Would really appreciate some help exporting e-mail data from PST to a Database

[Alski K]

Hi all

Okay...first post here and i'm asking something pretty complicated I know.

I am just starting out with Access but am a very fast learner.

What I need to do:

I manage a website that receives thousands of competition entries each month and I need to compile the entrants names, contact numbers, e-mail addresses etc. but the key element of the database is that it needs to only extract the data from the bodies of e-mails that contain a certain sentence authorizing my client to use their e-mails as a form of marketing information.

So if someone could help tell me what I have to do, I am struggling because the whole body populates one field on access and I need it to be able to evaluate and differentiate and finally...populate.

Do I need to use VB? and if so what do I need to ask it to do? Again just the jist and at least then I know what to Google search

Thanks in advance!


Alski

[TheShabz]

What kind of export options do you have from the email? Can you save all emails as xml or some sort of delimited text file where it will separate fields such as sender, subject, and body? If so, it's a simple import into Access from there. If you're looking for a connection directly to the database that the email is stored on, that's beyond my knowledge.

Once you get it into Access, a simple query will be able to get you the info you need.

[rpeare]

Well, there is a relatively simple solution if you are parsing email that you can see from your computer.

1. In Access, click the New Table button to add a new table.
2. In the New Table dialog, choose Link Table, then click OK.
3. In the Link dialog, under Files of type, choose Outlook() or Exchange().
4. If you're prompted for an Outlook profile, indicate which one you want to use
5. In the Link Exchange/Outlook Wizard, choose the address book or folder you want to link to, then click Next.
6. Give the linked table a name, then click Finish.

(From http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=25)

From here it's fairly simple to parse the body of the message (CONTENTS field) for the string you're looking for and extract only the information you want from these fields.