Suppress/disable modal dialogs

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magecu
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Joined: June 3rd, 2011, 11:49 pm

Suppress/disable modal dialogs

Post by magecu »

I was wondering if there is a way to suppress modal dialogs to pop up on smtp server errors.

I was reading around the forums, knowledge base and the bug reports/feature requests and it doesn't seem like there is a way, but I still think it's worth asking.

The smtp errors are legit, it just annoys me that once the dialog pops up Thunderbird completely stops.
It would be great if such errors could be redirected to an error log (the activity manager doesn't give much details :)) or if another type of form/window could be used.

I also noticed that the connection alerts have been moved to the notification windows.

Any ides if there is anything that could be done, maybe an extension? :oops:
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tanstaafl
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Re: Suppress/disable modal dialogs

Post by tanstaafl »

I don't know of a setting or add-on to do that. There is support for automatically sending messages in the background which would completely hide those errors from you, but supposedly that support is not complete enough to recommend anybody use it.
magecu
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Joined: June 3rd, 2011, 11:49 pm

Re: Suppress/disable modal dialogs

Post by magecu »

tanstaafl wrote:I don't know of a setting or add-on to do that. There is support for automatically sending messages in the background which would completely hide those errors from you, but supposedly that support is not complete enough to recommend anybody use it.

Thanks that sounds interesting. I will have to check it out.

Any other way to leave thunder-bird running unattended with some mails waiting to be sent at various scheduled times?
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tanstaafl
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Re: Suppress/disable modal dialogs

Post by tanstaafl »

Yes. See some of the add-ons mentioned in http://kb.mozillazine.org/Outbox such as Send Later 3
magecu
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Joined: June 3rd, 2011, 11:49 pm

Re: Suppress/disable modal dialogs

Post by magecu »

tanstaafl wrote:Yes. See some of the add-ons mentioned in http://kb.mozillazine.org/Outbox such as Send Later 3

I am already using that add-on, but if there is a smtp error thunderbird displays a modal dialog and waits until the OK button is clicked (as normal for dialog boxes).
Obviously this behavior is problematic for unattended use of TB in cases where you can't be sure if all the selected recipients will be valid at the scheduled times of the emails.
Even splinting emails so they are addressed to onyl one recipient each doesn't solve the problem as all other emails wait in line until the modal dialog is dismissed.

That's why I was asking for unattended use of TB.
In an unattended mode TB would continue with the other actions normally and require confirmation only for the action that spawned the error, or would simply discard the action with the error and log the error and action that caused it.

I was hoping there was a way to run Send letter in a more secure untended way, not that one malformed mail blocks all others.
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tanstaafl
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Re: Suppress/disable modal dialogs

Post by tanstaafl »

That is what the partially implemented sending in the background is meant to do. Setting mailnews.sendInBackground true will send a message in the background, and (supposedly, but not in practice) provide automatic retries if a failure occur. I have no idea why little progress has been made in 2 years on this.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Te ... Background (mentions some current limitations such as "If there is an error, Thunderbird won't attempt to automatically send the message a second time (until another message is sent)." and "If there are multiple messages queued, Thunderbird won't attempt to automatically send other messages that are queued."

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=440794 (original bug report)

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=511079 (current problems)

In case you didn't know we are not run by or formally associated with Mozilla despite the similarity in names. We're a independent user community.
magecu
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Joined: June 3rd, 2011, 11:49 pm

Re: Suppress/disable modal dialogs

Post by magecu »

tanstaafl wrote:That is what the partially implemented sending in the background is meant to do. Setting mailnews.sendInBackground true will send a message in the background, and (supposedly, but not in practice) provide automatic retries if a failure occur. I have no idea why little progress has been made in 2 years on this.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Te ... Background (mentions some current limitations such as "If there is an error, Thunderbird won't attempt to automatically send the message a second time (until another message is sent)." and "If there are multiple messages queued, Thunderbird won't attempt to automatically send other messages that are queued."

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=440794 (original bug report)

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=511079 (current problems)

In case you didn't know we are not run by or formally associated with Mozilla despite the similarity in names. We're a independent user community.

Thank you.
Very useful links.
I think I will wait for and update to the sendInBackground option, luckily I have other options for my needs. :)
Worst case I can make a simple mailer in C#, sending mails with the net framework is incredibly easy. :)

Thank you for all the help and take care,
magecu
shaneyfelt
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Re: Suppress/disable modal dialogs

Post by shaneyfelt »

Still modal dialogs are obsolete and they pop up for things like being unable to retrieve mail when you open the combined inbox if some of the inbox servers are having problems authenticating or other problems. Instead a non-modal error pane should be added (possibly with a yellow background) at the top or bottom of the main window as is now common with web browsers that have security warnings for web sites.
richiehustle
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Re: Suppress/disable modal dialogs

Post by richiehustle »

This is such a painful issue, with these constant error prompts whenever connection was lost whatnot.
Anybody has solution how to mute all the error notifications (and let them be in the log)?
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DanRaisch
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Re: Suppress/disable modal dialogs

Post by DanRaisch »

Please note that this thread "died" six years ago. To get support on this issue, please create a new topic and provide details on which version of Thunderbird you are using and which error messages are appearing.

Locking this thread due to the age of the original posts.
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