We have some decisions to make regarding this page. In case you're not sure what I'm talking about, this is the page: This is a remote page loaded from ATN. Unfortunately, it's my understanding that the ability to load remote content in the Add-ons Manager is slated for removal. Firefox has already removed it, and the supporting code will be removed in Bug 1337627 <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1337627>. It was replaced with an in-client discovery pane <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1540173> that is very basic. You can see it in any modern version of Firefox, but it's essentially a somewhat random list of 7 themes or extensions. I believe it pulls these from the API. I think we may be able to use this code with minimal changes, since we have the same API, but I haven't been able to figure out how to test that, a couple of attempts to change prefs according to Geoff's instructions didn't seem to work. However, if we do that, it significantly raises the priority of adding back/forward buttons for tabs <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=826196>. Extension search, and the "Find More Add-ons" button link directly to the website, and the website is more important with a minimalist discovery pane. But while Firefox works great here since it has the regular browser UI, the navigation experience is poor in Thunderbird. We also need to decide whether to use the built-in Discovery Pane, or somehow preserve the ability to load remote content. There are many factors that affect this, I think the most important are: 1. How much work is it to use the built-in Firefox discovery pane? 2. How much work is it to preserve remote content loading capability? 3. Can we modify the built-in discovery pane, change text, or change the layout relatively easily, or is it difficult? 4. Which provides the better experience for users? 5. Are the security implications of loading remote content in this part of Thunderbird as relevant to us as they were for Firefox? It would be better to figure out which direction we want to go earlier than later. It doesn't make sense to spend time designing and fully rewriting this page if we aren't going to use it, and similarly we need to make sure that we have the Thunderbird capability to load it if we decide to keep it remote.

Great analysis, and thanks for bringing this up. I agree with you, as it doesn't make sense starting any design work on this if we don't know where it might land or be used. > However, if we do that, it significantly raises the priority of adding > back/forward buttons for tabs > <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=826196>. As I suggested in that bug, we should (if possible) leverage the native FF browser UI to inherit back/forward buttons, and maybe even the Home page button, redirecting to the first page. We could have a minimal UI with those elements and a disabled URL bar so we don't need to worry about web browsing withing TB. I don't know how "easy" is to inherit FF UI and tweak it for our purpose, without implementing a hacky and non clean solution. > 5.Are the security implications of loading remote content in this part > of Thunderbird as relevant to us as they were for Firefox? I think we should focus on this extremely important aspect, and once we have a solid understanding of the issues and downfalls, we can take a decision and find solutions to the other questions. -- Alessandro Castellani Lead UX Architect