Navify V1.2

The program is by Jeffrey Lomicka. You can send him mail with any comments you might have.

Get the "Navify" kit here.

To view a simple example of what this program does, go here.

To re-create the example, do this:

• Unpack the above kit, and find the "WebSite" folder.
• Place a COPY of any Eudora mailbox in the WebSite folder
• Drag the Eudora mailbox to "navify V1.2"
• Note that it littered the Web Site folder with a bunch of .html files
• Drag "index.html" to Netscape
• Browse the mail in Netscape

Navify will let you customize the header and footer of each message with your own buttons for "next" and "previous", and whatever other links and graphics you might want to include. The files "postamble.html" and "preamble.html" are user-editable files that you use for this purpose.

New for version 1.2:

Nothing. However, I built it with a newer compiler and libraries, so that it seems to be more reliable when converting really big mailboxes.

New for version 1.1:

Only "Date:", "From:", "To:", "Subject:", and "X-URL:" headers are included in the message. Remaining headers are hidden in the comments of the html file.

The "From:" header is established as a mailto: URL for the sender. Local OpenMail addresses are converted to internet addresses at "avid.com".

The X-URL: header is established as an anchor to the referenced page.

To make your own web site, do the following:

• Create an empty folder that will contain the new site. (It doesn't have to be on the target server. You can move it later.)
• Copy the Eudora mailbox you wish to convert out of the Eudora folder into this folder. You need only the mailbox file, not the .idx. Be sure to COPY and not MOVE - if your web site folder is on the same disk, be sure to hold the Option key down. All of the individual mail files will be created in the folder that holds the mailbox file, and you don't want to litter your Eudora folder with this stuff.
• Copy the files preamble.html and postamble.html from the "Web Site" folder into your new folder.
• Edit the preamble and postamble files to your heart's content. However, you must obey these rules:
  • The form "%s" can appear no more than 4 times. The first will be the previous message link, the second is the next message, the third is the previous message again, and the fourth is the next message again.
  • If the file contains any other occupance of "%", make it "%%".
• Now drag the Eudora folder in your new web site folder to "navify V1.2". This make take a while. If it works, there will be no messages. It will fill the new web site folder with message files, and create an index.html file. If the folder you create is on a Macintosh, as opposed to a file server on some foreign operating system, the individual message files will contain finder comments that include the author and subject of each message. (Most foreign operating systems don't support finder comments.)
• Edit the newly created index.html file to provide whatever other graphics and links you desire.
• You can delete this copy of the Eudora mail folder, as it is no longer needed.

The navify program has only one message, reporting a Macintosh error number. If something goes wrong, is it likely one of these:

• "navify.c line xxxx", this usually means you ran out of memory. Navify needs a memory allocation of approximately twice the size of the Eudora mail file you are converting.
• "MacOS error exception: -43", This means "file not found", and usually this means you didn't provide the preamble.html and postamble.html files.
• "MacOS error exception: -48", This means "duplicate file name", and usually this means you are running in a folder that already contains message files, or an index.html file. You have to delete the old ones yourself before navify can create new ones.

Most of all, have fun.

Back to Jeff's main page.