18 - Exporting and importing address data - Background Information
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Exporting address data

Double-clicking the 'Addresses - Export' program object starts RexxMail with the '/export' switch. RexxMail writes the text describing the contents of the 'Addresses' folder to a file named 'mailaddr.txt' in the 'Configuration' folder. Any existing address data information is saved in a file named 'mailaddr.bak' before the new file is written.

When it writes the addresses text file, RexxMail adds a few paragraphs of explanatory text to the top of the file to help you edit the contents (not shown here). The explanatory text is a condensed version of the information below.

Each entry in the exported text file represents one mail message object. Each entry is subdivided by tags, which must be at the beginning of a separate line. Entries start with the <TITLE> tag, and end with the <END> tag.

The <TITLE> tag should be followed by the text to be used for the title of the mail message template object in the 'Addresses' folder. If the object is to be placed in a subfolder, include the directory name in the title text, separated from the rest of the title by a backslash ('\').

If the template file is to contain text content, this should be included after the title text and preceded by the <TEXT> tag. The text content can be anything you like, from a few simple header lines to a complete e-mail message several hundred lines long. Remember to separate the header from any body text by at least one empty line.

The text content may be followed by a <KEYWORDS> tag to start a block of explanatory text to be included in the extended attributes of the message template object. The text is displayed in the 'Keywords' field on the 'File' page of the message's properties notebook.

The <TEXT> and <KEYWORDS> tags are optional, but the <TITLE> and <END> tags must be included.

Note that RexxMail ignores anything preceding the first <TITLE> tag (this is why the <TITLE> tag in the explanatory text at the top of the file is indented -- since it is not at the beginnning of a line, it is not recognized as a tag).

Importing address data

Double-clicking the 'Addresses - Import' program object starts RexxMail with the '/import' switch. RexxMail will look for the 'mailaddr.txt' text file in the 'Configuration' folder.

The 'Addresses' folder is updated by first deleting its contents (i.e. all the objects it contains, both templates and folders), and then creating new template objects and subfolders based on the contents of the adress text file. So, if you want to add addresses to the 'Addresses' folder list by means of the import function, start by using the export function to generate an address data file, add the additional address data to this file, and then recreate the address list using the import function.


© 2001 M.C. de Geus
Last updated 20010920