Mail::Box::Dbx(3pm)					User Contributed Perl Documentation				       Mail::Box::Dbx(3pm)

NAME

       Mail::Box::Dbx - read Outlook Express folders

INHERITANCE

	Mail::Box::Dbx
	  is a Mail::Box::File
	  is a Mail::Box
	  is a Mail::Reporter

SYNOPSIS

	use Mail::Box::Dbx;
	my $folder = Mail::Box::Dbx->new(...);

DESCRIPTION

       This documentation describes how to read from Outlook Express (dbx) folders.  Even on Unix/Linux, you can access these folders to read the
       data, or copy it to a different format.	Modifying of xbd files is not supported.

       These dbx folders are accessed using Mail::Transport::Dbx which is distributed via CPAN as separate package.  This "MAil::Transport::Dbx"
       module is based on the open source library named "libpst", which can be found at <http://alioth.debian.org/projects/libpst/>.  The library
       does not support writing of dbx files, and therefore limits the possibilities of this package.

OVERLOADED

       overload: ""()
	   See "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Box

       overload: @{}()
	   See "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Box

       overload: cmp()
	   See "OVERLOADED" in Mail::Box

METHODS

   Constructors
       Mail::Box::Dbx->new(OPTIONS)
	    -Option	      --Defined in     --Default
	     access		Mail::Box	 always 'r'
	     body_delayed_type	Mail::Box	 Mail::Message::Body::Delayed
	     body_type		Mail::Box::File  <see description>
	     coerce_options	Mail::Box	 []
	     create		Mail::Box	 not implemented
	     extract		Mail::Box	 10240
	     field_type 	Mail::Box	 undef
	     fix_headers	Mail::Box	 <false>
	     folder		Mail::Box	 =Folders.dbx
	     folderdir		Mail::Box	 .
	     head_delayed_type	Mail::Box	 Mail::Message::Head::Delayed
	     head_type		Mail::Box	 Mail::Message::Head::Complete
	     keep_dups		Mail::Box	 <false>
	     lock_extension	Mail::Box::File  '.lock'
	     lock_file		Mail::Box	 <foldername><lock-extension>
	     lock_timeout	Mail::Box	 1 hour
	     lock_type		Mail::Box	 'NONE'
	     lock_wait		Mail::Box	 10 seconds
	     locker		Mail::Box	 undef
	     log		Mail::Reporter	 'WARNINGS'
	     manager		Mail::Box	 undef
	     message_type	Mail::Box	 Mail::Box::Dbx::Message
	     multipart_type	Mail::Box	 Mail::Message::Body::Multipart
	     remove_when_empty	Mail::Box	 not implemented
	     save_on_exit	Mail::Box	 not implemented
	     trace		Mail::Reporter	 'WARNINGS'
	     trusted		Mail::Box	 <depends on folder location>
	     write_policy	Mail::Box::File  not implemented

	   access => MODE
	   body_delayed_type => CLASS
	   body_type => CLASS|CODE
	   coerce_options => ARRAY
	   create => BOOLEAN
	   extract => INTEGER | CODE | METHOD | 'LAZY'|'ALWAYS'
	   field_type => CLASS
	   fix_headers => BOOLEAN
	   folder => FOLDERNAME
	   folderdir => DIRECTORY
	   head_delayed_type => CLASS
	   head_type => CLASS
	   keep_dups => BOOLEAN
	   lock_extension => FILENAME|STRING
	   lock_file => FILENAME
	   lock_timeout => SECONDS
	   lock_type => CLASS|STRING|ARRAY
	   lock_wait => SECONDS
	   locker => OBJECT
	   log => LEVEL
	   manager => MANAGER
	   message_type => CLASS
	   multipart_type => CLASS
	   remove_when_empty => BOOLEAN
	   save_on_exit => BOOLEAN
	   trace => LEVEL
	   trusted => BOOLEAN
	   write_policy => 'REPLACE'|'INPLACE'|undef

   The folder
       $obj->addMessage(MESSAGE, OPTIONS)
	   See "The folder" in Mail::Box

       $obj->addMessages(MESSAGE [, MESSAGE, ...])
	   See "The folder" in Mail::Box

       Mail::Box::Dbx->appendMessages(OPTIONS)
	   See "METHODS" in Mail::Box::File

       $obj->close(OPTIONS)
	   See "The folder" in Mail::Box

       $obj->copyTo(FOLDER, OPTIONS)
	   See "The folder" in Mail::Box

       $obj->delete(OPTIONS)
	   See "The folder" in Mail::Box

       $obj->filename()
	   See "The folder" in Mail::Box::File

       $obj->folderdir([DIRECTORY])
	   See "The folder" in Mail::Box

       $obj->name()
	   See "The folder" in Mail::Box

       $obj->organization()
	   See "The folder" in Mail::Box

       $obj->size()
	   See "The folder" in Mail::Box

       $obj->type()
	   See "The folder" in Mail::Box

       $obj->update(OPTIONS)
	   See "The folder" in Mail::Box

       $obj->url()
	   See "The folder" in Mail::Box

   Folder flags
       $obj->access()
	   See "Folder flags" in Mail::Box

       $obj->isModified()
	   See "Folder flags" in Mail::Box

       $obj->modified([BOOLEAN])
	   See "Folder flags" in Mail::Box

       $obj->writable()
	   See "Folder flags" in Mail::Box

   The messages
       $obj->current([NUMBER|MESSAGE|MESSAGE-ID])
	   See "The messages" in Mail::Box

       $obj->find(MESSAGE-ID)
	   See "The messages" in Mail::Box

       $obj->findFirstLabeled(LABEL, [BOOLEAN, [ARRAY-OF-MSGS]])
	   See "The messages" in Mail::Box

       $obj->message(INDEX [,MESSAGE])
	   See "The messages" in Mail::Box

       $obj->messageId(MESSAGE-ID [,MESSAGE])
	   See "The messages" in Mail::Box

       $obj->messageIds()
	   See "The messages" in Mail::Box

       $obj->messages(['ALL',RANGE,'ACTIVE','DELETED',LABEL,!LABEL,FILTER])
	   See "The messages" in Mail::Box

       $obj->nrMessages(OPTIONS)
	   See "The messages" in Mail::Box

       $obj->scanForMessages(MESSAGE, MESSAGE-IDS, TIMESPAN, WINDOW)
	   See "The messages" in Mail::Box

   Sub-folders
       $obj->listSubFolders(OPTIONS)
       Mail::Box::Dbx->listSubFolders(OPTIONS)
	   It is advised to set the "check" flag, because dbx folder often list large amounts of folder names which do not really exist.  However,
	   checking does consume some time.

	    -Option    --Defined in	--Default
	     check	 Mail::Box	  <false>
	     folder	 Mail::Box	  <from calling object>
	     folderdir	 Mail::Box	  <from folder>
	     skip_empty  Mail::Box	  <false>

	   check => BOOLEAN
	   folder => FOLDERNAME
	   folderdir => DIRECTORY
	   skip_empty => BOOL
       $obj->nameOfSubFolder(SUBNAME, [PARENTNAME])
       Mail::Box::Dbx->nameOfSubFolder(SUBNAME, [PARENTNAME])
	   See "Sub-folders" in Mail::Box

       $obj->openRelatedFolder(OPTIONS)
	   See "Sub-folders" in Mail::Box

       $obj->openSubFolder(SUBNAME, OPTIONS)
	   See "Sub-folders" in Mail::Box

       $obj->topFolderWithMessages()
       Mail::Box::Dbx->topFolderWithMessages()
	   See "Sub-folders" in Mail::Box

   Internals
       $obj->coerce(MESSAGE, OPTIONS)
	   See "Internals" in Mail::Box

       $obj->create(FOLDERNAME, OPTIONS)
       Mail::Box::Dbx->create(FOLDERNAME, OPTIONS)
	   Creation is not supported for dbx folders.

	    -Option   --Defined in--Default
	     folderdir	Mail::Box   undef

	   folderdir => DIRECTORY
       $obj->determineBodyType(MESSAGE, HEAD)
	   See "Internals" in Mail::Box

       $obj->folderToFilename(FOLDERNAME, FOLDERDIR)
       Mail::Box::Dbx->folderToFilename(FOLDERNAME, FOLDERDIR)
	   Translate a folder name into a filename, using the FOLDERDIR value to replace a leading "=".

       Mail::Box::Dbx->foundIn([FOLDERNAME], [OPTIONS])
	   If no FOLDERNAME is specified, then the value of the "folder" option is taken.  A dbx folder is a file which name ends on ".dbx" (case
	   insensitive).

	    -Option   --Defined in     --Default
	     folder			 undef
	     folderdir	Mail::Box	 undef

	   folder => FOLDERNAME
	   folderdir => DIRECTORY
       $obj->lineSeparator([STRING|'CR'|'LF'|'CRLF'])
	   See "Internals" in Mail::Box

       $obj->locker()
	   See "Internals" in Mail::Box

       $obj->messageCreateOptions([TYPE, CONFIG])
	   See "Internals" in Mail::Box::File

       $obj->moveAwaySubFolder(DIRECTORY, EXTENSION)
	   See "Internals" in Mail::Box::File

       $obj->parser()
	   The parsing of messages is a combined job for the Mail::Transport::Dbx module (to get the right data) and read().  Asking for the
	   parser will provide the transporter object.	If asked more than once, each time the same object will be returned.

       $obj->read(OPTIONS)
	   See "Internals" in Mail::Box

       $obj->readMessages(OPTIONS)
	   See "Internals" in Mail::Box

       $obj->storeMessage(MESSAGE)
	   See "Internals" in Mail::Box

       $obj->toBeThreaded(MESSAGES)
	   See "Internals" in Mail::Box

       $obj->toBeUnthreaded(MESSAGES)
	   See "Internals" in Mail::Box

       $obj->updateMessages(OPTIONS)
	   See "Internals" in Mail::Box::File

       $obj->write(OPTIONS)
	   See "Internals" in Mail::Box::File

       $obj->writeMessages(OPTIONS)
	   See "Internals" in Mail::Box

   Other methods
       $obj->timespan2seconds(TIME)
       Mail::Box::Dbx->timespan2seconds(TIME)
	   See "Other methods" in Mail::Box

   Error handling
       $obj->AUTOLOAD()
	   See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

       $obj->addReport(OBJECT)
	   See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

       $obj->defaultTrace([LEVEL]|[LOGLEVEL, TRACELEVEL]|[LEVEL, CALLBACK])
       Mail::Box::Dbx->defaultTrace([LEVEL]|[LOGLEVEL, TRACELEVEL]|[LEVEL, CALLBACK])
	   See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

       $obj->errors()
	   See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

       $obj->log([LEVEL [,STRINGS]])
       Mail::Box::Dbx->log([LEVEL [,STRINGS]])
	   See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

       $obj->logPriority(LEVEL)
       Mail::Box::Dbx->logPriority(LEVEL)
	   See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

       $obj->logSettings()
	   See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

       $obj->notImplemented()
	   See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

       $obj->report([LEVEL])
	   See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

       $obj->reportAll([LEVEL])
	   See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

       $obj->trace([LEVEL])
	   See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

       $obj->warnings()
	   See "Error handling" in Mail::Reporter

   Cleanup
       $obj->DESTROY()
	   See "Cleanup" in Mail::Box

       $obj->inGlobalDestruction()
	   See "Cleanup" in Mail::Reporter

   DETAILS
       File based folders

DETAILS

   Different kinds of folders
   Available folder types
   Folder class implementation
   How DBX folders work
       DBX files are create by Outlook Express.  I can not tell you too much about it, because me (as author) never use Windows or MicroSoft
       tools.  Still, it is possible to access some Outlook created folders from Unix.

       The folder structure for dbx starts with a single "Folders.dbx" file.  This folder contains names of sub-folders.  Each folder can either
       contain messages, or contains sub-folders.  Combinations are not possible.

   This implementation
       The ol2mbox project (see <http://sourceforge.net/project/ol2mbox/>) has created a "libdbx" which can read dbx files using nearly any
       operating system.  You can simply transport a dbx file from Windows to Unix/Linux and the read all the messages from it.

       Tassilo von Parseval wrote a Perl wrapper around this C-library, and distributes it as Mail::Transport::Dbx.  Although it named in one the
       MailBox namespaces, it is a separate product, because it requires a C compiler.	Besides, the module will have its own life.

   Converting DBX folders to MBOX
       The title of this section is to attract your attension, but is does not describe anything special related to DBX or MBOX: you can convert
       any kind of mail folder into another with the following code.

DIAGNOSTICS

       Error: Cannot append messages to folder file $filename: $!
	   Appending messages to a not-opened file-organized folder may fail when the operating system does not allow write access to the file at
	   hand.

       Error: Cannot move away sub-folder $dir
       Error: Cannot read dbx folder file $filename.
       Warning: Cannot remove folder $name file $filename: $!
	   Writing an empty folder will usually cause that folder to be removed, which fails for the indicated reason.	new(remove_when_empty)

       Warning: Cannot remove folder $name file $filename: $!
	   Writing an empty folder will usually cause that folder to be removed, which fails for the indicated reason.	new(remove_when_empty)
	   controls whether the empty folder will removed; setting it to false(0) may be needed to avoid this message.

       Error: Cannot replace $filename by $tempname, to update folder $name: $!
	   The replace policy wrote a new folder file to update the existing, but was unable to give the final touch: replacing the old version of
	   the folder file for the indicated reason.

       Warning: Changes not written to read-only folder $self.
	   You have opened the folder read-only --which is the default set by new(access)--, made modifications, and now want to close it.  Set
	   close(force) if you want to overrule the access mode, or close the folder with close(write) set to "NEVER".

       Error: Copying failed for one message.
	   For some reason, for instance disc full, removed by external process, or read-protection, it is impossible to copy one of the messages.
	   Copying will proceed for the other messages.

       Warning: Dbx folders are read-only.
       Error: Destination folder $name is not writable.
	   The folder where the messages are copied to is not opened with write access (see new(access)).  This has no relation with write
	   permission to the folder which is controled by your operating system.

       Warning: Different messages with id $msgid
	   The message id is discovered more than once within the same folder, but the content of the message seems to be different.  This should
	   not be possible: each message must be unique.

       Error: File too short to get write message $nr ($size, $need)
	   Mail::Box is lazy: it tries to leave messages in the folders until they are used, which saves time and memory usage.  When this message
	   appears, something is terribly wrong: some lazy message are needed for updating the folder, but they cannot be retreived from the
	   original file anymore.  In this case, messages can be lost.

	   This message does appear regularly on Windows systems when using the 'replace' write policy.  Please help to find the cause, probably
	   something to do with Windows incorrectly handling multiple filehandles open in the same file.

       Error: Folder $name not deleted: not writable.
	   The folder must be opened with write access via new(access), otherwise removing it will be refused.	So, you may have write-access
	   according to the operating system, but that will not automatically mean that this "delete" method permits you to.  The reverse remark
	   is valid as well.

       Error: Invalid timespan '$timespan' specified.
	   The string does not follow the strict rules of the time span syntax which is permitted as parameter.

       Warning: Message-id '$msgid' does not contain a domain.
	   According to the RFCs, message-ids need to contain a unique random part, then an "@", and then a domain name.  This is made to avoid
	   the creation of two messages with the same id.  The warning emerges when the "@" is missing from the string.

       Error: Package $package does not implement $method.
	   Fatal error: the specific package (or one of its superclasses) does not implement this method where it should. This message means that
	   some other related classes do implement this method however the class at hand does not.  Probably you should investigate this and
	   probably inform the author of the package.

       Error: Unable to create subfolder $name of $folder.
	   The copy includes the subfolders, but for some reason it was not possible to copy one of these.  Copying will proceed for all other
	   sub-folders.

       Error: Unable to update folder $self.
	   When a folder is to be written, both replace and inplace write policies are tried,  If both fail, the whole update fails.  You may see
	   other, related, error messages to indicate the real problem.

SEE ALSO

       This module is part of Mail-Box distribution version 2.105, built on May 07, 2012. Website: http://perl.overmeer.net/mailbox/

LICENSE

       Copyrights 2001-2012 by [Mark Overmeer]. For other contributors see ChangeLog.

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.  See
       http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html

perl v5.14.2							    2012-05-07						       Mail::Box::Dbx(3pm)