Make QuickFolders compatible with Thunderbird 115 (ESR 2023/24)

[RealRaven2000]

I have created a new branch ESR115 for all changes related to the next version of Thunderbird (UI SuperNova). We can already test the new UI in the latest betas of Thunderbird 112. AS the folder tree and 3pane window have been rewritten in HTML currently neither the toolbar buttons, the QuickFolders toolbar and any folder tree injections (including custom icons) are functioning right now.

Since I have created a completely new branch this and all future development will be incompatible with the current Thunderbird 102 and all previous versions as it is too difficult to do full compatibility with ESR115 and ESR102 in the same version. I am considering also raising QuickFolders major version to 6 to distinguish its builds. Early test versions for beta users will be made available below - please leave a comment or emoji to be notified automatically.

Elements to fix:

• QuickFolders toolbar is not displayed (SuperNova removes custom toolbars and crams everything into a "unified toolbar" at the top of the Thunderbird window). I am still evaluating alternative options, but might just end
• the mail extension APIs do not allow creating our own menus (as menus are deprecated elements) but only adding elements to the built in context menu, so the menus will likely still be experimental code. I hope I will be able to retain all functionality. Some or all drag+drop code may have to be reimplemented
• folder tree has been rewritten, so all icons need to be reimplemented
• all event listeners in the folder tree (drag and drop) need to be reimplemented / based on the new tree
• main toolbar buttons missing (this needs to be rewritten as API compliant action button)
• current folder bar needs to be reimplemented

I am currently doing experimental code on my Add-on quickFilters here and will reuse the gained experience for QuickFolders.

[RealRaven2000]

Here is a first (very broken) version of QuickFolders that can be installed in Thunderbird 113 beta:

QuickFolders-mx-6.0pre17.zip

what works:

• custom colors seems to be displayed
• subfolder menus seem to be displayed
• context menu (QuickFolders Commands / Mail Commands) are displayed. Obviously they need to be tested
• search function (quickJump) can search the folder tree (but you can't jump to the folder yet)

next steps:

• categories are broken (as they were stored in the session). If you select __ALL from the dropdown on the left you can make all folders visible. Session storage may have to be rewritten altogether.
• styling needs to be fixed to show icons beside label
• QuickFolders label (on the left) has wrong alignment and is clipped
• clicking a tab doesn't navigate to the folder yet (uses gFolderTreeView, so needs to be rewritten)
• make sure all folder tree related code runs in the current tab (only, and when it makes sense)

QuickFix version with folder navigation

QuickFolders-mx-6.0pre18.zip

• this version uses displayFolder(folderUri) to open a folder. Still need to find full replacement code for everything related to gFolderTreeView
• to do: rewrite function QuickFolders_MySelectFolder()

To test the version above, download the zip file, drag into Thunderbird Add-ons Manager, do not extract contents or if won't install.

[RealRaven2000]

New version 6.0 prerelease27 for testing, see below.

what works here:

• folder can now be selected by clicking the folder
• if the folder is open in another tab, the tab will be activated
• tab of current folder is shown with an underline

what doesn't work:

• scrolling the selected folder into view.
• selecting the category is still broken on startup (still only recent folders and inbox are shown, no idea why)
• styling of buttons with icons - the label is too low:
• any icon modifications in folder free (need to completely rewrite quickfolders-folderTree.js module)

• vertical positioning problems
• QuickFolders label is cut off

Entities Changed

• tabmode "3pane" is now replaced with "mail3PaneTab"
• eliminated gFolderTreeView from the navigation code (more to be done in quickfolders-interface.js)
• tabContainer.selectedIndex became tabContainer.tabbox.selectedIndex
• rewrote Interface.rebuildSummary()
• used MailServices.messageServiceFromURI() instead of messenger.messageServiceFromURI()
• get CurrentFolder() now uses gTabmail.currentTabInfo (deprecated gFolderDisplay)
• rewritten: quickFilters.Util.getSelectedMessages() - it also retrieves URIs into the passed array, removed gFolderDisplay
• Added function Util.logTb115( ) to log missing features to console.
• Moved folder tree event injection to a dedicated function patchFolderTree()
• Rewrote QuickFolders_MySelectFolder() [WIP]

To do:

• check how to retrieve the string from srchMenu for createMailCmdMenuItem().
• continue work on QuickFolders_MySelectFolder - find a way to scroll, expand / collapse? folders.
• remove event calling QuickFolders.FolderTreeSelect() when Add-on is shut down!

QuickFolders-mx-6.0pre27.zip

To test the version above, download the zip file, drag into Thunderbird Add-ons Manager, do not extract contents or if won't install.

[RealRaven2000]

• Fixed layout issue with QuickFolderf label button (toolbar is now injected into vbox #titlebar

• Merged in changes from 5.16.

• Fixed tab select listener (to highlight the selected folder's tab)

• to do next: fix category selection on startup.

QuickFolders-mx-6.0pre32.zip

To test the version above, download the zip file, drag into Thunderbird Add-ons Manager, do not extract contents or if won't install.

[RealRaven2000]

Latest version below, this one has mainly visual fixes.

Fixed:

• removed a lot visual problems in toolbar by switching to flex layout
• default to show all buttons on startup instead only a few (we still need to fix categories saving / loading across sessions)

To do:

• restore currentActiveCategories when starting up, save active categories
• persist currently selected category in tab!
• fix dialog to "change order of tabs"

QuickFolders-mx-6.0pre36.zip

To test the version above, download the zip file, drag into Thunderbird Add-ons Manager, do not extract contents or if won't install.

[RealRaven2000]

Thunderbird 113 beta3 broke drag + drop

It seems there were some fundamental changes with dragging messages / folders. Mainly caused by including multiple red herring datatypes.

QuickFolders-mx-6.0pre52.zip

fixed at least drop handlers for messages & tabs for getting back the most basic functionality.

Next Steps:

• repair category selection per open Thunderbird Tab
• restore categories when QuickFolders loads (Tab session storage)
• look at icon modification for folder tree (I don't know whether / how this is possible. We may have to store the information elsewhere than the current folder properties)
• test "open in new tab"
• recreate Current Folder toolbar - maybe rebranded as Navigation bar.
• look at the possibility of integrating the quickMove button into the toolbar on top of the folder tree

[RealRaven2000]

Current problem in Tb114.0b3 - it doesn't load fully because or a problem during tab session prep: QuickFolders.prepareSessionStore()

TypeError: mailTabType.modes.folder is undefined - [quickfolders.js:1938:20] (chrome://quickfolders/content/quickfolders.js)

Temporary quick fix (catching the exception, but not fixing the session store function , which will be in charge of storing QF category):
QuickFolders-mx-6.0pre57.zip

[RealRaven2000]

Just tested in Thunderbird 115.0b2 - recent folders menu not working, here is a fix:

QuickFolders-mx-6.0pre66.zip

To test the version above, download the zip file, drag into Thunderbird Add-ons Manager, do not extract contents or if won't install.

Next Steps:

• implement current folder toolbar (Navigation bar)
• store session info for current category (or at least current category of first folder tab)

[RealRaven2000]

Fixed most commands in the Mail Folder Commands popup. A lot of these were caused by Thunderbird removing globalTreeController.

QuickFolders-mx-6.0pre68.zip

To do:

• fix the "Search Messages" command (bc MsgSearchMessages is not defined)
• implement current folder toolbar (Navigation bar)
• Store session info for current category (or at least current category of first folder tab) - we may use the new interface by @jobisoft see this phabricator patch.

[jaysmithgit]

This is unrelated to the most recent problems, but I can't think of anybody better suited to answer... and how it relates to QuickFolders.

This is a question about the future. This is NOT a complaint and it is NOT a request to fix something. I have learned to deal with it as it is, but I want to know about the future if/when I upgrade.

As you may recall:

1. I have a large number -- many thousands -- of mailfolders on an IMAP server (located locally on the same network as our workstations).

2. Since TB and QF are mission critical applications for us, I have been worried about potential problems resulting from upgrading to the latest TB and thus to the latest QF. We are still using TB 78.7.1 and QF Pro version 5.9.pre33. [When I clicked on QF I just discovered that my license expired four days ago and did not alert me; I have to extend as soon as I finish writing this!]

3. My IMAP organization of folders is largely in by letters of the alphabet. The a-f folder contains the a,b,c,d,e,f folders. The a folder contains all clients whose name begins with "a", etc. The s-range is divided into four folders because of the large number of "s" people. Also virtually all mail folder names include the clients number (now over 20,000 clients -- though not all have mail folders) .... thus the digit "1" is extremely common in folder names.

3a) With this arrangement, if I want to file into or go to certain folders [the letters of the alphabet that start more of peoples' names], the response time increases from fractions of a second TO MULTIPLE SECONDS. I can probably count to
7 in the time it takes for the system to come back with a response to filing into or going to an a mail folder in the s range.

3b) If I try to file into to go to a folder for client 1233 or 12345 AND IF I USE THE NUMBER -- starting with the digit "1" -- INSTEAD OF THE NAME .... THUNDERBIRD LOCKS UP for MANY MINUTES (or at least is non-responsive, and puts out a not responding wait/continue dialog) -- I don't know if it ever actually responds.

So...

Do you know if TB's seemingly significant changes (since 78.7.1) to how it does things in this realm...

a) Do you know if the TB's changes touch on the type of problem or general area of function (delay if large number of first-character potential targets or locking up if very large number of first-character potential targets ) I have described?

b) Do you know if TB's changes may make the problem better or worse?

c) Do you know if TB's changes will allow you to address this type of problem on your QF side of things? [For example, delaying using the user-input until there are X number of characters typed.]