - convert to and from many e-mail addressbooks

SYNOPSIS

These modules allow to to convert between the following e-mail addressbook formats

From To csv csv ( Note: MS Outlook. Outlook Express and many other mailers will export and import into this format) tsv tsv (tab-separated ascii, Outlook and OE also do these) pine pine ccMail Eudora Eudora Pegasus Pegasus Juno Lidf Ldif (Netscape 4 exports in this format ) Mailrc Spry

REQUIRES

Perl, version 5.001 or higher File::Basename Carp

DESCRIPTION

This distribution will convert email addressbooks between many common formats. Some examples are Pine, Eudora, Pegasus, csv.

The documentation here is general. For details on conversion, each module has pod documentation specific to its conversion

As an example

To use to convert between Pine and Eudora as an example, you would do the following

use Mail::Addressbook::Convert::Pine;

use Mail::Addressbook::Convert::Eudora;

my $Pine = new Mail::Addressbook::Convert::Pine();

my $Eudora = new Mail::Addressbook::Convert::Eudora();

my $PineInFile ="pineSample.txt"; # name of the file containing the Pine data

my $raIntermediate = $Pine->scan(\$PineInFile);

my $raEudora = $Eudora->output($raIntermediate); # reference to an array containing a Eudora addressbook

All modules follow this template except Pegasus. Pegasus stores its address books in multiple files. See the documentation in Pegasus.pm

DEFINITIONS

Standard Intermediate Format(STF) :

                        The addressbook format that is used as an intermediate
                        between conversions.  It is rfc822 compliant and can
                        be used directly as a Eudora addressbook.  Do not use
                        a Eudora addressbook as an STF. Some versions of 
                        Eudora use a format, that while RFC822 compliant, will
                        not work as an STF. Run the Eudora addressbook
                        through $Eudora->scan()
                        

                        

METHODS

All modules have new and scan methods. All modules except Juno, CcMail, Spry, and Mailrc have output. All modules except Pegasus follow the templates below

new

no arguments needed for all modules.

scan

Input : a reference to an array containing a addressbook file or a reference to a scalar containing the file name with the addressbook data. Returns: a reference to a STF ( see above).

output

All modules except Juno, CcMail, Spry, and Mailrc have output methods.

Input: a reference to a STF ( see above). Returns : a reference to an array containing a pine file.

LIMITATIONS

This only converts email address, aliases, and mailing lists. Phone numbers, postal addresses and other such data are not converted.

REFERENCES

See individual modules for references

HISTORY

This code is derived from the code used on www.interguru.com/mailconv.htm . The site has been up since 1996 The site gets about 8000 unique visitors a month, many of whom make addressbook conversions. The code has been well tested.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

SEE ALSO

There are other ways to convert addressbooks. Many e-mail clients will import adressbooks of other e-mail clients.

Dawn is an open source system that will run on Unix and Windows.

You can find information on Dawn and other methods on www.interguru.com/MailInformation.htm

You can do conversions directly on the Web at www.interguru.com/mailconv.htm .

BUGS

CHANGES

Original Version 2002-Feb-09

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (c) 2001 Joe Davidson. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the Perl Artistic License (see http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html). or the GPL copyleft license ( http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html)

AUTHOR

Mail::Addressbook::Convert was written by Joe Davidson <jdavidson@interguru.com> in 2002.