Notifications integrated with Thunderbird 3

With Thunderbird 2.0.x it was possible to integrate with Ubuntus notification system.

The Libnotify plugin intents to improve the integration with libnotify. With this plugin, Firefox and Thunderbird will display notification message like "new mail received", "download complete" using the libnotify library. For now, only Thunderbird displays notifications, but it stopped working with release 3.x

The latest beta release solves the problems and works with TB 3 like a charm.

Install instructions

Download the extension from here and install it from inside Thunderbird.
You can also have a look at the list of beta releases, in case a newer one is available after having written this post.

Profile Switcher Extension for Firefox

The ProfileSwitcher extension enables you to use several profiles in Firefox and Thunderbird.
So you could create a developer profile and install all programmer extensions (like Firebug, Web Developer toolbar, etc.).
But if you just want to navigate, you don't need them and loading all of them just slows down the startup time of Firefox. Just use another profile without them, with a different set of extensions.

From the extension's preferences, you can choose what to do when you launch another profile (close the one in use, don't close it, ask every time).

Install instructions

Unfortunately, this extension can't be found on Mozilla yet, so just download it from the home-page or use this link to download the recent one when this post was written.

Extension collections for Firefox and Thunderbird

On Mozilla they started a new kind of extension sharing, so called Collections.
You can create your own set of useful extensions and share them with the whole world.

So here I'll share two collections with you, one for Firefox, the other for Thunderbird.
These collections are the extensions that I've installed and use on a daily basis.

• Extension collection for Firefox


• Extension collection for Thunderbird

Thunderbird 3.0 and Lightning

Similar to my previous post about Firefox 3.5, you can also go and use Thunderbird 3.0 already.

Even if its codename is Shredder and some of your extensions will stop working, I highly recommend this beta version,

• especially if you access IMAP mail accounts, because the access is so much faster now.
• the automated account creator which guesses the servers ports and settings is also a great invention I haven't seen in any mail client so far.
  

But not everything is gold, as mentioned before, most of your extensions will not work yet (see below how to get Lightning work, the most important one). I also don't like so much the cosmetic change in the layout which puts information like tags, and command buttons above the message content. This eats up to much space, especially for small screens like laptops.

Install instructions

sudo -v

echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-daily/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main" > /tmp/MozillaDaily.list
sudo mv /tmp/MozillaDaily.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 247510BE
sudo apt-get update
sudo aptitude install thunderbird-3.0 thunderbird-3.0-gnome-support

# Create a new entry in gnomes alternatives system and set Thunderbird 3.0 to be the preferred choice.
sudo update-alternatives --verbose --install /usr/bin/thunderbird thunderbird /usr/bin/$(readlink /usr/bin/thunderbird) 60
sudo update-alternatives --verbose --install /usr/bin//usr/bin/thunderbird thunderbird /usr/bin/thunderbird-3.0 70
sudo update-alternatives --verbose --auto thunderbird
# See current configuration, should result in:
## thunderbird - status is auto.
##  link currently points to /usr/bin/thunderbird-3.0
## /usr/bin/../lib/thunderbird/thunderbird - priority 60
## /usr/bin/thunderbird-3.0 - priority 70
## Current `best' version is /usr/bin/thunderbird-3.0.
sudo update-alternatives --verbose --display thunderbird
# If you get into any trouble and want to use your previous Thunderbird again, just change the selection with
## sudo update-alternatives --config thunderbird

Get Lightning working again

The latest oficial release of Lightning will not work with the Thunderbird 3.0 pre release, so you'll have to install the latest nightly build.

wget http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/calendar/lightning/nightly/latest-comm-1.9.1/linux-xpi/lightning.xpi
# If you want to connect to Google Calendar:
wget http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/calendar/lightning/nightly/latest-comm-1.9.1/linux-xpi/gdata-provider.xpi

As Thunderbird 3.0 pre gets updated, from time to time, Lightning could stop working again.
Just download again the latest nightly build and install it again.
To make things easier, someone created an extensions for updating to nightly builds.

Thunderbird Window Border Fix

I got crazy these days, because after having upgraded Ubuntu to Hardy Heron, Thunderbird started to act strangely after some uses.
Suddenly, it started to miss its borders of the main window, being maximized always and didn't react on any changes like shrink, move, resize, maximize.
It covers the toolbar completely and when you open for example its addons window it doesn't show up, because it is hidden beneath the main window.

BTW, I use a two monitor system, and the main window always shows up on the left screen.
Haven't tried it with a single monitor.

Finally, I found a fix of this problem:

• Close Thunderbird


• Edit by hand the file ~/.mozilla-thunderbird/xyz1234.default/localstore.rdf in your default profile directory.


• Search the entry
  

  
    <RDF:Description RDF:about="chrome://messenger/content/messenger.xul#messengerWindow"
                     width="800"
                     height="600"
                     sizemode="normal"
                     screenX="5"
                     screenY="5" />
  



• Change the width, height and screenXY entries to the ones you see here


• Restart Thunderbird and it should have its borders again.

Thunderbird

Mozillas Thunderbird

Useful extensions:
There are lots of extensions available, but only some should be installed, 'cause a huge amount of extensions installed, will slow down the overall performance.
This is the list of extensions, I really recommend to have:

• Addressbooks Synchronizer
  Synchronizes selected addressbooks
  
  • with local files (resp. files on network shares)
  • with files via FTP or WebDAV (http or https)
  • with files stored in an IMAP folder
• Lightning
  An integrated calendar for Thunderbird.
  
• MoreColsForAddressBook
  Adds to the address book more features, like the possibility to edit some properties in multiple contacts with just one action, adds an extra tab with the birthday date, the spouse name etc.
  It can be used in conjunction with ThunderBirthDay (see below).
  
• MR Tech Local Install
  The primary goal of this extension is to provide the tools needed to install and manage extensions and themes locally.
  (Note: This extension can be used also in Firefox.)
• NotTo
  Enables you to avoid sending mail to specific recipients when you use mailing list containing a lot of recipients and you wish to avoid sending the mail to specific individuals.
• Quote Colors
  Configure text and background colours for different quote levels in mail/news messages.
• Signature Switch
  Switch the signature on/off or choose a new one from your predefined set.
  Additional features include the support of fortune-cookie-files and automatic switching based on recipients.
  
• ThunderBirthDay
  Display birthdays from the Thunderbird address books as events in Lightning.
  Needs the MoreColsForAddressBook extension as well.
  
• WebMail
  This extension integrates web site based email accounts (like Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, ...), which allows Thunderbird to download and to send emails using the web site.

Note: On Ubuntu you shouldn't install any extension directly from your applications menu, but from the .xpi, otherwise Thunderbird can't update them automatically anymore.

Related software:
You might like to use Mail Notification for receiving advises about new mail arrivals in your mail accounts.