export PMs as text file? Yes! Now with a GUI!!

[drlava]

On candlePowerForums you can only have a max of 100 PMs so often one has to export them to text for storage before deleting them off the server.  Would it be possible to add that feature here (the exporting, not the limit)?  Searching through PMs in the current format is difficult, and I would like a backup of 700+ PMs




EDIT:  Ok, after consistently having trouble searching through messages and trying to organize the messages, I have written an export program for Windows.  It creates a mail file in a basic format that can be imported into Thunderbird and Outlook (for thunderbird, just drop it into your mail folder).  This file now has a nice list of from addresses for your incoming PMs and the date is tracked as well.  You can leverage the advanced search features of Thunderbird and Outlook now.

A few notes: If you keep '0' in the starting with ID, it will always download all of the PMs in your inbox.  If you want to do an incremental download, enter the PM ID (that long number like 1212206666) of the first PM you want to download.  It will then append the new PMs onto the file you choose after you click 'Go!'.

The program is safe, virus free (it is compiled with autoit so some scanners might complain) and does not store or send any info to anything but the BB you specify.

Enjoy!!!
Download YaBB PM Downloader Here




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[styropyro]

Re: export PMs as text file?

I would like this too, I lost over 100 PMs when we lost the PMs, I had some important info in those PMs.

 

[Things]

Re: export PMs as text file?

Same here, lost ~150 PM's in the revert. A exporting feature would be nice.

 

[c0ldshadow]

Re: export PMs as text file?

unfortunately there is no way to export PMs, however, i think we could work something out.

the PM inbox and outbox are stored in two files on the server. if you want, i could just give you guys these raw files. if you open them in notepad it is possible to decipher the PMs

the forum is now getting backed up daily, so i dont think anything is going to be lost like before

 

[john_lawson]

Re: export PMs as text file?

I thought Pm's were private messages I dont want my PM's made public
then eveyone will see the immature laser questions I always ask LOL

 

[nikokapo]

Re: export PMs as text file?

@john_lawson: PM's ARE private messages

@styro: stop saying PM!

 

[VillageIdiot]

Re: export PMs as text file?

You have a point niko.

I would PM this too, I PM'd over 100 PMs when we PM'd the PMs, I PM'd some important PMs in those PMs.

 

[drlava]

Re: export PMs as text file?

So.. do we PM you to request this text file?

 

[c0ldshadow]

Re: export PMs as text file?

i actually woln't be able to give out the raw PM files since they include other private info in them (such as users IP addresses, etc)

PM data should be safe now that the forum is getting backed up daily, however

 

[drlava]

Re: export PMs as text file?

Ok, but the main reason I wanted export was for easy searching through the PMs for past info. Maybe YaBB will eventually have a plugin for export. Even a simple script could filter out IPs, I'm sure any number of your members could write a PHP page that could be linked off of one's own control panel that could access the PM text file, and offer it as a download, and filter private info out. Would you be wiling to add this if someone wrote it?

 

[c0ldshadow]

Re: export PMs as text file?

hey drlava

if someone wrote a script i would need to verify with yabb that the code is secure and couldn't cause any issues. the code would need to be posted on boardmod or yabbforum for review, and the code would probably need to be written in perl.

 

[pseudolobster]

Re: export PMs as text file?

Hmm...

I suppose this'd be pretty easy to implement right into YaBB, but I'm not a huge perl expert so I can't really attest to that...

For anyone out there who has a unix based system, here's a client-side way of doing it.... You'll need a computer running unix, linux, macos or similar.. you can do it with cygwin under windows, just make sure you have grep, wget, and cat installed. You'll also need your cookies file from your browser, with a valid, unexpired password cookie. (in firefox under windows it's stored in c:\documents and settings\username\application data\mozilla\firefox\profile\randomstring\cookies.txt... on linux it's ~/mozilla/profile/randomstring/cookies.txt in internet explorer you have to go to "export cookies")

I haven't fully tested it, but this should give you all your pm's as a single html file.

I've tested this briefly on OpenBSD and on FreeBSD, and it seems to work fine... though unfortunately it will have the full header and footer in between each message... still works for being able to archive and search, though it's a little messy... I was trying to see if I could figure out how to isolate just the message part, but I got bored.

[highlight]EDIT:[/highlight] GRRR! for some reason it doesn't like me posting code... it gives me a blank page when I go to post....

 

[pseudolobster]

Re: export PMs as text file?

http://www.laserpointerforums.com/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1212206936/0#11 continued...

I don't know why it doesn't like my code... there's no special characters in it... *shrug*

anyways, here's a link to it:

http://pastebin.ca/raw/1039197 [highlight]see below for updated version[/highlight]

of course you'll have to change /path/to/cookies.txt to the actual path to your cookies file...
the file that's created, "outfile.htm" will be a html file filled with every message you've had.... I don't know how the inbox deals with huge amounts of messages, I only have a couple dozen. If it only does 50 per page or whatever, then someone will have to modify it to deal with page 2 etc.
once it's done it leaves two files laying around... yabb.pl?action=im and one called foo. you can delete these.

again, this is a client-side solution, you run it on your own computer, not on the server. I could set up a webpage that does it, but I'd rather not since it would have to ask your username and password, and I'd rather not be accused of collecting that info for evil purposes

And c0ld, you might want to look at that code and see if you can figure out why it wouldn't let me post it... it just gave a blank white page any time I tried. :-/

 

[c0ldshadow]

Re: export PMs as text file?

don't think it would let you post the code for security purposes. the forum filters out certain expressions in posts

 

[Chad]

Re: export PMs as text file?

You have a point niko.


[quote author=styropyro link=1212206936/0#1 date=1212208964]I would PM this too, I PM'd over 100 PMs when we PM'd the PMs, I PM'd some important PMs in those PMs.

[/quote]

I see what you did there.

 

[pseudolobster]

Re: export PMs as text file?

I've finished that script... It works great now. I've been testing it on FreeBSD, but it should also work on Mac OSX and Linux. It takes about 2 seconds per message... I've got about 30 and it takes about 1 minute for the script to run.

I made it so it outputs all of your messages on one page, sorted chronologically by sender, senders names sorted alphabetically.

The previous version had a bug where it would load each message twice, I've fixed that in this one. It still pops up complaining about not being able to find a javascript file, but once you click ok it works fine.

You'll need to change the first line "#!/usr/local/bin/bash" to point to your command interpreter of choice.. it's #!/bin/bash on many systems.
You'll need to export your browser's cookie file and put it in the same directory as this script.
Don't forget to make the script executable! (chmod a+x getpms.sh)

http://pastebin.ca/raw/1086829

attached is a screenshot as an example of its output... text has been zoomed out in the screenshot so as to be unreadable for privacy reasons.