Exporting data from Lotus Notes databases

Question

I'm looking for a tool, hopefully low cost or free, to help me export Lotus Notes databases (not Lotus Notes mail files!) to any kind of format. CSV/Excel etc..

I also need to be able to extract attachments in the database. They're all Word documents.

I've found one called DetachIt - but it's high license cost puts it quite far out of reach.

Thank you!

Solution

Here's a free tool I wrote years ago for exporting data to Excel: Export to Excel 2.0

Also, I wrote some code to extract attachments from email, and this code could be adapted to work on other databases

(Declarations)
Dim sDir As String
Dim s As NotesSession
Dim w As NotesUIWorkspace
Dim db As NotesDatabase
Dim dc As NotesDocumentCollection
Dim doc As NotesDocument

Sub Initialize

 Set s = New NotesSession
 Set w = New NotesUIWorkspace 
 Set db = s.CurrentDatabase
 Set dc = db.UnprocessedDocuments
 Set doc = dc.GetFirstDocument
 Dim rtItem As NotesRichTextItem
 Dim RTNames List As String
 Dim DOCNames List As String
 Dim itemCount As Integer
 Dim sDefaultFolder As String
 Dim x As Integer
 Dim vtDir As Variant
 Dim iCount As Integer
 Dim j As Integer
 Dim lngExportedCount As Long
 Dim attachmentObject As Variant

 x = Msgbox("This action will extract all
 attachments from the " & Cstr
(dc.Count) & _
 " document(s) you have selected, 
and place them into the folder of your 
choice." & _
 Chr(10) & Chr(10) & "Would you like 
to continue?", 32 + 4, "Export 
Attachments")
 If x <> 6 Then Exit Sub 

 sDefaultFolder = s.GetEnvironmentString
("LPP_ExportAttachments_DefaultFolder")
 If sDefaultFolder = "" Then sDefaultFolder = "F:"
 vtDir = w.SaveFileDialog( False, "Export 
attachments to which folder?", "All 
files|*.*", sDefaultFolder, "Choose 
Folder and Click Save")
 If Isempty(vtDir) Then Exit Sub
 sDir = Strleftback(vtDir(0), "\")
 Call s.SetEnvironmentVar
("LPP_ExportAttachments_DefaultFolder", sDir) 

 While Not (doc Is Nothing)

  iCount = 0
  itemCount = 0
  lngExportedCount = 0
  Erase RTNames
  Erase DocNames

  'Scan all items in document
  Forall i In doc.Items

   If i.Type = RICHTEXT Then
    Set rtItem = doc.GetfirstItem(i.Name)
    If Not Isempty(rtItem.EmbeddedObjects) 
Then
     RTNames(itemCount) = Cstr(i.Name)
     itemCount = itemCount +1
    End If
   End If

  End Forall  

  For j = 0 To itemCount-1 
   Set rtItem = Nothing
   Set rtItem = doc.GetfirstItem(RTNames(j))
   Forall Obj In rtItem.EmbeddedObjects
    If ( Obj.Type = EMBED_ATTACHMENT ) 
Then
     Call ExportAttachment(Obj)
     Call Obj.Remove
     Call doc.Save( False, True ) 
 'creates conflict doc if conflict exists
    End If 
   End Forall 
  Next

  'Scan all items in document
  Forall i In doc.Items

   If i.Type = ATTACHMENT Then

    DOCNames(lngExportedCount) = 
i.Values(0)
    lngExportedCount = lngExportedCount + 1

   End If

  End Forall

  For j% = 0 To lngExportedCount-1 
   Set attachmentObject = Nothing
   Set attachmentObject = 
doc.GetAttachment(DOCNames(j%))
   Call ExportAttachment(attachmentObject)   
   Call attachmentObject.Remove   
   Call doc.Save( False, True ) 
'creates conflict doc if conflict exists
  Next  

  Set doc = dc.GetNextDocument(doc)
 Wend

 Msgbox "Export Complete.", 16, "Finished"

End Sub

Sub ExportAttachment(o As Variant)

 Dim sAttachmentName As String
 Dim sNum As String
 Dim sTemp As String

 sAttachmentName = sDir 
& "\" & o.Source
 While Not (Dir$(sAttachmentName, 0) = "")
  sNum = Right
(Strleftback(sAttachmentName, "."), 2)
  If Isnumeric(sNum) Then
   sTemp = Strleftback(sAttachmentName, ".")
   sTemp = Left(sTemp, Len(sTemp) - 2)
   sAttachmentName = sTemp
 & Format$(Cint(sNum) + 1, "##00") & _
   "." & Strrightback(sAttachmentName, ".")
  Else
   sAttachmentName = 
Strleftback(sAttachmentName, ".") & _
   "01." & Strrightback(sAttachmentName, ".")
  End If
 Wend

 Print "Exporting " & sAttachmentName
 'Save the file
 Call o.ExtractFile( sAttachmentName ) 

End Sub

Comments

[tony roth]

I think MS has some tools to do this look up lotus notes transporter suite and they are free. Also if you open a database within notes it has export options.

[tony roth]

also there is odbc connector for lotus notes!

[Jak]

I'm very unfamilar with LotusScript - usually a C# programmer. Will this remove the attachments? I simply want to copy them.. I'm a little concerned by the Obj.Remove line - but I honestly don't know what it's actually doing.

[Ken Pespisa]

It does, but you can comment out the two lines calling the Remove method, and the Save method that follows them, and then the code will simply extract without removing the attachments.