Loading…
[Firefox] Please make µBlock Thunderbird compatible #552
9 participants
I didn't even know add-ons could be installed in Thunderbird. Sounds pretty cool.
So far @Deathamns is to go-to dev for the Firefox version of uBlock. Hopefully at some point I will have a good grasp enough of the platform-specific code of Firefox that I will also be able to address Firefox issues.
Ok, I could make it installable in Thunderbird by adding:
<!-- Thunderbird -->
<targetApplication>
<r:Description>
<id>{{3550f703-e582-4d05-9a08-453d09bdfdc6}}</id>
<minVersion>31.0</minVersion>
<maxVersion>31.0</maxVersion>
</r:Description>
</targetApplication>
In install.rdf, however it seems there are further compatilibility problem afterward: the dashboard is non-fonctional, no icon in toolbar, etc. Not even sure it's actually filtering.
I didn't even know add-ons could be installed in Thunderbird. Sounds pretty cool.
Oh yes, there are a lot of them:
@tlu1024 Actually I knew it supported add-ons, I meant, I didn't know we could install Firefox add-ons.
Ok, I could make it installable in Thunderbird by adding:
Funny, that didn't work on my system ... I'm still getting a message that it is incompatible.
@tlu1024 It was a quick test, so I entered my Thunderbird version, you may have to adjust for yours.
<minVersion>31.0</minVersion>
<maxVersion>31.*</maxVersion>
Is there any progress on this? Adblock Plus works great in Thunderbird, and this would be a great upgrade to that. The options button seems to open a really small windows where the 3rd-party tab loads endlessly. Also, you must not have double brackets in the UUID. This is what I used:
<!-- Thunderbird -->
<targetApplication>
<r:Description>
<id>{3550f703-e582-4d05-9a08-453d09bdfdc6}</id>
<minVersion>31.0</minVersion>
<maxVersion>38.0</maxVersion>
</r:Description>
</targetApplication>
I thought Firefox add-ons and Thunderbird add-ons were exactly the same in terms of code and everything?
Yes, in the way that the code is written. However, Firefox and Thunderbird function differently. For instance, there are tabs in Thunderbird, but there is no address box. Extensions in Thunderbird usually open their options in new windows.
Oh OK. Good to know. So basically we need to just write a modified version for Thunderbird that adheres to the Thunderbird GUI pretty much?
Heya, can't wait to try this out... ABP is costing a lot of RAM!
Yeah, RAM usage overall in Thunderbird is pretty bad, and ABP makes it worse.
It is a problem in most web browsers for some reason. Chrome, Firefox, and any forks of those as well. I have noticed even Opera and Safari are starting to do it as well (although I never use either except for development and testing).
Also, AdBlock Plus has a fairly nefarious way of allowing advertisements in my opinion. Yeah, it is open-source and free, but I feel uncomfortable using a plugin that accepts money in exchange for ads when the whole purpose is that I don't have ads anymore, except for sites I whitelist.
Anyway, if I can help with the Thunderbird port at all, let me know and I will look into it. I have a feeling the developer might want to do it himself though.
I know, but that doesn't mean that people want certain ports or something written by somebody else. It is up to the author of the original software to decide.
I think in the latest version of Firefox and Thunderbird they made some additional changes to make it easier for Thunderbird add-ons and Firefox add-ons to work better, so hopefully at some point it will be practically the same thing.
@chrisaljoudi @gorhill Adblock Edge works with Thunderbird (and more importantly with Icedove) and do not come with a white list. To sad it will be stopped: "This addon will be discontinued on June 2015" - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/thunderbird/addon/adblock-edge/?src=search
Adding this here so you can plan you development schedule.
Does Adblock Plus work in Thunderbird?
Adblock Plus does work in Thunderbird. It is very useful for RSS.
Hm. I can look into it when my dev machine is up and running. Until then, maybe somebody could look at Adblock Edge and Adblock Plus and see how it works there?
One main problem with uBlock is that is improperly opens it settings page. I think that that may be part of the problem. It needs to open a window with the settings page, not a tab in Thunderbird.
I thought opening a new tab is the default action in Chromium, Firefox, Thunderbird, and forks and derivatives?
Isn't that a preferences thing? Like an option you should be able to tick a check box or something?
Thunderbird don't open up new tabs with CTRL+T like Firefox. However, both softwares open Add-ons in a new tab. @vgturtle127
That's what I thought. So couldn't you just add something to the preferences that told it to open a new window?
@vgturtle127 You mean new tab? Yes that should be possible but I'm not a Mozilla developer.
You can try it. Clicking the options button doesn't really work. Last time I tried it is opened a really small window where nothing worked in it. I'm not a Mozilla developer either.
@DaAwesomeP What option button? Do you mean in Thunderbird?
The settings button for the addon as found in about:addons.
The settings are a relatively easy thing to handle. It is, in fact, entirely possible to open a web page in a new tab in Thunderbird, and we could do so for showing the options page.
The real difficulty is that the thunderbird window is not like the firefox window. It doesn't have the same structure, and things which uBlock assumes about window/tabBrowser/browser/document do not hold true. It would probably not be too much of a stretch for uBlock to work where Thunderbird has opened a web page in a new tab, but that's very rare and not very useful. Where you'd actually want it to work is for pages in the message panel in a mail tab.
To get uBlock to work with Thunderbird there would probably need to be some structural changes, or at least some quite heavy compatibility layer between the uBlock cross-browser API and what Thunderbird actually provides. I don't know for certain that it would be possible, as I don't know Thunderbird in depth, but assuming that it is possible it's going to take a fair bit of work from someone who knows Thunderbird quite well.
Well, I'm getting a shiny new Samsung 850 EVO SSD soon, and after that I want to upgrade my OS from 7 to 8.1. Hopefully after that I can start my full-time development stuff. Until then, I am going to research Thunderbird and see what I can learn. I'm going to assume that Thunderbird is similar to Firefox, but I thought Mozilla said they would only be maintaining it from now on? Like security updates and bug fixes only? Is there a fork which would add features and stuff? If so, we should investigate that too...
I thought Mozilla said they would only be maintaining it from now on
No, it's still under development by the community, and a new version with a lot of new features will be released in the coming weeks, see
https://blog.mozilla.org/thunderbird/2015/04/thunderbird-38-goes-to-beta/
Awesome, community made applications are great!
I will download the beta when I get my dev machine up and running and start testing.
@chrisaljoudi Is this a high priority?
This is unlikely to happen.
@vgturtle127 suggested he might investigate working on it #552 (comment) but I've heard nothing since then.
I won't be developing it myself, as I explained in my earlier comment, and I am fairly certain that @chrisaljoudi won't be either.
Sorry I have been silent for a while. I have had computer issues as usual and I also am currently at a friends funeral.
I will back in about a week or so, and around the same time I will try to get back on the saddle and see what I can whip up.
I may need some assistance with it though, as my system has an extremely small hard drive and I keep running out of space.
@vgturtle127 Thank you in advance.
@vgturtle127 Can you try to make uBlock Origin Thunderbird compatible.
My development machine is currently under construction, when I get it back up and running, I will continue working on all of my GitHub projects, which will include looking into this.
Basic Thunderbird 38.3.0 support have been added in uBlock Origin 1.2.2b2: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/releases/tag/1.2.2b2.
Many Firefox extensions also work in Thunderbird as both are Gecko based. I have installed, e.g., Adblock Plus and it blocks a lot of requests in those cases where I allow HTML mails.
I tried to install µBlock in Thunderbird v. 31.4.0 but got an error that it was incompatible. I assume that only minor adaptions would be neccessary to make it work in Thunderbird. Would be great to have it available for that email client, if possible!