BusinessObjects Board

Reading Data from Emails

dataservices text analytics
#1

Hi Experts ,
I have a requirement to analyze the emails of a company using TDP.
so instead of converting mail into text ,I want to link there Mail server directly with BODS do we have any adapter for this or do we have any option to read .msg format file.
any help will be appreciated.

~Kamal

kamal264 :india: (BOB member since 2013-01-25)

#2

What email server and how would I get access to these emails programatically?
(I am thinking about writing an Adapter for that)

Werner Daehn :de: (BOB member since 2004-12-17)

#3

If you could route an email (forward it?) to a process that could then submit the email to a DS web service call then that would work.

Werner, could you do a little thinking out loud on how this adapter would work?

eganjp :us: (BOB member since 2007-09-12)

#4

Well, I was thinking about multiple options

  • An Adapter that keeps polling using the POP or IMAP protocol. Do customers have an email server that supports that?
  • An Adapter using WebServices to query Microsoft Exchange Server. Is this allowed? Never tried doing WebServices with Exchange.
  • The Adapter has a SNMP server built in and the company email server forwards all emails to it. But is this supported in customer networks? I fear security risks as well.

Werner Daehn :de: (BOB member since 2004-12-17)

#5

I asked one of my developers what they thought about an adapter in Data Services that could grab email. Here’s what they said:

…outside of normal “assumed” capabilities of Data Services having access to the components of a typical email (From, To, Body, Attachments, etc.), I would request some type of visibility and transparency into the email server interaction in particular for troubleshooting and having a view into what is transpiring between Data Services and the email server. I think we can attest to situations where we ran into problems with external system interaction and didn’t have the proper level of transparency to troubleshoot and understand what was taking place.

We are heavily into the text analysis space and have been for more than two years (using SAP products). I’m presenting at Sapphire on this topic with a “Lessons Learned” session. If you’re looking for an alpha tester we may be interested in putting something through its paces.

eganjp :us: (BOB member since 2007-09-12)

#6

What I need from you is a decision how to connect to the email server. As soon as I have some sample code to do that I can build such an Adapter in a few hours of free time, meaning within a few months.

Werner Daehn :de: (BOB member since 2004-12-17)

#7

Sorry Werner, I have no idea how to interact with an email server. I hit the send/receive button in Outlook and it (magically) works. Microsoft probably has an SDK for Exchange.

eganjp :us: (BOB member since 2007-09-12)

#8

At least you said “Exchange”. That helps already.

Werner Daehn :de: (BOB member since 2004-12-17)

#9

Okay, played around with Microsoft EWS for Java and hit a solid road block. No matter what I do I never get authenticated. Found many issues around that, main problem seems to be that the MS library is so outdated. Does not support Exchange 2013, none of the later supporting libraries.

So what I would need is some Java sample code that works.

Werner Daehn :de: (BOB member since 2004-12-17)