Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi I have a .pst file(Outlook file) and i want to convert it into txt or doc or something such that i can edit it coz pst file is encrypted. I tried Mail::Outlook and Win32::Ole but they are for extracting data from a configured outlook account rather than a standalone .pst file . Also I tried libpst but it doesnt work(Windows). Please help in finding some code to read through .pst files.. Thanks

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: .Pst Files
by kielstirling (Scribe) on Feb 15, 2012 at 09:29 UTC
Re: .Pst Files
by ww (Archbishop) on Feb 15, 2012 at 12:06 UTC
    And, from duckduckgo.com, using the obscure search terms .pst and perl ....
Re: .Pst Files
by locked_user sundialsvc4 (Abbot) on Feb 15, 2012 at 15:24 UTC

    In my experience, the best way to approach a proprietary file in the Windows environment is to employ OLE.   Whether the document in question is encrypted or not.

    To my way of thinking, when you do this you are going straight to the actual source of the document:   this is the software that built the thing, and this is the interface that was devised by the company that designed that software.   Sure, there’s some inefficiency involved, but typically we have computing resources to spare even on a lowly desktop machine.   Perl has a fine OLE interface module.   The question is how thoroughly the vendor approached the design and implementation of their OLE interface.   In Microsoft’s case, it will be very good because, after all, OLE was their idea in the first place.

Re: .Pst Files
by Anonymous Monk on Feb 15, 2012 at 16:21 UTC

      For all the above solutions i need to have outlook configured on my system. I need a way to extract information stright out of a given .pst file not from a configured outlook .. Any other ideas??

        For all the above solutions i need to have outlook configured on my system.

        Only the Win32::OLE solutions require outlook configured on your system, the others do not