Make FiltaQuilla compatible with Thunderbird 78

[reagle]

I just got upgraded to TB 78.0, but FiltaQuilla is disabled.

[RealRaven2000]

We are working on upgrades for all my Add-ons, first my commercial ones (QuickFolders / quickFilters and SmartTemplate4). Once these are done and some new revenue comes in through license sales, I will start looking at my "free as in beer ones" - First Menu On top and Zombiekeys (as I have written them largely myself) and then later the inherited stuff from Kent (Filtaquilla, Tonequilla).

If I feel real adventurous I might pay somebody to turn QuickPasswords into a web extension - I miss it badly in Firefox, that's why I am using Waterfox for over a year now.

[RealRaven2000]

I have renamed this issue - all update efforts for 78 and any regressions specific to this version of Thunderbird will be logged here!

[bhafer]

Argh. Well, Thunderbird has now released 78.2.2 to the release channel. So FiltaQuilla broke. :(
Specifically, it's the change tag actions that I was using and now fail.

Just found this thread and wondering what things are looking like? Is there hope? Can I help?

[RealRaven2000]

Argh. Well, Thunderbird has now released 78.2.2 to the release channel. So FiltaQuilla broke. :(
Specifically, it's the change tag actions that I was using and now fail.

Just found this thread and wondering what things are looking like? Is there hope? Can I help?

Sure:

• sign up to my YouTube channel: "thunderbird daily"
• if you're a developer, have a look at the source code and send me your github handle
• if you're a power user, spread the word and leave a review linking to this issue
• if you work in marketing or are a social influencer, you could give a shoutout to my Add-ons
• if you like to future proof you can donate to axel@songcraftstudios.com (topic: "FiltaQuilla Development") or buy a quickFilters / QuickFolders / SmartTemplate4 license. I am still fundraising to cover all development costs for upgrading, so far we have burned around $3,000.

Note: My Company is called Song Craft Studios because I am getting into music production full time. By the time that will pay my bills everything will be hopefully web (mail) extensions and much lower maintenance. I estimate I will probably have to sink around $20,000 into development and marketing to make it sustainable for all my Add-ons. I would honestly love to give FiltaQuilla to somebody else but there is nobody who has spare time and my (quickFilters) users rely on it so much.

To make that goal I need to grow my user numbers because long term it's only sustainable with >100k users.

[RealRaven2000]

I keep getting reviews that question why FiltaQuilla isn't compatible, so I made a more verbose reply (which also links here):

what is it with addons regularly becoming incompatible with thunderbird? the extension works fine when it does, but messes up the filters when it is incompatible. would give full 5* if did not invalidate filters when incompatible. maybe set them to inactive somehow?

This comes from Mozilla's constant changes. They have a big one in preparation the switch to "mail extensions" which is what Firefox did a few years back when they pulled the plug on legacy Add-ons. Thunderbird uses the Firefox code base (mozilla-central) as foundation, so they had to eventually follow suit.

This means Add-ons are only allowed special restricted APIs for carrying out their tasks - these are not complete!

Since we are not there yet (I would say not even 5% of what sophisticated Add-ons need in the Mail sphere) there is an interim step - packaging the Add-on as a "mail experiment". but this takes time and resources (and will still break functionality if not done correctly) - we have spent 250hours on conversion efforst for my Add-ons, but the paid licensed ones will have to be completed first before I can do it with the "free as in beer" ones. It is very hard to find developers with this knowledge!

If you are or know a developer who would like to get involved please feel free to leave a comment here:
#64

If you want to help fund raising for converting FiltaQuilla consider buying a license for quickFilters Pro.

[jeremymeyers]

If there are specific API hooks that would make this conversion easier, I woudl be happy to submit a bugzilla thing about it.

[RealRaven2000]

If there are specific API hooks that would make this conversion easier, I woudl be happy to submit a bugzilla thing about it.

You can try - I think it may be a bit early to handle it via API and might take months to get there - the quickest way to get this online would be by using a experiment API and the WindowListener (as I have done with my extensions QuickFolders / quickFilters and SmartTemplate4).

There is a detailed cooking list on how to achieve this, here:
https://github.com/thundernest/addon-developer-support/wiki/Using-the-WindowListener-API-to-convert-a-Legacy-Overlay-WebExtension-into-a-MailExtension-for-Thunderbird-78

It's basically a step by step process. which I will attack once my commercial Add-ons have finally been published. Would you like to help?

[yakatz]

@RealRaven2000 I was just force-upgraded from 68 to 78. If you can still use help, I could probably spend some time on it, but I wanted to make sure nothing changed in the last 9 days before I start looking at it.