Procedure to Save to the Projects Folder

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Effective Date: November 20, 2013 (Procedure checked using Mozilla Thunderbird 24.1.0) Title: Saving Gmail to I-drive Projects Folder

Purpose:

A method whereby Gmail may be saved offline and made openly accessible using the email client, Mozilla Thunderbird. The procedure includes several methods for accessing saved email files.

Required Prerequisites:

Two preparatory installations requiring Admin-level computer access are necessary in order to successfully complete this procedure (see, Section 1: Configuration of Mozilla Thunderbird). Both are required only once.

1. Acquire, install, and setup Mozilla Thunderbird – Contact OIT: tsrs-support@pdx.edu 2. Download and install the ImportExportTools add-on for Mozilla Thunderbird

a. Note: Add-ons do not require Admin level computer access.

Procedure to Save Email to the Projects Folder

1- In Thunderbird right-click on the relevant folder, select ImportExportTools Export all messages in the folder EML format.

2- Select the destination folder, for example:

I:\Staff\Facilities\Projects\241_SRTC\2012SRTC-Projects\ 2012_SB212C02_SRTC-Cooling-Tower-Replacement\1_Administration\1-1_Correspondence-Email

3- After selecting the destination Thunderbird will automatically move all files to that destination.

Capital Projects and Construction

Post Office Box 751 503-725-3738 tel Portland, Oregon 97207-0751 503-725-4329 fax

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Appendices

Appendix 1: Definitions

Add-ons - In this procedure, an add-on refers specifically to small pieces of software that add new features, functionality, or customization to an installation of Thunderbird. Add-ons do not require IT administrative access or support to implement and are installed separately as-needed following a successful installation of Thunderbird. While there are several types of add-ons this procedure only addresses the add-on extension ImportExportTools.

Email Client – An email client, also called a mail user agent (MUA), is a program used to access and manage email. While an email client can be considered to be any system capable of interfacing with a user’s email mailbox (as defined by RFC 5321 and RFC 5322) it is used within this procedure to refer to “locally installed email clients” as opposed to web-based clients or webmail. Locally installed email clients are those email clients installed on a particular computer and include Mozilla’s Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook, and Apple’s Mail. Webmail on the other hand includes any system requiring internet access to interface with such as Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Outlook.com, etc.

EML – EML files are a proprietary open email format specified in RFC-822 and RFC-2822. In a single file, they can contain the email message (text and html formatting), the message header, message path information, time/date information, file attachments, and information.

Folder – A method of organizing email within Mozilla Thunderbird. ’Labels’ from Gmail are converted into folders when imported into Thunderbird. A message with multiple labels will be duplicated into each folder. Format – Refers to File Formats, or the extension appending any given electronic file (i.e. ‘.doc’ or ‘.txt’). For this procedure, ‘format’ will almost invariably refer to EML, a common email file format.

Header – An email header is the information embedded into an email message by the software that executes the transaction. This information provides a trail of evidence for how the message was executed and routed. IMAP - Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is an application layer Internet protocol that allows an email client to access email on a remote server. IMAP allows multiple email clients to manage a single mailbox. What this is means that any changes to stored messages on one client will be applied to all other clients - so if a message(s) is written, deleted, or filed in Thunderbird, IMAP will synchronize those changes to a Gmail account and vice versa. IMAP supports both on-line and off-line operations.

ImportExportTools – A free add-on extension for Mozilla Thunderbird that allows the user to export and import folders and messages.

Index – Refers specifically to the “index.HTML” file automatically created when messages are saved to EML using the Saving Email to I:\Drive Projects (Appendix 3). This index file contains the following contextual information about the emails in a saved folder: Title of folder with date of back-up; Subject of emails; Sender

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information (i.e. From:); Receiver information (i.e. To:); Date message was sent; and the presence of an attachment(s).

Label – A method of organizing email into categories within Gmail. Labels are similar to ‘folders’. Beyond terminological differences the unique feature of labels is that unlike folders more than one label can be applied to a given message thus causing that message to appear under each label.

MBOX – Another popular email file format. MBOX refers to a family of four related, but only semi-compatible, formats for the storage of one or more email messages and attachments. Generally, a single file with the extension .mbox or .mbx contains the contents of an entire folder, with MIME content stored directly in the file. Files can and do grow to astronomical sizes, and even slight file corruption may affect the ability of certain clients to access individual messages or even the entire folder. MBOX files also include the attachments in their MIME format, meaning that actions will likely need to be taken to migrate them, if they are to remain accessible in the future.

POP – Post Office Protocol is an application layer Internet protocol that allows simple download-and-delete requirements for access to remote email mailboxes. Generally, email clients using POP connect to the mailbox, retrieve all email messages, store them on the user’s computer as new messages, and then delete them from the server.

Thunderbird – A free, open-source, multi-platform email, news, and chat client developed by the Mozilla Foundation.

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Appendix 2: Configuration of Mozilla Thunderbird

Explanation: Appendix 1 provides a procedural walkthrough for enabling Thunderbird to capture a Gmail account. The purpose of this procedure is to prepare the Thunderbird email client to be able to accept email records from a pdx.edu Gmail account and then to be able to back these up to the network I-drive. Typically if OIT installs Thunderbird they will have completed the “Prepare Gmail Account” and “Prepare Mozilla

Thunderbird” procedures; if this did not happen or a new account needs to be added to Thunderbird then follow these procedures.

Note: All users must complete the “Download ImportExportTools Add-On” procedure. Preparing Your Gmail Account

1- Login to your Gmail account.

2- Click on the Settings Cog Wheel in the upper right corner and select Settings: 3- From the Settings screen select the Forwarding and POP/IMAP tab.

4- In the Forwarding and POP/IMAP screen make sure that the Enable IMAP radio is selected, if not select it and click Save Changes.

5- Optional: While still in Settings, select the Labels tab and check or uncheck the labels you wish to respectively include or exclude in Thunderbird by clicking on the Show in IMAP checkboxes. When Show in IMAP is checked any e-mail with that label will be imported into Thunderbird.

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Prepare Mozilla Thunderbird

1- Open Thunderbird for the first time and a configuration screen (below) pops up. Uncheck the checkmark boxes, and click Skip this and use my existing email.

2- At the Mail Account Setup pop-up screen, enter your pdx.edu email and password and click Continue. NOTE: This will NOT work initially; select Manually Config for proper setup.

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3- Configure the incoming server settings as below & click Done:

Email address & Username = PSU email account address Password = Odin password

Incoming: imap.googlemail.com Port: 993

Connection Security: SSL/TSL

Outgoing: mailhost.pdx.edu Port: 465

Connection Security: SSL/TSL

4- After successfully completing configuration open the Inbox tab (see next page) in

Thunderbird. Clicking on the Inbox for the first time will populate it with the labels selected in Gmail.

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The Inbox tab

Gmail labels converted into Thunderbird folders

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Download the ImportExportTools Add-On

1- Download the Add-On ImportExportTools from

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/thunderbird/addon/importexporttools/. No administrative privileges are required to successfully install a Thunderbird Add-On.

2- Download and save the file to your hard disk.

3- In Thunderbird, click the Display the Thunderbird Menu button: in the upper-right corner and choose Add-ons. This will open up the Add-ons Manager tab.

4- From the Add-ons Manager window, click the cog wheel in upper-right and select Install Add-on From File... and locate and open the downloaded add-on (typically in the Downloads folder).

5- At the Software Installation pop-up, select the Install Now button after the 5-second timer countdown.

6- Restart Thunderbird.

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Appendix 3: Saving Email to I:\Drive Projects

Explanation: Appendix 2 provides a procedural walkthrough for backing up Gmail messages

to the shared network drive into EML format. This procedure is designed to capture the business activities of Capital Projects and Construction project records. Following this

procedure will make email messages and their attachments accessible to whoever needs them without having access to the creators’ Gmail account(s).

Procedure:

1- In Thunderbird right-click on the relevant folder, select ImportExportTools Export all messages in the folder EML format.

2- Select the destination folder, for example “I:\Staff\Facilities\Projects\241_SRTC\2012SRTC-Projects\ 2012_SB212C02_SRTC-Cooling-Tower-Replacement\1_Administration-Files\1-1_Correspondence-&-Email”.

3- After selecting the destination Thunderbird will automatically move all files to your destination.

Explanations, Notes, Tips, and a Warning

Note Regarding Saving and Backing-up Email:

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Tip: Arrange Email Prior to Moving to the Shared Projects Folder

Ideally email has already been labeled or foldered in either Gmail or Thunderbird respectively. Doing so allows the user to export one entire folder. Users who do not label or folder will need to find the relevant email in their inbox (e.g. Search…) and select them individually or as a group for export.

EML Format Explanation

EML records each message as though it were an individual document. This means that both the original message and any replies are all saved separately by subject. Messages by default are listed by subject and any messages with the same subject are automatically assigned sequential numbers dependent on their chronology. Importing a message into Thunderbird and/or Gmail will restore the original structure and order of replies, forwards, formatting, etc.

Advantages:

i. Attachments are preserved

ii. HTML index automatically generated during the back-up process. Here users can view contextual information including subject; sender; receiver; date; and the presence of attachments.

iii. Messages can be dragged and dropped into Thunderbird (and Gmail via Thunderbird) and viewed with all of their original formatting and appearance.

iv. Simple to use and visualize.

v. Standardized and well-supported by most email clients with a high-rate of exact re-creation of even highly formatted messages.

vi. Text-file previewing of any message by any user. Disadvantages:

i. Context of messages can be slightly confusing if not imported into Thunderbird or other email client.

ii. Gmail does not natively support EML making the process of importing an offline message cumbersome.

iii. HTML index files automatically created during back-up has limitations including a fixed character length to fields, which can truncate important information such as a long list of receivers.

iv. Sub-folders cannot be automatically extracted. A folder containing sub-folders will need to repeat the procedure for all sub-, sub-sub-, and sub-sub-sub-folders.

v. Windows Explorer does not display when a given EML has an attachment. The automatically generated index file partially remedies this.

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Warning Regarding “Archive” Buttons

Within both Thunderbird and Gmail there exists a deceptively named 'Archive' button. Using the Archive button should generally be avoided unless the user has a degree of technical proficiency in the email system’s filing structure.

In Thunderbird:

In Gmail:

Pressing these buttons will not back-up or otherwise preserve messages. Instead pressing the

Archive button removes messages from the inbox and moves them to another (often hidden) folder. Recovering these emails can be inconvenient. In Gmail if the message was first given a label it should still appear within that label’s folder; if no label was applied it can be recovered by selecting the All Mail label and searching through there. Pushing the Archive button in Thunderbird will similarly re-file any email into its own foldering system.

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Appendix 4: Accessing Saved Email and Attachments

Explanation: Appendix 3 provides three procedural walkthroughs for accessing email

messages and their accompanying attachments which have been saved externally from their native environment. These procedures include adding EML messages to Thunderbird, importing them into a Gmail account, and previewing an individual message as a text file.

Note on Selecting EML Files to View

There are two primary options for searching for specific email messages when using EML. The first is simply to open one or more likely messages within an email client (i.e. Thunderbird, Outlook, Apple Mail, etc.) and search them using the client’s full-text searching capabilities. The second is to use the Index file automatically generated by the ImportExportTools add-on. During the back-up procedure (see, Appendix 2: Saving Email to I:\Drive Projects) an HTML file called “Index” is automatically created and stored with the backed up emails. This Index file provides additional contextual information useful when searching for messages such as when a message was sent, who sent/received it, and what it was about. The Index is also hyperlinked to the EML files and clicking on these links will open any given message within Thunderbird.

Procedure: Viewing EML in Thunderbird

1- In Thunderbird under the Local Folders section either create a new folder or select a location for messages to be imported to. It is recommended that this folder be named similarly to the EML’s folder.

2- Identify and select the EML file(s) to access.

3- Drag the selection into the folder in Thunderbird to begin importing all selected messages. 4- Attachments are accessed as per usual within Thunderbird.

Procedure: Importing EML into Gmail with Thunderbird

1- In Thunderbird under Inbox is a listing of the folders corresponding to labels within a user’s Gmail account. Either select one of these or create a new sub-folder in Thunderbird (right click and select “New Subfolder…”). Alternately, create a new label in Gmail; note that it can take several minutes a Gmail label appears as a Thunderbird folder.

2- Identify and select the EML file(s) to access.

3- Drag the selection into the folder in Thunderbird to begin importing all selected messages. 4- Check Gmail to make sure that all EML has imported correctly. Note that it can take several

minutes for the two systems to synch together. 5- Attachments are accessed as per usual within Gmail.

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Procedure: EML as Text

1- Identify a message to view.

2- Select the message with a right-click, choose “Open with”, and navigate to a text editor such as Notepad, Notepad++, etc.

a. Alternatively, open a text editor and either drag a message into it or choose “Open…” and navigate to the EML file’s location.

3- Read the message. Note that email viewed as text always begin with a header that is typically hidden when viewing the message in Gmail or Thunderbird, to see the written message information scroll down.

Warning: Altering and saving any information within an EML file open as text can corrupt the message potentially making it unusable or unreliable.

Note Regarding Attachments and Text Viewing:

When viewing an email as a text file it will not be possible to read the attachments. Attachments in a text file appear as long blocks of seemingly meaningless characters, for example: JVBERi0xLjMKJcTl8uXrp/Og0MTGCjQgMCBvYmoKP, etc.