276239 - Migrate (import) settings and messages from Evolution

Status: NEW

(MailNews Core :: Import, enhancement)

Description

[Kristof Vansant]

I would like to see it possible for thunderbird to migrate messages and
configuration from evolution 1.4.x and 2.x.

I choose all OS because evolution win32 is in the making :)

Comment 1

[Robert Walsh]

I guess it goes without saying, but migrate addressbooks, too.

Comment 2

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This is an automated message, with ID "auto-resolve01".

This bug has had no comments for a long time. Statistically, we have found that
bug reports that have not been confirmed by a second user after three months are
highly unlikely to be the source of a fix to the code.

While your input is very important to us, our resources are limited and so we
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Comment 3

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

This bug has been automatically resolved after a period of inactivity (see above
comment). If anyone thinks this is incorrect, they should feel free to reopen it.

Comment 4

[Jordan Nash]

I use Fedora Core 5, with the GNOME desktop environment. Evolution is the default mail client, and is deeply integrated. 

I want to use Thunderbird again, and would like to make a smooth transition to it. Unfortunately, other than a "Duct tape and bailing wire" solution found on the Internet, there doesn't seem to be any way to do this.

Comment 5

[Adam Guthrie]

*** Bug 354208 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 6

[towsonu2003]

(In reply to comment #4)
> I use Fedora Core 5, with the GNOME desktop environment. Evolution is the
> default mail client, and is deeply integrated. 

I wish I could save the 2 hours I spent today migrating from (and dealing with incompatilbilities between) evolution to thunderbird... + time to file bugs even though this was known for 1,5 years.

Comment 8

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

I'm going to tentatively take this patch on--I already have a prototype address book settings import working, although getting the build system fu in place is probably a bit beyond me.

Comment 9

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

Attachment: Patch, version 0.2

This is a very alpha version of the patch. All it supports at the moment is address book import, but, in the meantime, I had to patch configure.in and a few other things to support that much. I'm still playing around with the namespace stuff (dmose suggested mozilla::messaging, so I'm seeing how that works out).

I still need to tackle mail import, and I want to add some tests as well. Since I've learned a lot about import, I'll also write up documentation, so don't expect to see a comprehensive, review-ready patch for a while.

Comment 11

[Vincent (caméléon)]

I think this bug need to be solve if Thunderbird wants to be the default mail app in Ubuntu... Because easily importing old mail and contact of Ubuntu user is necessary...
Note that Thunderbird 5 will natively import vcard file, which is also the format used by Evolution, so this point should not really be a problem anymore.

Comment 12

[Joshua Cranmer [:jcranmer]]

Some discussion from IRC today with respect to Thunderbird-Evolution migration:
1. As far as Ubuntu is concerned for now, "importing" address books amount to adding an e-d-s address book in Thunderbird, so we don't need to actually import data.
2. Most of the settings are basically gconf (at least for now), so importing settings is fairly easy.
3. We have not started worrying about message import. If mbox is the storage backend, that is very easy to import (cp/ln the file to the profile directory). If it's mh or maildir... we'd have to have a better system.

Comment 13

[Vincent (caméléon)]

(In reply to comment #12)
> 3. We have not started worrying about message import. If mbox is the storage
> backend, that is very easy to import (cp/ln the file to the profile
> directory). If it's mh or maildir... we'd have to have a better system.

My 2 cents:
- Evolution 2.32 (default for Ubuntu 11.04) use mbox storage.
- Evolution 3.0 (default for Fedora 15) use MailSir storage (as indicated here: http://live.gnome.org/Evolution/Planning30 )

So it need to be defined if this bug only address import from Evolution 2.3 (mbox), or also try to cover Evolution 3.0 (maildir).

Comment 14

[Vincent (caméléon)]

Note that I find a very simple script (less than 15 lines of code) which allows to convert maildir to mbox: http://yergler.net/blog/2010/06/06/batteries-included-or-maildir-to-mbox-again

Comment 15

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

Joshua what's the status on this one ?

Comment 17

[Ludovic Hirlimann [:Usul]]

Removing myslef on all the bugs I'm cced on. Please NI me if you need something on MailNews Core bugs from me.