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July 21, 2009

Thunderbird 3.0 beta 3 shipped!

After a lot of hard work by a lot people, we've shipped Thunderbird 3.0 beta 3 to the world. There are quite a few changes since the previous version; we hope you'll like them! They include:

Some of the biggest work in this release has happened behind the scenes, however, and will mostly be visible to extension developers. A large tab and message list refactoring has cleaned up a lot of old cruft, and many things should be quite a bit easier going forward, though existing extensions will need to adapt. This is all in preparation for upcoming UI changes to support the new GloDa search engine.

Our developer documentation is starting to come together. We'd very much appreciate developers who find issues to edit and improve the wiki pages, even if it's just by pointing out the mistakes in parens and not wordsmithing the perfect replacement text. Adding new questions for us to answer to the HowTos page is also a great way to help.

Two additional changes bear more explanation:

Beta 3 also includes a new mail account setup wizard, which can be reached from File -> New -> Mail Account (Quick Setup). After a user enters their account information, Thunderbird attempts to fetch details about how mail at that domain should be configured from mozillamessaging.com. It's important to note that the domain name part of your email address is the only information sent to Mozilla Messaging's servers, and that Thunderbird very much abides by the Mozilla privacy policy. If Thunderbird doesn't find relevant details, it falls back to some heuristics, described here in more detail.

The compact header mode has been removed. Part of the rationale for this was to simplify code so that we can do a better job maintaining it, and part was to free up bandwidth for us to do more work on the remaining message header. It's already clear to us that the beta 3 state has user-experience issues around vertical space and configurability, among other things, but we'll be addressing those before we ship Thunderbird 3. See my earlier blog post for more details as well as a link to source code for a prototype extension.

As with any beta, it's a work in progress, so there will be some rough edges, but we hope you'll enjoy the next step on the road to Thunderbird 3 (we're already working on beta 4).

Thanks to everyone in the community who has been part of making this release happen!

Posted by dmose at July 21, 2009 4:30 PM

Comments

I've been running shredder for about 2 months now and got the update last night!

I especially like the summary view when selecting multiple messages - that's nice thanks.

I am also running the Lightning plugin and just FYI, that seems to be working well too. I have multiple calendars shared on Google and another CalDAV server.

It is all looking like a really good release.

Thanks.

Posted by: The Open Sourcerer at July 21, 2009 10:49 PM

I really like the new summary list and smart folders

But (and I'm sure this has been answered elsewhere but I can't find it)... How do I install Lightening as I keep getting incompatible errors.

Posted by: Jan Szafranski at July 28, 2009 1:36 AM

Very nice improvements, I really like the summary and love the fact that you're preparing the way for more whole-thread operations.

Congratulations and thanks a lot for your hard work!

Posted by: Ivo Jimenez at July 28, 2009 6:04 AM

So, beta 4... Er, I know I'll sound ungrateful, but T3 has been announced more than a year ago. Will it ever be released? And, is a Windows 7 version in the work? It's gonna be a real concern before the end of the year. :o/

Posted by: Pierre-Alexandre at July 28, 2009 7:21 AM

Thanks! Looks really nice on OS X. I'm seeing problems with threading in a search folder as described in . Does this bug report need more detail? Is this a known issue? (I tried to search for it but got too many not-exactly-related results to read through.)

Posted by: Joshua Paine at July 31, 2009 7:44 PM

Loving the update. Can't wait for 3.0 final; I'm finding more and more about Thunderbird that I like everyday.

I will say though that the new icons have a "Firefox 2.0" feel to them. A more simplistic icon set would be preferred.

Posted by: at August 1, 2009 8:18 PM

Please add better search features!!

Posted by: Mark at August 2, 2009 5:05 AM

@Jan: recent nightly builds of Lightning have been updated to work with 3.0b3

@Pierre-Alexandre: as with all Mozilla products, we'll release it when it's ready.

@Joshua: unfortunately, something didn't work right, and the link you entered got eaten by Movable Type. Can you try again?

@Mark: better search is in progress

Posted by: Dan Mosedale at August 6, 2009 8:54 AM

Re-link: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=507768

Seems mt eats anything inside angle brackets.

Posted by: Joshua Paine at August 6, 2009 12:35 PM

Thunderbird is excellent, I recently started using it with Windows 7 RC, and everything works ok. The only thing I miss is a button to toggle the message pane - any chance of that one, guys?

Posted by: David James at August 7, 2009 4:09 PM

A great addition would be to allow searching over all imap accounts and folders. E.g. I have 5 imap accounts in my TB and I want to search for a particular message in all my inboxes with a single search and not do 5 searches (Opera supports this). But otherwise looks really nice on a mac! keep up the good work ;-)

Posted by: at August 9, 2009 4:43 AM

When you say that better search is in progress, does this mean it will come out with the final v3.0, or will better search wait until 4.0?

I think better and faster and more flexible search is the most important feature.

Posted by: jim smith at August 9, 2009 3:51 PM

I'm on Ubuntu Jaunty, and TB 2 never worked properly (it would hang periodically, for example). A few days ago I configured my gmail account as IMAP, after which TB 2 crashed every few minutes. I downloaded beta 3 frankly not expecting much, but I have been blown away by the clear improvements in speed and stability. After adding in lightning and compactheader-0.1, the program is a delight.

Congratulations and thanks!

Posted by: Bob at August 13, 2009 1:12 PM

[Thunderbird attempts to fetch details about how mail at that domain should be configured from mozillamessaging.com.]

I will never ever use such a mailer ! Sorry guys, but that sort of thing is absolutely a "no go" for me and many people. :-(

Posted by: Akhénaton at August 14, 2009 10:43 PM

Great JOB! Loving Thunderbird 3 beta 3 right now, but just curious (same as Joshua above) about the icon set. I loved the icons used in TB3 beta 2, but the icons in beta 3 look like they got reverted back to an older version of Thunderbird. Is this assumption correct? Will we see a fixed icon set in beta 4?

Posted by: Liam at August 15, 2009 12:07 AM

In general I'm very pleased with this release, although one of the extensions I've become rather used to (Quote Colors) doesn't work :-(

Ivor

Posted by: Ivor at August 17, 2009 4:38 AM

Just tried the latest beta, It's awesome!

Still a little buggy in some areas and obviously WIP but it's so much better than TB2!

I'm not sure if this is the right place to make suggestions but I came up with a list of things which would make Thunderbird the ultimate PIM,
there aren't that many suggestions, but I put a bit of detail into each one, so it might take up a lot of room. If there's somewhere better to post these ideas let me know!

Things I’d like to see in either TB3 or TB4:

- More modern default themes to keep in line with other modern email applications (Possibly a choice of four natives themes created by Mozilla).

- Native support for Webmail or at least approach Webmail providers to ask them to develop official plug-ins to interact with Thunderbird (This might work if the provider requires advertising to be displayed or has special requirements…)

- Alternative Address bar for sending messages – have an option to choose between traditional email format of grouping To:, CC: & Bcc: into single rows where you add contacts to those rows and Thunderbirds method of splitting each email address into a separate row and having to tag each email into To:, CC: & Bcc:. If possible employ a method of being able to quickly switch between the two with a button which could be located on the tool bar for new messages or include as a global option.

- Allows Tabs to be movable so they can be organised by preference (similar to Firefox) and allow context grouping e.g. when you reply to a message it appears in the tabs right next to message instead of appearing right at the end of the all the tabs (similar to the IE explorer when it opens links from an existing tab).

- Have an option where a user can select to have mail open in a new separate window but have mail tabbed in it, this could be done to prevent clutter in the main windows, where you are running Calendar, Tasks, etc..

- Address book should open in a tab and not in a separate window and have more detailed Contact data (The ability to apply photo’s to a contact, multiple emails), Search (Business Card, Lists, A-Z Tabs) & Global options (e.g. each Address book is treated a separate entity, but allows for multiple tagging of contacts, so you can separate people into groups without having to create individual mailing list or a separate address books (though separate mailing lists should remain as an option).

- Provide Administrative functions for multiple accounts. occasionally for one reason or another some people share email accounts under the same application, it would be useful if there was a local administrative function to create logins for different users (with or without passwords) and allow an administrator to vary privileges to those accounts. This should also be extended to locking down Themes & Extensions.

- Include a notes application tab (essential for any PIM)

- Built in embedded email encryption and allowing options where you specify contacts where email is always encrypted, giving the option to encrypt mail depending on the mail sent (to be included in the new message toolbar) or allow it to be turned on or off globally. There is currently a way to include encryption through an add on but it’s particularly easy or user friendly. Having this option built in could be useful as it would encourage the adoption of encrypted email, allow encrypted email to automatically be decrypted by other Thunderbird users (even if not sending encrypted mail).

- Include buttons for Mail, Calendar, Address Book, Tasks (Notes – if included) in the main toolbar, instead of the tabs bar, on the far right hand side of the screen, keeping separation from the rest of the functions, allowing for quick opening of functions for any view point and also allowing mail to be closed, if only using the PIM functions.

- Adding the ability to have repeat Tasks (Daily Tasks or Yearly Tasks, with out becoming a calendar item, useful for work scheduling).

- Include in the tag/flag system the ability include follow up comments and have them displayed next to the mail item by adding a follow up category to the main mail section.

- Better default Import / Export options (native support for eml import & various other email types) and better email back up options instead of doing this through external programs or plugins. Possibly implement directories for scheduled daily, monthly back up, and some advanced tools for reinstating back up with out replacing existing content. It should be a priority to ensure that Thunderbird has the capacity to easily exchange information between different types of email applications, as this will help significantly when people are migrating to Thunderbird whilst maintaining existing email platforms.

- include by default Google Calendar Sync & Share.

- Include a summary list of all calendar events into a tab of it’s own (earlier versions of the Lighting calendar had this but it was annoyingly placed behind the calendar forcing the user to adjust the calendar every time they wanted to view it) – having this in a separate tab or including it as a calendar view (next to day,week,month) would considerably improve functionality. (Google Calendar has an option similar to this)

- The ability to create shared Calendars (with in a group) and update them through email went an event has changed, e.g. one person creates a Calendar and sends an request for two other users to join / subscribe directly to this calendar, the creator of the calendar can assign admin functions and password the calendar or leave it open for others to join. Changes made to Calendar are then sent online through the software (not through a cloud) to other members of the Calendar group with options to accept or decline changes or simply receive an update depending on the level of access. This should all be handled through Lightning.

- Option of having a pop up window / sidebar similar to daily tasks that will be available on the right hand side of the screen that would exist in the same location next to the calendar for the purpose of viewing calendar details and editing those details when required. it could be controlled by a similar button that currently exists a the bottom of the screen for daily tasks or even possibly merged with daily tasks and then selected by tab from inside the sidebar. This could provide similar functionality to what exists in Apple’s iCal and assist in reducing time required to open each calendar event to change details.

- and my last suggestion: Thunderbird 3 is due to include Calendar and Tasks by default which I think is a great idea, but there should remain a Lite version of Thunderbird which would only included the email and contacts by default. On top of this I also think Mozilla should consider developing a version of the software which could operate as an exchange server and include hierarchy administrative functions. From my point of view, making exchange software available is really be the next step in launching the Thunderbird platform and increasing it’s adoption, having a exchange based software that supports an interacts with the PIM client would bring the software that much closer to being a real alternative to Microsoft’s Outlook and Lotus Notes in the commercial world.

Phew...

Keep up the good work & looking forward to next release!

Posted by: Rob at August 18, 2009 8:30 AM

@Joshua: ideally, that bug would have exact steps to reproduce, but I understand that those are sometimes quite difficult to pin down.

@jim: with a bit of luck, we'll end up with better cross-account search (aka GloDa) in Thunderbird 3.

@Akhénaton: it's unclear to me what your objection is; can you elaborate?

@Liam: I'm not sure what the current icon status is.

@Rob: The dev-apps-thunderbird mailing list would be a good place to post those suggestions; thanks for writing them up.

Posted by: Dan Mosedale at August 18, 2009 10:46 AM

Please send link for uploading address book from gmail to thunderbird 3.0b3

Posted by: at August 24, 2009 8:21 AM

http://www.zindus.com/ is one such add-on.

Posted by: Dan Mosedale at August 24, 2009 8:26 AM

Just set up a googlemail account in seconds... Outstanding!

Then on to my own mail server, obviously this one is not on Mozilla's own database. TB3 Found my imap and smtp details in just a few seconds and set up the account... Utterly outstanding, I'm gobsmacked by how easy this is... I may not have tried every e-mail client, but this is the best setup system of any that I have tried...

Great start, hope the rest of the release is up to this level of usability and quality

Posted by: Justblair at August 27, 2009 10:30 AM

Any chance of a global 'Send Later' option (available in the Options section) that places outgoing mail in the Outbox? This option is very handy, as after hitting the send mail button, you have one final chance to make changes to the mail before it's actually sent. I know that there's a send later option currently available in TB 2.0, but it only works on a per message basis, and you have to drill down to it on the file menu. Plus, it's not particularly well implemented at the user interface level. I would like to see something similar to the this option is implemented in Outlook Express/Windows Mail.

Posted by: Nigel Binns at August 30, 2009 5:24 AM

Any chance of a menu option to append a signature to an e-mail on an ad hoc basis, rather than the current binary situation where it is either applied automatically to all e-mails or none? This option is handy, as many e-mails are sent to friends and colleagues who already know who you are and therefore it is unnecessary for them to receive your contact details each time you mail them. For those recipients who don't know you, the sender can opt to append their signature on a per-e-mail basis. Again, a similar option exists in Outlook Express/Windows Mail/Outlook. Finally, the ability to switch between different signatures (work, home etc) would also be useful, though less so than the above feature, as a Thunderbird extension already exists that provides this functionality.

Posted by: at August 30, 2009 7:18 AM

I was a die hard Outlook 2007 power user with about 14 mail accounts and a boatload of automation and rules. The instability of Vista finally made me get a Mac.

Apple Mail/iCal/AddressBook and Entourage 2008 are very poor pathetic implementations of an integrated PIM.

On searching I found TB3B3. Congratulations to the team for what I consider a great alternative to Outlook. I would pay money for the product, the fact that it is free is just great.

I am missing Lightning and given the warnings, am a little scared about using the nightly builds on my production mail system.

Being a power user of Outlook, I was wondering where to post suggestions on some features that will take TB3 from good to great?

TIA

Posted by: Devesh at September 2, 2009 6:04 AM

Devesh, thanks for the kind words. is a good place to post suggestions.

Posted by: Dan Mosedale at September 2, 2009 9:30 AM

Major suggestion -- there is an extension for FF for the 'semantic web', "Operator", that among other things when it finds an email or an 'event', it can optionally store the email or event on a web service addressbook or public calendar. Great. I have to publish my calendar, in order to schedule things? :-( With a extension that does transforms on 'operator' data, .vcard and .vcal events can be created -- and saved on disk, or, _I believe_ (would certainly manifest, if a reason presented itself), sent to the system handler.

Unfortunately, Tbird(as contact/addressbook handler) and 'Lightning-addon', Can't handle Win .vcal/.vcard events or files. So the natural companion to FF can't be used with FF to store FF's browsed data.

I'd also like to see some way to do what Outlook can do with 'IE' -- show a web-content in Outlook by invoking and windowing FF. So if I'm passed a web-addr, I don't have the web-link open in some hidden window (which it usually does), in a back-ground tab -- also something it usually does, so I have to go search through my FF windows to find out where the link opened up. If the window was minimized, it doesn't even have the decency to raise the window or open it!). No, I don't allow or want 'scripts' doing it, but I do want my external apps able to open a fresh window and bring it to the foreground). Seems I am always trying different variations, but there's always some case that doesn't work -- it's like that game: 'Whack-a-Mole' -- you wack one mole, and another pops up in a different location.


But back to the addr-book and calendar/task list -- I'd like Tbird to be usable as a replacement for Outlook. Even now, if I use 'One-note' and generate a "todo", it puts it in Outlooks's Task lists -- even though I never use outlook! Alot of good the task will do me there!

Besides Tbird being able to field "appropriate web data" sent from FF, the bit about invoking FF in a window within Tbird, is more about 'integration' -- keeping the products separate, but being able to communicate and use the abilities of the other product(s). Who knows -- if it was general enough, someone could send me a playlist, and when I click it, 'songbird' is invoked to do the song playing. Songbird, equally, could invoke FF to do web browsing rather than keeping its own set of Firefox compatible extensions for web-browsing.

I have some extensions installed in 3 places -- songbird, Tbird and Firefox (i know Songbird isn't a mozilla.org project, but it is based on the same platform, and if they adhered to standards, they might reap the integration benefits while Tbird and FF, might be able to reap similar benefits through 'extensions' to invoke exported functions in SB)....just as an example. Ideally any of the apps mbased on the same tookit could optionally enable and use functions of one of the other apps, INSTEAD of creating a new and separate browser instance -- the idea being that if you are running 2 or more of the apps, they would *SHARE* libraries and not duplicate code and *could* use the same web-cache and DNS cache space so as to not use double or triple memory depending on how many apps you have running.

There are many times I have to use 'SB's "open this web page in your default browser' function because some extension or some password or whatever is configured in FF, but won't load properly in SB. If SB could just 'use' FF as a 'lib' where the 'lib' was non-separate window of 'FF' embedded in SB (or, if I press or click on, maybe '{ALT|SHIFT|ALT-SHIFT}-Ctrl-N' (Windows), it would open a standalone browser window -- *instantly*, because the FF library would already be in memory -- all that needs be done is attach a separate FF-styled window -- but the actual browswer instance whether in SB or in TB, **could** be configured to be the same -- just as IE is pervasively the "one browser" throughout the various windows apps (by defalt) -- unless you specifically invoke an external browser. Even their 'help' is just an IE8 instance (much like "Prism"), but their version allows better integration with arbitrary apps.

Sorry for getting a bit off track -- refocusing on Tbird...
.vcard /.vcal handling. ?

Others things for Tbird...
CSS3 support in the editor? (Heck, even CSS2.1 would be nice);
Style sheet inclusion -- not as a template, but as an attachment.
So when we compose, it's not actually in the mail message, but like
images in email messages is an 'attached' part of the email message'
Just like @fonts could be as well -- so email messages written in a font
could have the font embedded and referenced in a @font tag (based on the
fonts 'embeddability') just like in a pdf document.

It's not like I'm asking for alot, am I...:-)

Linda

ps-
Seems like FF gets all the attention, and Tbird gets next to ignored.

Need a way to figure out how to leverage FF work directly in Tbird, while focusing on Tbird stuff -- that's why I was thinking about being able to include a 'FF-lib' and use FF to allow jumping to web pages -- OR, alternately, might allow it to 'render' some HTML email messages, via and option ('Render this with FF' or 'default browser') running in a separate memory space, BUT windowed in the message window -- allowing full features of whatever is enabled in FF -- but without access to the user's email agent -- except through FF's normal defined "email:" handler (or vcard: handler or vcal: handler...etc...). Yes -- would involve call backs -- and they should be runnable in separate memory spaces, but with some interprocess communication "OLE-ish?" - XLS? XPC? Leverage! :-)

Posted by: Linda Walsh at October 19, 2009 7:42 PM

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