thunderbird
Python script to convert incoming Apple Mail mbox exports
This script allows users to import from Apple Mail, maintaining folder names and structure.
Closes #28
I suspect it would be worthwhile to link to the README from somewhere within the plugin interface, so users know that Apple Mail exports need an additional processing step. I don't know if you'd want that and I'm not sure where, so I'll leave that to you—what do you think @cleidigh?
@obar Excellent! I will add some notes to the readme and to internal help when I have another version. I also have to determine where to put it in the repository. Probably something like helper scripts. Thanks, I'm sure there are other users that will find this useful! @cleidigh
Great! Thanks again for helping me understand this issue, and for the fantastic plugin.
@obar Thank you so much, you just gave a bit relief to the headache that I had the last days! I wanted to switch from Apple Mail 14.0 (on Big Sur 11.1) to Thunderbird 78.6.0. I could not believe that this is not supported by Thunderbird out of the box, and after 10 plugins and 100 workarounds I finally came across your comment in #28 and found this script.
Maybe there is a way to implement a check for Apple Mail mbox files within the import functionality, that executes the script pre-import internally. It took me days to find out the correct way to get it working with 100s of folders in a 10-level-down nested directory structure!
Glad to hear this helped you!
I don't think this should be strictly automatic as the transformation I've got happens in-place (transforming the file structure, though in theory it would be reversible), and it would add python dependency. However, I do think something could be done about the visibility of this solution. Right now as you mentioned, it's a little difficult to find. @cleidigh how do you feel about merging this pull request so the script is in the repo and mentioned in the readme? And perhaps there could be a note about the existence of this process on the import screen, for the vanishingly rare case of users who don't scour the readme before using a program?
Should I change the path to the script in the pull request before it gets merged? helper-scripts/ was floated as an idea.
@obar sorry for being AWOL I think what I should to finally start a wiki section as well as a folder for Scripts I will do that and merging your script thanks and happy new year ! Christopher
@obar I finally finished it,sorry it took so long I manually added the script to utility-scripts the notes I've started brand-new wiki if everything looks good I will close this
Absolutely nothing to apologize for, very OK for this to be a low priority! It's open source, no big deadlines here.
I think the only other documentation to add would be to point people to this in the import dialog window. Could there be a link there to the wiki page added from that dialog? Text could read something like "Note: to import from an Apple Mail export, a format conversion needs to happen first. See <a href=…>the instructions on the wiki</a> for details."
Thanks for merging this :)
