Populating Filemaker Database with Outlook Emails

[AvengingTiki]

Hello all, thank you in advance for your assistance, I'm in a bit of a pickle. I work for someone who receives hundreds upon hundreds of emails every week. In my boss's ideal World I would be able to enter in all these emails every week into our filemaker database. I won't go into all the details as to why this has been impossible to do by hand but it is (big hint: I only get one day a week with the database). SO my question to you fine folks is pretty simple, I have EVERY email in my Outlook account still; how do I export all the emails to my Filemaker Pro database? And when I export them can I have them populate certain fields in Filemaker with information riddled throughout the email? Can I just assign a specific export to fill in parts of my filemaker form? Your help is GREATLY appreciated as my boss is really breathing down my neck on this.

 

Thanks,

 

AT

[AHunter3]

I know what I would do:

 

a) I would change the setting in outlook (wherever the heck it may be; other email programs have such a setting so I assume outlook does too) that tells it to erase email from server after fetching it, and tell it instead to leave email on server for xx days.

 

b) I would put the POP3It or similar plug-in (Mail-it? sorry I can never remember the other competing plug-in product's name!) and have your FileMaker db directly fetch the email from server and fill out database fields with it, thus cutting Outlook totally out of the loop as far as getting your email info into FileMaker. Don't have Filemaker delete the messages from server immediately after fetching EITHER, or else run the fetch-script after hours each day at which point Outlook should have its own copies.

[mclasen]

Popit 3 is what my client uses

[Dempsey]

I have a free Windows Plugin which can get emails from a POP or IMAP Server into a FileMaker database, I haven't got around to releasing it yet but I can send it to you if you want to try it out and see if it will work for your needs?

[AvengingTiki]

I'd be very interested in such a program Dempsey. You can email it to drunkenweasel@gmail.com.

 

Ahunter and mclasen, thanks a ton for your advice. I'll look into POPit 3 as well as automatic server updates for future emails. How would you recommend moving emails that are off my server onto the db? Is there a way to make an actual file of info I can transfer from one comp to another that filemaker can import?

 

Let me ask you all a couple of further questions (if anyone would be so kind as to entertain my continued n00bness).

 

Let's say I have a set of emails with addresses in the email itself, can I pull lines out of emails and have them populate different filemaker fields? (I doubt this is possible but I thought I'd ask).

 

Also I have a field (Box 1) and many different groups of people. I plan to export each group separately to filemaker. Can I take each group and have it entered into Box 1 which group this person emailed me from? In other words can Box 1 be populated with the words "Group 1?"

 

Finally, duplicates. I get a lot of emails from the same people writing about all sorts of different stuff. By default my filemaker setup does not check for duplicates. Is there some way (when importing into Filemaker) to have filemaker check for Person A, and if Person A exists and is tagged as a 'Group 1' person can I then have filemaker automatically ADD (Not replace) a 'Group 2' tag to 'Box 1?'

 

Blargh! Lots of questions and your help is GREATLY appreciated!

 

AT

 

PS: Any recommended FAQ's for POPit 3?

[kforge]

I have a free Windows Plugin which can get emails from a POP or IMAP Server into a FileMaker database, I haven't got around to releasing it yet but I can send it to you if you want to try it out and see if it will work for your needs?

 

Did you release this and if so could you send me the link or the code?

 

Many thanks

 

Kevin

[rwgiv]

I would be most grateful for a copy of your email plugin, I'm in Mac but I can also setup windows machine if that's necessary to run the plugin. I'm more than happy to give feedback on either or both systems if you want beta testers.

 

my email is rwg4th@gmail.com

 

 

 

Did you release this and if so could you send me the link or the code?

 

Many thanks

 

Kevin