Thunderbird 68.x compatibility

[Arvoreen]

Prerequisites

• [x ] Tried the most recent nightly build
• [x ] Checked if your issue is already reported.

Description

I tried upgrading to Thunderbird 68 and got a notice that this plugin was not compatible

What happened?

see above

What did you expect to happen?

this plugin continues to work

Versions

Thunderbird 68.x (32 bit install)
Windows 10 (but shouldn't matter)

[linkp]

Just encountered the same on openSUSE_Leap_15.1 following this mornings update (from the Mozilla OBS repo) to 68.0-lp151.6.1 x86_64

[Fightbackman]

I heavily rely on this plugin to sort all my business mails.
Does anyone know what needs to be changed to be compatible with the lastest thunderbird version?
Maybe I'm able to contribute.

[githubixx]

Looks like there is already a commit for TB68: 8a4686c There is just no new release which includes this commit 😉

[mweinelt]

Yup, this seems likely to address the error I'm currently seeing when trying to install 0.3.1:

1567691337642	addons.xpi	WARN	Download of https://github.com/thsmi/sieve/releases/download/0.3.1/sieve-0.3.1.xpi failed: Error: File /tmp/tmp-9w0.xpi does not contain a valid manifest(resource://gre/modules/addons/XPIInstall.jsm:610:11) JS Stack trace: loadManifest@XPIInstall.jsm:610:11

[templis]

Looks like there is already a commit for TB68: 8a4686c There is just no new release which includes this commit 😉

was able to build the package from source and everything works again.
Thanks for addressing this Pull Request

[githubixx]

I also build the addon from source. I needed to install gulp and npm package. If you use Linux the packages should be in your package manager's repo. I'm using Archlinux so I used this commands:

cd /tmp
sudo pacman -S gulp npm git # For Ubuntu "apt-get install ..." should work
git clone https://github.com/thsmi/sieve
cd sieve
npm install
gulp addon:package-xpi

This finally creates a file called release/thunderbird/sieve-0.3.1.xpi. I just used my file manager and just dragged and dropped it into Thunderbird. Then just follow the instructions. Afterwards stop and upgrade Thunderbird. If you have already upgraded just restart Thunderbird. So far everything seems to work as expected.

[robinsmidsrod]

@githubixx Great! @thsmi Any chance for a new release?

[h4rp00n33r]

@thsmi I would appreciate a new release too. =)

[o-m-d]

I'm added src/addon/manifest.json from 8a4686c into root of sieve-0.3.1.xpi and install it. Works normally.

[thsmi]

I moved to a new apartment some weeks ago, and there is still lots of work to do. At least getting Internet worked out faster than expected. But all in all my freetime is reduced to almost zero. Anyhow I'll try to do a new release as soon as possible. But it is unlikely to happen within the next week.

Sadly with Thunderbird 68 more than just the manifests changed.

• The plane contain error messages and the configuration wizard is no more loaded due to changed policies in Thunderbird. This means you neither get any error messages nor it is possible to configure new accounts only via the account manager. Which most likely requires some major changes. But I did not have time to look into it in detail.
• The Proxy Lookup throws an exception, which means it the addon can't be used behind a proxy in Thunderbird 68.
• I assume this policy change will cause surprises in many other places.
• The burger menu is broken and is not populated correctly as all of the ids and the load order changed changed.

[stefangweichinger]

I am not sure how to build from source here so I'd appreciate if someone shares his (beta..) xpi file for me to at least test with tb-68.1.0 .. currently I can't edit my vacation messages ;-) at least not as comfortable as usual. thanks ...

[templis]

I am not sure how to build from source here so I'd appreciate if someone shares his (beta..) xpi file for me to at least test with tb-68.1.0 .. currently I can't edit my vacation messages ;-) at least not as comfortable as usual. thanks ...

sieve@mozdev.org.xpi.zip

Here - and you must extract the xpi 'cause of limitations of github.

[stefangweichinger]

why name "tbsync"? Should be "sieve*.xpi" IMO. Thanks anyway ;-)

[templis]

why name "tbsync"? Should be "sieve*.xpi" IMO. Thanks anyway ;-)

UUUPPS :) indeed - was the wrong addon - did update it :)

[stefangweichinger]

yep ... 2nd xpi installed and works now on my first system, 2nd tmrw. Thanks so far.

[carlbennett]

Has there been further progress?

[JuniorJPDJ]

@carlbennett it already works and was updated in addon store.

[h4rp00n33r]

it already works and was updated in addon store.

@JuniorJPDJ Hmmm, can't find an updated version in the addon store:
https://addons.thunderbird.net/de/thunderbird/addon/sieve/

Latest version there is 0.3.1.

[thmo]

Also, latest release here https://github.com/thsmi/sieve/releases is 0.3.1.

[carlbennett]

@h4rp00n33r Thank you.

@JuniorJPDJ I wouldn't have commented if I could download it from the addon store on the latest version. I reinstalled my OS on my PC this past weekend and had to downgrade Thunderbird to get this addon working again from the addon store; installing the one there gives an error saying it's not updated for the latest version of Thunderbird and is incompatible.

[zoomer85]

Hello, please specify when we can to wait a new version?
Thanks

[theScrabi]

I'm also drowning in spam right now. @thsmi I would help you, however I miss time and knowlage. Thus I donated some money.

Maybe someone can help here codewiese.

[templis]

I'm also drowning in spam right now. @thsmi I would help you, however I miss time and knowlage. Thus I donated some money.

You can manually install the addon precompiled by me from 19th September - it's not the final version, but it works so far until @thsmi releases a new version (just look a couple coments above)

[xundeenergie]

https://github.com/thsmi/sieve/releases could not be installed with version 68.1.1

[willimei]

https://github.com/thsmi/sieve/releases could not be installed with version 68.1.1

The comment of 19th September is mentioned in the answer. The file there works fine with thunderbird 68.1.1
(#171 (comment))

[Arvoreen]

I'm running the build that my changes enabled and not seeing any issues so far, so the answer is YES, it works on a Mac

[canihavesomecoffee]

Such a shame that Thunderbird is doing this. I just reverted back from 68 to 60 as nearly all of my add-ons I need were disabled, and I'll just turn off auto-update. Luckily I'm not using gmail, otherwise I'd have had a problem.

[sherpya]

Hi, I had an xpi that was working fine on tb, unfortunately I've accidentally removed my profile and I don't have anymore the xpi, I've tried to build HEAD and 949ae96 following @foobacca comment but it builds a different kind of addon (for electron?), tried also addon:package but it builds nothing

Update: I've manually made a zip file from build/thunderbird and it worked

[hdijkema]

What about integrating this functionality in the Thunderbird core as "part of the"/integrated in the standard filtering mechanism? That would also be simpler for end-users..

[crenelle]

I am able to build the standalone version for macOS. It seems to work, although I'm a little confused how to create this thing so that I can start it by clicking on an icon.

[Arvoreen]

@crenelle -- if you just copy the output from build/electron/out/sieve-mas-x64/ (there should be a sieve.app directory) to ~/Applications or /Applications you will get an icon you can click/launch like any other Mac app

[Vince42]

What about integrating this functionality in the Thunderbird core as "part of the"/integrated in the standard filtering mechanism? That would also be simpler for end-users..

While I would really appreciate the integration of managesieve in all e-mail clients, I doubt that this will ever happen, as the user base of people, who are filtering their mails with sieve scripts is low.

I think that the move to a stand-alone managesieve client as announced recently is the way to have all the desired and needed managesieve functionality at hand on every platform.

[PanderMusubi]

Version 0.3.2 or 0.4.0 build with instructions from foobacca on Ubuntu 19.10 is unfortunately not compatible with Thunderbird 68.4.1. Hope to see working version published on Thunderbird add-on website or suggestions how to build it so it is compatible.

[thsmi]

There are good news. My experiments with WebExtensions turned out to be very promising.

Thunderbird WebExtension Pre-Release

Basically the "classic" addons backend is moved into a "Webextension Experiment" and glued to app's front end. Which allows reusing lots of code and requires little glue code.

You can find a pre-release here:
sieve-0.4.0.zip

Rename the zip to xpi and install it via the addon manager. This should work with Thunderbird 68 and up. But be warned it is still very rough and needs work. It is also far away to have feature parity with the app.

Feedback is welcome. In case you want to report bugs please open up a new issue in the bug tracker and tag it with wx. Please do not hijack this ticket.

What does this mean for the future?

The chances for a new WebExtension based Thunderbird addon are currently looking better.

The future for "WebExtension Experiments" is still somehow unclear. You can read very different statements on the Thunderbird mailing list. But at least for the next one to two years they seem to be promised to stay.
But there are sadly no guarantees. And if the experiments go await the addon will be also gone.

So the longterm focus will remain on the app.

[532910]

It works, but ignores dark theme setting. Sorry, it's unclear where issues should be reported, in this repository or a separate one?

[PanderMusubi]

Thanks for the pre-release of version 4, it works in 68.4.1. A highly related add-on for Thunderbird is Report Spam https://addons.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/addon/report-spam/ Perhaps you or others here can share the learned lesson with the authors there so they can get that add-on working in newer versions of Thunderbird.

[marcan]

Just chiming in that the v0.4.0 extension works very well. As long as Thunderbird keeps supporting this, it makes more sense to have it as an extension; that way it doesn't require the massive Electron runtime and it works cross-platform. I hope they do so.

If you do want to push people towards the app, I would suggest working out macOS releases too. I just set this up for a friend on a Mac, and I'm glad the extension existed to make this possible!

[ovari]

The future for "WebExtension Experiments" is still somehow unclear. You can read very different statements on the Thunderbird mailing list. But at least for the next one to two years they seem to be promised to stay.
But there are sadly no guarantees. And if the experiments go await the addon will be also gone.
#171 (comment)

Getting your API added to Thunderbird

If you think your API would be useful to other extensions, consider having it added to Thunderbird. File a bug that blocks bug 1396172 and add your schema and implementation files as attachments.
https://thunderbird-webextensions.readthedocs.io/en/68/how-to/experiments.html#getting-your-api-added-to-thunderbird

Would you please advise bug numbers to the WebExtension Experiments that the Sieve add-on uses? This could help in having them added to Thunderbird.

What do you think?

Thank you

[madtibo]

Thank you very much @thsmi for the update to 68.
Works like a charm!

[ovari]

@thsmi can your add-on for Thunderbird 68 please be available at ATN.

This will help Thunderbird automatically update the add-on for people who don't know about this issue.

What do you think?

Thank you

[thsmi]

Everything that needs to be said has already been said.
So I'll locked this issue to avoid further bug spam. But leave this open as a reference.

The summary of this issue is:

App

Except a rendering glitch, there has not been any major bug reports for the preview release. Which is good news.

All in all it is pretty obvious that the app is the future for this project. It is sad but Thunderbird is from my point of view dead. The most obvious indication is, they neither have a vision nor a roadmap for their future. The core developers priority is keeping Thunderbird alive. While doing so they do not care about add-on developer needs. Which makes developing an Add-ons/Extensions completely unpredictable.

Concerning macOS builds of the app. Either step up and provide seriously tested builds or build it on your own. I have neither the interest nor abilities to provide a tested macOS build. Especially as the macOS user base is tiny compared to the number of Windows and Linux users. Which are the vast majority.

Classic Thunderbird Addon

The classic addon is badly broken for TB68 and up. Since last week support for "classic" addons was officially dropped by Thunderbird and the corresponding code was removed for Thunderbird's code base. (https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1614237)

So the classic addon is dead as dead could be. I also removed any code referring to the old classic add-on from the repository.

Thunderbird WebExtension

It is currently a proof of concept and in a very early alpha stage. Lots of work is left. Developing WebExtensions is painful and very time consuming. It has no priority on my side.

The future of WebExtension Experiments is unclear. There is neither an official statement nor any guarantees from Thunderbird if and how long WebExtension Experiments are officially supported.

So don't expect any official release of the WebExtension soon. And no, I won't push any the proof of concept to Thunderbirds addons repository. And yes this means as the classic add-on is broken and the WebExtension is not yet ready, there won't be any official release for TB68.

If you are interested in speeding it up, you need to step up and contribute.