create a new tutorial and sdk for creating web extension

User Help for Mozilla Thunderbird
Locked
nickhere
Posts: 40
Joined: September 29th, 2009, 1:57 pm

create a new tutorial and sdk for creating web extension

Post by nickhere »

I am having a hell of a time figuring this out.

All i want is a simple add-on that will read the inbox sort it by name + email address, create the appropriate folders , create filter and move it.
My sister has 500,000 unsorted email in her inbox some stuff she needs to keep others can be delete

My plan was to sort by extension (email address) and create a folder
take that group and then look for duplicate name

if there is more then one identical name create a subfolder with that name

Then add a filter for all in coming msg

I want to get if off the server and into local folders
mgagnonlv
Posts: 848
Joined: February 12th, 2005, 8:33 pm

Re: create a new tutorial and sdk for creating web extensio

Post by mgagnonlv »

I am not sure that you can do it exactly the way you describe, but there are a few tips that could work.

1. Look for the following extension: Remove Duplicate Messages (Alternate). Basically, this extension allows you to find duplicate messages according to criteria you define (for example: same sender, same size, same time, etc.). If some messages have been downloaded 2-3 times, you will be able to identify these and hopefully eliminate a few of them.

***************
For the rest, it would be nice to know if she uses POP or IMAP. If she uses POP, then all messages are already downloaded locally; if she uses IMAP, then messages are on the server so you will need to allow time because messages will have to be moved on the server.

***************

2. For the remaining, I think from experience that too many folders will make it even more painful to work on afterwards. I would therefore suggest that you create a few folders for the most frequent correspondents, or by category. For example: Inbox-suppliers, Inbox-friends, and Inbox-potential junk. Or if you have absolutely no idea, break in a few categories like Inbox-A-G, Inbox-H-M, Inbox-N-Z.
Create a similar folder structure for Sent messages. For example Sent-suppliers, etc.

**NOTE. If your sister is on POP, then as I said earlier, these messages are already off the server. If she is using IMAP and you want these messages off the server, then you need to create the above folders under "LOCAL FOLDERS" rather than under the account's hierarchy.

3. Move all messages from Inbox to appropriate folders. If she is on IMAP, don't move everything at the same time. Give some time for messages to move along, especially if they are large and/or her connection is slow (remember, moving a message from account–>inbox to local –> inbox-friends (for example) takes time because stuff has to move between the computer and the server.
You might want to start with old messages and stop, say, 3 months ago, so the last 3 months of email will remain in INBOX.
To help you sort messages, click on the various column headers to sort messages. For instance, if you click on "date", messages will be sorted chronologically, but if you click on "Correspondent" or "From", then messages will be sorted by the person from whom they come.

** TIP. Ideally, and especially for IMAP, it helps if you let the computer connected all night so all attachments are properly downloaded.

** TIP. Display the "Size" column in your message list so you'll be aware of huge messages.

4. The same way, move all messages from "Sent mail" to the various "Sent" folders you have created.

5. From that point onward, Inbox and Sent mail will contain only recent messages.

****************************

Another option.
Assuming your sister's email is IMAP, assuming she trusts you and gives you her account credentials, you could configure her account on *your* Thunderbird. Then do the above job, except create these folders under the account's hierarchy so they also remain accessible on the server.
Then work on the various "Inbox" and "Sent mail" sub-folders you have created to sort mail and purge non-necessary messages. When you have finished, go to her place, connect using her Thunderbird and move these various sub-folders to the local hierarchy (on her computer).

Note that with many providers, it won't be a problem to leave all messages on the server, as long as they aren't in the inbox and sent mail folders. The various folders you have created won't be accessed too often; therefore Thunderbird will work swiftly and any phone accessing your inbox will also work quickly.
Michel Gagnon
Montréal (Québec, Canada)
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: create a new tutorial and sdk for creating web extensio

Post by tanstaafl »

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunde ... ltaquilla/
http://mesquilla.com/extensions/filtaquilla/

The FiltaQuilla add-ons adds a LOT of features to the message filters, including the ability to run javascript as an action, and running a file. It would be a lot easier to write some javascript to do what you want rather than developing an add-on.

Depending upon what you want to do with the 500K messages you might find the QuickFolders, quickFilters and EagleEye add-ons useful. The last add-on used to be on the Mozilla add-ons web site, its now just on sourceforge. Its not clear what its status is as its link to its wiki is broken.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunde ... rs/?src=ss
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunde ... rs/?src=ss
http://eagleeye.sourceforge.net/
nickhere
Posts: 40
Joined: September 29th, 2009, 1:57 pm

Re: create a new tutorial and sdk for creating web extensio

Post by nickhere »

She is on imap and it has been running all night never catching up
I did try remover duplicate it didnt find anything.
Also for her to decide which msg to keep all msg has to be move to a separate folder by sender
been thinking with over 500000 msg maybe it be better if i change her to pop and dump local (i can always change it back)

Your suggestion ll doesn't solve my folder creation issue with all those email it will take forever to create and move.
here a idea if there is more then 100 identical email create the folder and the filter
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: create a new tutorial and sdk for creating web extensio

Post by tanstaafl »

If she has 500K messages and only wants to keep a small fraction of them why not just click on the From column in the folder listing to sort by sender. Then browse the listing to find any senders she wants to keep mail from. Open another tab for the inbox and in it create a child folder for that senders messages. Select the messages and move them. Then repeat with the next sender. If most of the messages are from people she doesn't care about it this might be quicker than an automated solution since you would have to spend time reviewing (and fixing) the automated solutions actions.

Or use one of email crawler add-ons to add all of the senders addresses to a new address book. Then delete any of those contacts for people she doesn't want to keep mail from, and run a filter that moves to the trash folder any messages where the sender was not in that address book. Then manually move the remaining messages to the appropriate child folder.

https://addons.mozilla.org/nn-NO/thunde ... src=search (most well known email crawler)
https://freeshell.de/~kaosmos/index-en. ... rcollector (supports regular expressions to control what contacts are added)
nickhere
Posts: 40
Joined: September 29th, 2009, 1:57 pm

Re: create a new tutorial and sdk for creating web extensio

Post by nickhere »

interesting but i think it be better for her to auto create the folder but now in sub catagory if the email is below 20 or below main cat 20 subcat the files there next group would be 20 to 50 50to 100 100 to 150 she need to go threw everyone and either delete all or keep . if it was categories it would speed up the process
nickhere
Posts: 40
Joined: September 29th, 2009, 1:57 pm

Re: create a new tutorial and sdk for creating web extensio

Post by nickhere »

ok i think i have it.
I will use email picky dump the collected address to a file
once i got the file i can sort the file by name
then use a automation program to create the directory and filter

logically if i have a group of names in a row
then all email address in that name group will be added to the filter


I prefer to have this done in a addon so other people can use it.
Still need a good tutorial on how to create a addon
User avatar
tanstaafl
Moderator
Posts: 49647
Joined: July 30th, 2003, 5:06 pm

Re: create a new tutorial and sdk for creating web extensio

Post by tanstaafl »

See https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add-ons/Thunderbird . That's all that is available that I'm aware of. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Add ... extensions has some useful background information.
User avatar
DanRaisch
Moderator
Posts: 127186
Joined: September 23rd, 2004, 8:57 pm
Location: Somewhere on the right coast

Re: create a new tutorial and sdk for creating web extensio

Post by DanRaisch »

Locking this for continuation here -- http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic ... #p14773556
Locked