Ever Heard of cc:Mail?

[l008com]

I have a customer that has some very important email files on old powerbook, in the program cc:Mail.

From what I've been able to tell, it started as more of a private messaging system (not email but an email like system), then it migrated over to a more traditional email program. I've tried everything, including Emailchemy, and nothing can import this data. 

I tried connecting this program to a mail server, thinking I could just upload the mail to the server, and download it on anything. But no luck, this version is so old (2 i think) that you can't connect to regular email servers. 

I also tried importing in Communicator (doesn't support importing?) and Eudora (doesn't support importing from ccMail.

I also found out that this app got all the way to version 8 before it ended.

So of course, if anyone knows a way around this, I'm all ears!

But what I want to try next is upgrading cc:Mail to newer versions, until hopefully I can get a version that will let me upload these emails to a server. But I have been able to find so little about this program, it's amazing. It's almost like it never existed. I have not been able to find any version of it to download on ANY of the old classic software download sites (including my own of course).

So my question to you is, do you have any copy of cc:Mail? If so, can you send it? Any version for any platform could potentially help me here. 

I have a feeling the solution to her problem is to copy and paste the text out one by one, and paste the text into a text edit, which you can then convert to regular rtf files on a modern Mac. But there are apparently many hundreds of emails so she'd rather pay me to find a way to convert. I should just get the powerbook and manually do the copying and pasting myself, but that's beside the point

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Well, cc:mail is hard to come by. I couldn't find any version of it on the net. You should ask your client for permission to preserve this historic piece of software.

Here's what I could find though. I think this will be useful:

The two major contenders for cc:Mail users, Microsoft and Lotus, both developed tools to migrate CCA data into new platforms. Lotus's attempts to move cc:Mail customers to Lotus Notes met with limited success, because of early challenges in the area of coexistence and migration between cc:Mail and Notes and because Lotus was focused on groupware rather than simple email. Microsoft, which provided a simpler migration path and a more focused solution (email), succeeded in winning the majority of the cc:Mail installed base in the United States.

Microsoft created a utility called "Exchange Server Importer for Lotus cc:Mail Archives," sometimes also referred to as "Microsoft Importer for Lotus cc:Mail Archives," to import CCA data into Outlook PST files. The cc:Mail Archive Importer for Microsoft Exchange Server created a folder called cc:Mail Archives and a subfolders for each archive file selected for conversion. The ASCII message files, including header information, were translated to PST format before ingest. However, the Microsoft importer did not import rich-text features supported in later versions of cc:Mail. Style characteristics such as fonts and highlighting are not retained in the imported messages.

source: http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/formats/fdd/fdd000391.shtml

And you will love THIS: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=18820

"Import cc:Mail archive files to folders in an Exchange 2003 mailbox store or to one or more personal folder (.pst) files. "

Edit: It will only work on Windows machines, but you can transfer them back to a Mac afterwards.

Edit 2: Added the .exe file to the web archive

 

[l008com]

That is very interesting. But what can I do with .pst files? Can they be imported directly into any mail clients (as opposed to mail servers)?

 

[l008com]

Also, whenever I try to run that archive importer (on an XP virtual machine), I get this error and it won't launch: "mapi initialization error"

 

[l008com]

Ok I got it working under windows 7, I had to install Outlook first before this program will even run, which is strange. But unfortunately, it looks like it only converts data from cc:Mail for windows. It is unable to read my old Mac files :-/ I'll poke around with it more later but it looks like this might be a dead end. 

 

[BadGoldEagle]

mhhh... Odd... Well, you could try to import this with Lotus Notes. But again, it's nowhere to be found.

It seems though that the "mapi initialisation error" was resolved in Windows 7. Can you try the exe on a Win7 Machine? I can give it a go myself if you want. Shoot me a PM with the archive file.

Edit: you're too quick for me

Again that's odd, I thought they used the same format? Maybe you could import the mac archive to cc:mail for windows first?

 

[l008com]

I'll play around with it more later, maybe give some files some extensions that the app is looking for and see what happens. 

 

[l008com]

Yeah just played around some more, doesn't look like this is going to work. Whatever that archiver is looking for, seems to be totally different from what I have. Whether its a mac/pc thing, or a version 2/version 8 thing, I seem to be getting nowhere fast, sadly. Too bad, that would have been a quick solution and I could have gotten these files OFF my desktop!

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Don't give up just yet!

Lotus ftp is still up, surprisingly... and I found this:ftp://ftp.lotus.com/comm/ccmail/migrate/(safari can't open ftps of course, but it works fine on firefox)

The article talked about a migration tool designed by lotus themselves, I think this is it. This is worth a shot.

And here are the cc:mail windows clients ftp://ftp.lotus.com/comm/ccmail/clients.lan/windows/

try to import from cc:mail mac to cc:mail windows, and then run the microsoft converter.

 

[l008com]

Ok I downloaded that, tried to install it... the installation steps don't make sense. I messed around and got it to install but now it won't run due to missing .dll's. Windows is so terrible, working in system 7 ain't so bad compared to this. 

One again, I'll mess around with it later. This one I feel like, might require some windows expertise that I do not have. 

But either way I'm definitely going to bed now so ill update later.

 

[BadGoldEagle]

Yeah it should work better on Windows 7. 

I read somewhere that you can specify the extension from the file menu on the mac. I think it ain't working because your file doesn't have the .cca extension 

Lotus cc:Mail
800 El Camino Real West
Mountain View, CA 94040
415-961-8800 voice
415-961-8400 fax
Post Office Name: ccMail
Post Office Phone:  415-961-8884
BBS: 415-961-0401, 8-N-1
   Macintosh to Windows   Support Services Technote

The cc:Mail Mobile for Windows product provides an upgrade path to cc:Mail
Remote for Macintosh users.  To convert your existing Macintosh PO (post
office) to Windows Mobile, you need to move the CLANDATA, MLANDATA,
USR00001, and USR00002 files to your PC by mailing them to the Windows
Mobile mailbox.  The following list contains additional methods of moving
the files:* Use LapLink.
* Make a Soft PC copy of files to DOS diskettes.
* Move the files to a network drive, and copy them to the local hard disk.
    
After you move the files to the PC, configure your Windows Mobile local
PO.  Log into mail using the Remote for Macintosh username and password. 
Point the database to the directory where you have the Macintosh PO files,
which is a LAN account-type connection because of the database versions. 
After you open the mailbox, click on the Mobile menu, and choose Docking
Mode.  Dock to your Windows Mobile local PO (usually located in
C:\CCMOBILE\CCDATA1).  Highlight the messages, folders, and bulletin
boards that you want to access in your Mobile account, and copy them to
the Docked account.
    
After you complete the files transfer, exit Docking mode and log out of
mail.  Log back into mail in Mobile mode, and point to the database in
C:\CCMOBILE\CCDATA1.  Verify that the files transferred correctly.  If so,
exit mail and delete the Remote for Macintosh PO database from the PC.
    
You can also transfer Archive files to your local drive from the Macintosh
to the PC.  Give these files the .CCA file extension.  From the File menu,
create a new Archive and assign it to the path where you have the Archive
file.
    
To update the directory, use the CCMOBILE version of Import and Export. 
Export the directory using the following command:

C:\CCMOBILE\EXPORT /NLOCALPO /P(PASSWORD) /DC:\PATH-TO-MAC-CCDATA
@C:\CCMUPDAT /DIRECTORYUse the CCMOBILE Import command to import the directory into your Mobile
PO as follows:

C:\CCMOBILE\IMPORT /NLOCALPO /P(PASSWORD) /DC:\CCMOBILE\CCDATA1
@C:\CCMUPDAT /DIRECTORYDocument Number: 4753
Category: Mobile
Release? Yes 
Author: Tiffany Whitaker
Modified: 02/08/94 01:12:41 PM
Pages:

 

[l008com]

One of the things I tried was adding that extension, the converter still couldn't read the files. The steps above looks like you need ccmail for windows for it to work.

 

[techfury90]

I've heard of it. It was replaced with Domino and Notes, but I know some companies were stragglers with it.

 

[rsolberg]

This post from 2000 may be of use: https://www.info-mac.org/viewtopic.php?f=162&t=6578&p=6579&hilit=mailconverter#p6579

 

[l008com]

According to that article, you can't run the converter on the program's raw data files, you need to somehow "export" to a text file. I'm not sure what these means, and I also don't currently have the application, only the data files. I'm going to try to get a hold of the customer's laptop with the program running on it, that may make these suggestions easier to attempt. 

 

[l008com]

I downloaded the MailConverter program above and ran it on my ccMail raw data files. As expected, I did not get any usable results. But what I did get was at least slightly promising. I got two eudora mailbox files, which containing the correct number of emails. But the body of each email was junk, as was all of the header data. But I'm getting somewhere, apparently. I wish there was some elaboration on what exactly they mean by "first you must generate a text file". That post is 16 years old and I'm tempted to reply to it

 

[bdurbrow]

Which version of the OS is running on the PowerBook? I'm wondering if you can create an AppleScript to copy-and-paste all the data from cc:Mail into something more usable (like a bunch of TeachText/SimpleText plain text files?)

 

[l008com]

I think it's running 7.something but I'm not sure. I'm working on getting the computer.

Along the lines of what you're saying, if that would work, I could move the data into emails in eudora in theory. Then upload those emails to a mail server and download them on OS X into .mbox data. ccMail is so simple and primitive though, I suspect it has no applescript support. I'll find out though. 

 

[bdurbrow]

Alternatively, perhaps one of those pre-AppleScript 'macro' programs might be able to do it?