Evolution

From openSUSE

Evolution
Developer:	Novell and GNOME
Package Info (pin)	openSUSE 11.1 openSUSE 11.0 openSUSE 10.3
License:
Website:	http://www.gnome.org/projects/evolution

About

Novell Evolution is a mail, address book and calendar application.

Supported mail protocols include IMAP, POP, SMTP and Authenticated SMTP, as well as Microsoft Exchange 2000 and 2003.

Migrating Evolution Accounts

Suppose one has a computer and wishes to upgrade to a newer version of openSuSE. The current computer is using an older Evolution mail, calendar, and address book client without a backup/restore feature. Over a long period of time, quite a bit of archived emails and personal information has been collected within the existing Evolution client. It would seemingly take forever to export each email and detail to the new computer. Is there a quick and easy way to do this?

There are undoubtedly several ways this can be done, but one easy way is to go to the old computer and do the following. This scenario is based on Evolution being installed on a KDE desktop. Computers employing Gnome will substitute the appropriate corresponding applications and utilities in that system.

1. If a USB memory stick of suitable storage capacity is available, use it to copy the necessary files to instead of burning a CD/DVD and skip ahead to step 3. Otherwise, launch the K3b CD/DVD burning utility.

2. Select New Data CD Project or New Data DVD Project depending on what medium is intended on burning the Evolution files to.

3. Navigate to /home/useraccount/.evolution in the navigation bar of K3b. If a memory stick is being used, use the Dolphin or Konqueror file manager to navigate to this directory so that files can be copied out of it. Since these are hidden system files, one will only be able to navigate as far as /home/useraccount/. One must manually type in .evolution to get the contents of the Evolution directory to appear in the upper right pane of Kb3. Please look very closely and note that there is a dot in front of evolution. If this dot is omitted, one will get lost in the navigation process.

4. Select every folder and file within /home/useraccount/.evolution directory as it appears in the upper right pane of K3b and drag it to the bottom right pane of Kb3 or onto a USB memory stick. The hidden files can be included too if prompted. Next, if a memory stick is being used, skip ahead to step 6.

5. Click the Burn button of K3b and proceed to burn a CD with your Evolution files on it. If you are unfamiliar with K3b and CD/DVD burning, consult K3b's documentation.

6. Be certain Evolution is installed on the new computer's openSuSE operating system.

7. After the CD is burned remove it and insert it or the USB memory stick into the new computer.

8. Launch the Dolphin or Konqueror file manager on the new computer.

9. Navigate to /home/useraccount/.evolution just as in step 3 above. In Dolphin, it will be necessary to select View | Navigation Bar | Show Full Location from the menu bar to get the navigation bar to appear.

10. Copy all the files from the CD or USB memory stick that was created into this directory on the new computer.

11. If any prompts arise in the process questioning overwriting existing files, select "Overwrite All". Furthermore, if any prompts arise in the process concerning certain problematic files, select "Skip".

12. After the files have copied over, launch Evolution on the new computer. The directory structure of the imported mail and folders should now be visible. However no emails can be opened, created, or sent emails yet because there will probably be problems with permissions encountered.

13. If Dolphin or Konqueror was closed, open it up again and navigate to /home/useraccount/.evolution.

14. Continue to navigate to /home/useraccount/.evolution/mail/local.

15. Right click on every file recognized as one of folders in the old Evolution directory and select Properties | Permissions. Set the Owner permissions to "Can read and write".

16. Absolutely do not forget to perform Step 15 on the Inbox, Drafts, Outbox, and Sent files. It won't be necessary to perform this step on each and every file in the local directory, such as Inbox.cmeta, etc. Just do the ones that are recognized as filenames that were created on the old computer.

One should now have a fully restored and functioning Evolution mail, address book, and calendar on the new system.

External Links

Novell Evolution 2