Extract Subfiles from Lotus Notes Database Files

A Lotus Notes database is a single file that contains multiple documents called notes. Notes include design notes (such as forms, views, folders, navigators, outlines, pages, framesets, agents, and resources), data document notes, profile document notes, access control list notes, and collection (index) notes. KeyView can extract text items, attachments, and OLE objects from data document notes only. Data document notes include emails, journal entries, discussion threads, documents (Microsoft Office and Lotus SmartSuite), and so on.

All components of a note are prefixed by field names such as "SendTo:", "Subject:", and "Body:". When a note is extracted, the field names are not included in the extracted output; only the field values are extracted.

When a mail message in an NSF file is extracted to disk, the body text and header information (such as the values from the SendTo, From, and DeliveredDate fields) in each message is extracted to a text file.

Enable the Reader to use NSF files

To enable the reader nsfsr to process NSF files (file format number 358), you must add the entry 358=nsf to the formats.ini configuration file, in the [Formats] section. For example:

[Formats]
...
358=nsf

NOTE: The Lotus Notes Database (NSF) reader is an advanced feature and is sold and licensed separately. To enable this reader in a KeyView SDK, you must obtain the appropriate license key from OpenText. See Pass License Information to KeyView for information on adding a new license key to an existing installation.

System Requirements

The Lotus Notes Database (NSF) reader is available only on certain platforms (see nsfsr in the platform differences section).

KeyView accesses NSF files indirectly by using the Lotus Notes API. Because the NSF reader relies on functionality in Lotus Notes, a Notes client or Domino server must be installed and configured on the same machine as KeyView. On UNIX and Linux, the Domino server is required. On Windows, the Notes client or Domino server is required. For information about the supported versions of Notes or Domino, see Software Dependencies.

Installation and Configuration

Before KeyView can filter NSF files, you must set up the Notes client or Domino server. Full configuration is not required. The following steps outline the minimal setup for NSF filtering:

Windows

  1. Install the Lotus Notes client or Lotus Domino server. You do not need to configure the client or server.

  2. Make sure that the notes.ini file is in the proper location.

    • If Lotus Notes is installed, the file should appear in the install\lotus\notes directory, where install is the installation directory.

    • If only Lotus Domino is installed, the file should appear in the install\lotus\domino directory, where install is the installation directory.

    If the file does not exist, create an ASCII file named notes.ini, and add the following text:

    [Notes]
  3. Add the KeyView bin directory and the install\lotus\notes or install\lotus\domino directory to the PATH environment variable (the KeyView bin directory must be first in the path). OpenText recommends that you add the KeyView bin directory because the Lotus Notes or Domino server installation might contain older KeyView OEM libraries.

Linux

  1. Install Lotus Domino server. You do not need to configure the server.

  2. Make sure that the notes.ini file is in the install/lotus/notes/latest/linux directory, where install is the directory where Lotus Notes is installed. If the file does not exist, create an ASCII file named notes.ini, and add the following text:

    [Notes]
  3. Add the install/lotus/notes/latest/linux directory to the PATH environment variable:

    setenv PATH install/lotus/notes/latest/linux:$PATH
  4. Add the install/lotus/notes/latest/linux and the KeyView bin directory to the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable:

    setenv LD_LIBRARY_PATH keyview_bin:install/lotus/notes/latest/linux:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

    where keyview_bin is the location of the KeyView bin directory. OpenText recommends that you add the KeyView bin directory because the Lotus Notes installation might contain older KeyView OEM libraries.

Open Secured NSF Files

KeyView enables you to specify a user ID file and password to use to open a secured NSF file for extraction.

Format Note Subfiles

The KeyView NSF reader uses XML templates to format note subfiles. You can customize the templates to approximate the look and feel of the original notes as closely as possible. For more information, see Extract and Format Lotus Notes Subfiles.