Hi there, I'm not in development of TB but I follow this list because we run and maintain a TB-AddOn since many years. As far as I understood, the current WebExtension API for TB is not complete and restricted. But some of you are talking about shut-down of legacy addon support in several posts and articles. We followed the guides and made our AddOn working in version 59, but this seems only a valid solution for a few months from now. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Add-ons_Guide_57 Where can I find the documentation for WebExtension AddOn's for Thunderbird? Maybe one simple example project to understand the loading, embedding and functionality? Especially in the Mail context (for example manipulating emails, composer window). We tried to find but had no success. Looks like all the Firefox related documentation is not sufficient :( Is there a documentation that describes all TB specific functions being available for TB WebExtension AddOns? Are there file access functions available to allow WebExtension AddOn's to save and read local files and execute comandline utilities? Like our AddOn will need? I really hope that you TB developers first implement a powerfull and sufficient new WebExtension API before stopping any Legacy AddOn functionality. Otherwise, many developers like us are lost. TB is a great tool and you did a great job. But many people use TB because of it's flexibility and useful AddOns. For me it is important to have a well documented and powerful API to start re-development. Announcing shut-down of Legacy AddOn's while no new final API is available, makes me very nervous. Please tell me that I'm wrong in this assumption. Any hints and links for creation of WebExtension AddOns for Thunderbird(!) are welcome. Thanks, Volker

Hi Volker, I know we've posted on some channels that we are shutting down legacy add-ons. This isn't quite accurate, I never managed to write a followup blog post on that, sorry. Legacy add-ons will continue to work in Thunderbird 60. There are a few core changes required as mentioned in the link you posted, but this is really the same as it always has been: If Gecko or Thunderbird changes some internal APIs that a legacy add-on uses, then they need to be adapted. Past Thunderbird 60 we are working on a new add-ons story, although the mechanics are not quite clear yet. The Gecko platform we use is moving very fast in removing support for legacy add-ons to reduce technical debt, up to a point where they will no longer work. Right now, Gecko is removing support for XUL overlays, loading non-restartless add-ons completely, and many other things. In some other threads here I've spoken about WebExtension Experiments, which is the most future-proof way to do add-ons. I'm working on some code that will allow the basics to work (browser.tabs.* and browser.windows.* API), and an example on how a WebExtension Experiment can be written to provide specific functionality (a FileLink provider, written as a WebExtension). I'll definitely keep you posted once this lands, depending on how much free time I have available I might be able to complete it in 1-2 weeks. Once I have the example out there, it should be much clearer on how you can use this to create WebExtension APIs for the specific functionality you require, and I am sure it will be very helpful for other add-on authors as well. Philipp On 3/27/18 6:45 PM, Volker Schmid wrote: > Hi there, > > I'm not in development of TB but I follow this list because we run and > maintain a TB-AddOn since many years. As far as I understood, the > current WebExtension API for TB is not complete and restricted. But > some of you are talking about shut-down of legacy addon support in > several posts and articles. We followed the guides and made our AddOn > working in version 59, but this seems only a valid solution for a few > months from now. https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Add-ons_Guide_57 > > Where can I find the documentation for WebExtension AddOn's for > Thunderbird? Maybe one simple example project to understand the > loading, embedding and functionality? Especially in the Mail context > (for example manipulating emails, composer window). We tried to find > but had no success. Looks like all the Firefox related documentation > is not sufficient :( > > Is there a documentation that describes all TB specific functions > being available for TB WebExtension AddOns? > > Are there file access functions available to allow WebExtension > AddOn's to save and read local files and execute comandline utilities? > Like our AddOn will need? > > I really hope that you TB developers first implement a powerfull and > sufficient new WebExtension API before stopping any Legacy AddOn > functionality. Otherwise, many developers like us are lost. TB is a > great tool and you did a great job. But many people use TB because of > it's flexibility and useful AddOns. For me it is important to have a > well documented and powerful API to start re-development. Announcing > shut-down of Legacy AddOn's while no new final API is available, makes > me very nervous. Please tell me that I'm wrong in this assumption. > > Any hints and links for creation of WebExtension AddOns for > Thunderbird(!) are welcome. > > Thanks, > > Volker