2003-12-16 Win32, OSX, GTK2 Build Now Available

[mscott]

Note, the multiple identity feature is available on all platforms in both Seamonkey and Thunderbird builds made after December 23rd or so.


1) Multiple identities for the same account support (back end only, no UI) as described in Bug #226580. Thank you alecf!
2) Smart logic to pick the correct identity when replying or forwarding a message for an account with multiple identities. We do this by looking for the email address of your identity in the recipients of the original message. Described in Bug #18906.

Why would you care? Well if you have multiple email addresses dumping messages into the same account and you want replies to go out with the correct identity, then this build is for you to try out.

As I mentioned before, there is no UI for creating multiple identies per account. You have to modify your prefs.js file directly:

1) Open up prefs.js, find an example identity to clone such as identity.id1:
mail.identity.id1. Make a copy of those strings.

2) Now change the '1' to the next available number that isn't used by an identity id yet for all of these copied entries.

3) tweak the settings for this new identity according to taste. In particular, don't forget the .useremail attribute to the email address you want with this identity. You may want to associate things like a vCard and the like with this identity that you don't want with the other identity associated with the account.....

4) Don't forget to add this new identity to the list of identities for the account in question. i.e:

user_pref("mail.account.account##.identities", "id1,idXX");

5) Now restart thunderbird. In the compose window you should see your new identity listed in the From: drop down. Reply to a message which was sent to the email address in your new identity. You should see it pre-selected in the from field.

-Scott

[csogilvie]

I found when I tested it that I needed to change the

Code: Select all

user_pref("mail.account.account4.identities", "id12");

line to also include the new id as per the instructions in the bug.

This seems to work and is a welcome addition

[mscha]

Awesome!

The only thing that doesn't quite work yet as well as I'd like, is the autodetection of the account to use. I'll mainly use this feature for mailing lists – I pretty much create a new account for every list, so that I can block 'em when the spammers find out about them – and for mailing lists, messages are usually not addressed to me.

Perhaps it could also check for headers like:

Received: from whatever
by whatever
for <me@my.domain>; whenever

That'd make this feature pretty much perfect!

Thanks,

– Michael

[Äkiidoll]

Does this mean we can both use the same account
with same email address, but I can send mail with
my identity and he can send with his identity with
the same email address on the same account? I
dont mean to sound like a dork, Im just a lil confused.
Im gonna back up my prefs.js file and do some playing
with the JavaScript and see what I can come up with
using Scotts and csogilvie's examples...wish me luck.
Gosh I like this new build, the menus are faster too.
Geck0 r0cks

[Äkiidoll]

I copied all the prefs. that referenced the .id1
and changed them to .id2, my only problem now
is, in the "From" drop down menu, only the new
id2 is available, how do I get them both in the
"From" drop down menu? I know I missed
something simple.
Thanks for help
Geck0 r0cks
Update--->solved!
I had to change this:

Code: Select all

user_pref("mail.account.account1.identities", "id1");

To this:

Code: Select all

user_pref("mail.account.account1.identities", "id1,id2");

Now both our ID's are in the drop down, and the signature text
also changes in the body as our ID's are changed.

Scott, thanks so much for this new build, great work!
I really appreciate your hard work! Loves my Thunderbird.

[mscott]

I copied all the prefs. that referenced the .id1
and changed them to .id2, my only problem now
is, in the "From" drop down menu, only the new
id2 is available, how do I get them both in the
"From" drop down menu? I know I missed
something simple.
Thanks for help
Geck0 r0cks
Update--->solved!
I had to change this:

Code: Select all

user_pref("mail.account.account1.identities", "id1");

To this:

Code: Select all

user_pref("mail.account.account1.identities", "id1,id2");

Now both our ID's are in the drop down, and the signature text
also changes in the body as our ID's are changed.

For the account you want to have two identities for, look for a pref that looks like:

user_pref("mail.account.accountXXX.identities", "id1");

where XXX is an integer. Now we want to tell it that this account has another identity that is also associated with it:

user_pref("mail.account.account4.identities", "id1, id#");

where # is the integer for the new id number you created in the earlier step.

[Äkiidoll]

For the account you want to have two identities for, look for a pref that looks like:

user_pref("mail.account.accountXXX.identities", "id1");

where XXX is an integer. Now we want to tell it that this account has another identity that is also associated with it:

user_pref("mail.account.account4.identities", "id1, id#");

where # is the integer for the new id number you created in the earlier step.

Thanks Scott, that works! FWIW--This is what I call
World Class Tech. Support! 8)
Geck0 & Scott r0cks

[mscott]

For the account you want to have two identities for, look for a pref that looks like:

user_pref("mail.account.accountXXX.identities", "id1");

where XXX is an integer. Now we want to tell it that this account has another identity that is also associated with it:

user_pref("mail.account.account4.identities", "id1, id#");

where # is the integer for the new id number you created in the earlier step.

Thanks Scott, that works! FWIW--This is what I call
World Class Tech. Support! 8)
Geck0 & Scott r0cks

Glad you have it working. Are you able to leverage this feature? i.e. do you have multiple "identities" for the same mail account? Just trying to get an idea of who benefits from this besides myself

[mscott]

Awesome!

The only thing that doesn't quite work yet as well as I'd like, is the autodetection of the account to use. I'll mainly use this feature for mailing lists – I pretty much create a new account for every list, so that I can block 'em when the spammers find out about them – and for mailing lists, messages are usually not addressed to me.

l

Yes I agree this fuzzy auto identity detection doesn't work for mailing lists 'cause you don't have an email address from your identities in the to/cc fields to look at.

I'm not sure how we can easily figure that one out. At least in my test case the received headers show both the address I used for the mailing list and the raw email address that address ends up referring to. So it would not necessarily pick the right one.

[Äkiidoll]

Thanks Scott, that works! FWIW--This is what I call
World Class Tech. Support! 8)
Geck0 & Scott r0cks

Glad you have it working. Are you able to leverage this feature? i.e. do you have multiple "identities" for the same mail account? Just trying to get an idea of who benefits from this besides myself

Yes Scott its a big help, we have multiple identities on
this same account, one for me & one for him, its much
easier than multiple accounts as far as set up and things
of that nature, this is so very convenient to use. Please
leave this in all new builds.
I like the "Priority" drop down menu you added too.
Thanks again Scott for your hard work and innovative
features in Thunderbird!
Geck0 r0cks

[steno]

Excellent!! Best new feature for a long time!! Thanks!

[pangloss]

ahhh...thank-you!

[jc303]

Just trying to get an idea of who benefits from this besides myself

Excellent! I needed this feature!

[mscha]

Awesome!

The only thing that doesn't quite work yet as well as I'd like, is the autodetection of the account to use. I'll mainly use this feature for mailing lists – I pretty much create a new account for every list, so that I can block 'em when the spammers find out about them – and for mailing lists, messages are usually not addressed to me.

l

Yes I agree this fuzzy auto identity detection doesn't work for mailing lists 'cause you don't have an email address from your identities in the to/cc fields to look at.

I'm not sure how we can easily figure that one out. At least in my test case the received headers show both the address I used for the mailing list and the raw email address that address ends up referring to. So it would not necessarily pick the right one.

Well, in case of my mail server (using Sendmail), looking for “for <email@add.ress>” would do the job, not sure about yours.
Perhaps you can just look for the first email address that occurs in the Received: headers, and hope for the best? If you end up with the right email address, great, otherwise, you probably won't find the address in the accounts list so no harm done.

Just my € 0.02,

– Michael

[zerbey]

I'd like to nominate this bug - <a href="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=225485">225485</a> for the next release. This is a HUGE problem for Linux users stuck behind SOCKS5 proxies. Being forced to use Win32+SocksCap is torture!