Outlook Address Books and Perl?

[Mark]

Are there any modules available that can read and/or write address books for
Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express? I couldn't find what I need on CPAN.

Thanks
-Mark

[James Willmore]

On Sat, 13 Sep 2003 21:18:17 -0700
"Mark" <nospam@thanksanyway.org> wrote:

> Are there any modules available that can read and/or write address
> books for Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express? I couldn't find what
> I need on CPAN.

[url]http://search.cpan.org/[/url]
search keyword: outlook

first item thats shows is: mbx2mbox

HTH

--
Jim

Copyright notice: all code written by the author in this post is
released under the GPL. [url]http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt[/url]
for more information.

a fortune quote ...
Actors will happen even in the best-regulated families.

[Mark]

"James Willmore" <jwillmore@cyberia.com> wrote:

> [url]http://search.cpan.org/[/url]
> search keyword: outlook
>
> first item thats shows is: mbx2mbox

Yes, but the several Perl modules that "read" an OE
address book, actually require that the data be exported
from OE first. OE only exports its address book as
comma-separated values (*.CSV). Unfortunately, this is
a useless format, since data fields in the OE address book
fields can (and often will) contain commas. The output
cannot be parsed reliably.

So I was hoping for a Perl module that can actually read
the OE address book's binary format directly.

[James Willmore]

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 10:05:54 -0700
"Mark" <nospam@thanksanyway.org> wrote:

> Yes, but the several Perl modules that "read" an OE
> address book, actually require that the data be exported
> from OE first. OE only exports its address book as
> comma-separated values (*.CSV). Unfortunately, this is
> a useless format, since data fields in the OE address book
> fields can (and often will) contain commas. The output
> cannot be parsed reliably.
>
> So I was hoping for a Perl module that can actually read
> the OE address book's binary format directly.

Ah ... well, you could examine the exported OE file in a hex editor to
see if M$ put in some hidden characters. Or, you could see if the
file follows a pattern and then code for that pattern (think pack or
regular expression).

All of these suggestions are based on opinion based upon some
experience with other files that needed parsing. It _may_ look like a
CSV file, but is it _really_ a CSV file? Is it something that, when
looked at from a fresh perspective, something that can be parsed?

HTH

--
Jim

Copyright notice: all code written by the author in this post is
released under the GPL. [url]http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.txt[/url]
for more information.

a fortune quote ...
If it's Tuesday, this must be someone else's fortune.

[Mihai N.]

> So I was hoping for a Perl module that can actually read

> the OE address book's binary format directly.

I'm afraid the only decent solution is OLE.

Mihai

[Villy Kruse]

On Tue, 16 Sep 2003 10:05:54 -0700,
Mark <nospam@thanksanyway.org> wrote:

>
>"James Willmore" <jwillmore@cyberia.com> wrote:

>> [url]http://search.cpan.org/[/url]
>> search keyword: outlook
>>
>> first item thats shows is: mbx2mbox

>
>Yes, but the several Perl modules that "read" an OE
>address book, actually require that the data be exported
>from OE first. OE only exports its address book as
>comma-separated values (*.CSV). Unfortunately, this is
>a useless format, since data fields in the OE address book
>fields can (and often will) contain commas. The output
>cannot be parsed reliably.
>

Not even with Text::ParseWords? It is my understanding that
Text::Parsewords will deal with occurrences of the separator character
within quoted strings.



Villy

[John M. Gamble]

In article <ZZqdnczS8eFx3_qiXTWc-w@speakeasy.net>,
Mark <nospam@thanksanyway.org> wrote:

>
>"James Willmore" <jwillmore@cyberia.com> wrote:

>> [url]http://search.cpan.org/[/url]
>> search keyword: outlook
>>
>> first item thats shows is: mbx2mbox

>
>Yes, but the several Perl modules that "read" an OE
>address book, actually require that the data be exported
>from OE first. OE only exports its address book as
>comma-separated values (*.CSV). Unfortunately, this is
>a useless format, since data fields in the OE address book
>fields can (and often will) contain commas. The output
>cannot be parsed reliably.
>
>So I was hoping for a Perl module that can actually read
>the OE address book's binary format directly.
>

There's some not-bad documentation on how to get this
information via OLE on the Microsoft's technical web
site. There are some knowledge assumptions, so you'd
have to do a little experimentation.

A couple of years ago i went through Microsoft's web site
and found the OLE calls necessary to send mail. I posted
my rough results on the perlmonks site. The code there
doesn't answer your question, but it's be a good
demonstration of setting up the OLE object properties for
Outlook.

--
-john

February 28 1997: Last day libraries could order catalogue cards
from the Library of Congress.