Thunderbird 5 released

[TonyE]

Hot on the release of Thunderbird 3.1.11, Mozilla have released Thunderbird 5.0 available from https://www.mozilla.org/thunderbird/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thunderbird 5 Release Notes
Thunderbird 5 Features

The Thunderbird developers have adopted the same rapid-release schedule and version numbering scheme that Firefox has adopted, with updates due out every 6 weeks. As with Firefox, Thunderbird version numbers will match the Gecko (layout engine) version numbers.

[Bigaldoc]

Thanks Tony. As with Fx 5 I hope this one doesn't "break" anything !!!

[Bigaldoc]

My luck was bound to change. My favorite "skin" for TB (Walnut) is no longer compatible with Version 5.

Two of my addons are also busted: attachment extractor and slideshow. Awww s**t ...

Now the search begins.

EDIT #1: I got the Walnut2 skin back by hacking the .RDF file. I looked at the addon site and it indicated it was suitable for 5.0 beta so I just hacked out the beta and left it at 5.0 and it's working. I suspect it will be updated if the author gets a round TOIT !

EDIT #2: I did the same hack to my favorite addon, Slideshow and it IS working. I was a bit more nervous about this hack since the addon max only had Version 3.x included. I changed it to 5.0 and it's working although the bottom of the message window looks a little different but that may be TB's doing, not the addon. It no longer shows individual picture names along the bottom, rather an indicator that shows how many attachments are included.

[stuck]

if the author gets a round TOIT

That should be no problem for him, a quick Google turns up dozens of hits, here's the top one:
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/round_tuit


Ken

[PaulB]

Still an incredible amount of wasted screen space at the top of the TB window, quite unlike FF. How can I delete the tab bar? I tend to use a very vanilla flavor of TB, so I have no issues with add-ons.

[viking33]

My luck was bound to change. My favorite "skin" for TB (Walnut) is no longer compatible with Version 5.

Two of my addons are also busted: attachment extractor and slideshow. Awww s**t ...

Now the search begins.

EDIT #1: I got the Walnut2 skin back by hacking the .RDF file. I looked at the addon site and it indicated it was suitable for 5.0 beta so I just hacked out the beta and left it at 5.0 and it's working. I suspect it will be updated if the author gets a round TOIT !

EDIT #2: I did the same hack to my favorite addon, Slideshow and it IS working. I was a bit more nervous about this hack since the addon max only had Version 3.x included. I changed it to 5.0 and it's working although the bottom of the message window looks a little different but that may be TB's doing, not the addon. It no longer shows individual picture names along the bottom, rather an indicator that shows how many attachments are included.

Al,
I too used Walnut 2 for TB and after the update, the theme no longer worked. Looked for the .rdf file for the add-on but couldn't find it.
Where was the install.rdf that you changed? I use Win7 almost exclusively now.

You mentioned once that you use XP primarily but do have Win7. Did you make the change for your XP version or Win7?

( I was able to use the Walnut theme OK but Walnut2 is a better version, to my eyes )

This was the only add-on that did not work with TB5, for me at least.

[BobH]

Hi BigAl!

Could you be a bit more specific about the hacks you made?

PM me if you don't want to post publicly or if this is verboten here.

TIA

[viking33]

Hi BigAl!

Could you be a bit more specific about the hacks you made?

PM me if you don't want to post publicly or if this is verboten here.

TIA

The basic hack, ( editing the install.rdf file ) Al is talking about is in John's HERE
It's trick(?) is to find the correct install.rdf file that is for the add-on in question and if it's in XP or Win7.

[jonwallace]

Al,
I too used Walnut 2 for TB and after the update, the theme no longer worked. Looked for the .rdf file for the add-on but couldn't find it.
Where was the install.rdf that you changed? I use Win7 almost exclusively now.

You mentioned once that you use XP primarily but do have Win7. Did you make the change for your XP version or Win7?

( I was able to use the Walnut theme OK but Walnut2 is a better version, to my eyes )

This was the only add-on that did not work with TB5, for me at least.

I had a load of problems with my addons at work, but I'm a fiddler (not a violinist...)

To find the install.RDF file you first have to find the theme file that you downloaded (It's probably a .jar file, but it might be a .xpi) then open it in an archive manager (I used 7-zip, mainly because I can right-click the file and go "open archive" and it does, but you can rename the file to .zip )

• Find the install.rdf, it should be in the root, and copy it somewhere safe.
  Open the rdf in the editor of choice (notepad will do) and look for a line with "maxVersion=" in it.
  Change this line to read "maxVersion=5.* "
  Save the file and copy it back into the archive, replacing the original.
  Rename your installer back (if you renamed it) and install as normal.

[Bigaldoc]

For both Bobs, I didn't quite do what John just said. I went to the web page of Walnut2 (and again later for Slideshow) and downloaded a fresh copy of Walnut2 to my hard drive.

WinZip will open a .JAR file directly, so that's what I did. While in WinZip, looking at the contents of the .JAR file, I can easily see the .RDF file. Inside WinZip again, I right-clicked on the .RDF file and told Explorer to OPEN it with my default text editor which happens to be Note Tab Lite. I then edited the MAX VERSION line item to say 5.0

Once again, WinZip will let me SAVE the .RDF file back into the .JAR so I've never really done anything except use WinZip as an intermediary.

Having made the edit, and saved it back into the .JAR file I then installed same from inside Thunderbird. There was no "searching" for the .RDF file required because it was a fresh download.

[Bigaldoc]

Still an incredible amount of wasted screen space at the top of the TB window, quite unlike FF. How can I delete the tab bar? I tend to use a very vanilla flavor of TB, so I have no issues with add-ons.

Paul, can you post a screen clip of what you mean by "wasted" space, please? I don't know how to get rid of the tab bar (yet) but my Fx and TB screens are not that much different in real estate taken up.

[viking33]

Al,
That worked a treat! Thank you.
The key was the opening and modifying the rdf file within the .jar file before reinstalling it. No searching for the correct profile or looking for the tip off as to what it pertained to. Great, all working happily.

[PaulB]

Hi, Al. The size and "look" of the header portions of the FF and TB windows are highly customizable and will differ from user to user (and OS to OS). I run only Win 7 so we have some differences right from the start. Here is what my FF and TB windows look like. I included more of the TB header to show all the empty space. Getting rid of the tabs would be a start in making it look better.

FF.JPG

TB.JPG

[PaulB]

I managed to eliminate the tabs bar and reduced the header portion of the TB window to 3 rows.

To eliminate the tabs:
Tools>Options>Advanced>Config Editor...
Set "mail.tabs.autoHide" to true.

TB2.JPG

There are a few other things I want to look into like the Migration Assistant which seems to offer a few interesting add-ons.

[ChrisJakarta]

Rather than have to hack the .rdf, you can now install Add-on Compatibility Reporter, which works with both Firefox and Thunderbird. This allows you to test Add-ons and continue to use them if they do not break anything,

Chris

[Bigaldoc]

Rather than have to hack the .rdf, you can now install Add-on Compatibility Reporter, which works with both Firefox and Thunderbird. This allows you to test Add-ons and continue to use them if they do not break anything ...

I guess you're right, Chris, and I SHOULD give it a look. I saw it mentioned in the Fx 5 thread and didn't bother to try it.

[Bigaldoc]

Rather than have to hack the .rdf, you can now install Add-on Compatibility Reporter ...

Followup question, Chris. The addon link doesn't mention TB. Do I have to manually install it in TB and Fx?

[Bigaldoc]

Knowing Chris might not be back for a day, I installed the compatibility tester in both Fx and TB.

In Thunderbird, I've successfully re-enabled an addon AND successfully sent the report that it DOES work. However you can see from my clip that the bugaboo message persists. No sweat... The extractor works AND it's very helpful if someone sends you multiple pictures in an email! (I've cropped a lot of empty space in the middle of this clip)

[viking33]

Rather than have to hack the .rdf, you can now install Add-on Compatibility Reporter ...

Followup question, Chris. The addon link doesn't mention TB. Do I have to manually install it in TB and Fx?

I don't think it is meant to be a fix for add-ons but a TEST to see if they are compatible. While it mentions that it works with:
Firefox 3.5 - 7.0a1
Thunderbird 3.0a1 - 7.0a1
SeaMonkey 2.0 - 2.4a1
I had tried it on Fx and had to re-enable it every time I used it to "test" the add-on. The idea being that it would Report to Mozilla that there was a compatibility problem, so they could notify the author of same. It isn't meant to be a fix. The .rdf edit does work as a fix and not a reporting vehicle.
That's my take on it anyway.

[Bigaldoc]

Well I've gotta admit that I know squat about the compatibility program, Bob, BUT I have been UNABLE in Firefox to get my CopyURL addon to work, even WITH hacking the .RDF file. But somehow, dorking around with the compatibility program DID get it to work as shown in my post here.

Here in Thunderbird, I did NOT try hacking the .RDF for the attachment extractor mentioned above. But, using the compatibility program, it IS now working perfectly.

So I don't know what the full story is but for my money it's sure worth trying. It seems to me that the compatibility tester program MUST make a change to the .RDF file and THEN let's YOU try it to see if it works. As I said, I don't know any of this except for my cases of success so far.