Testing Easy Gmail and .Mac Account Creation in Thunderbird

[mscott]

One of the goals in Thunderbird 2 is to make account setup easier for folks using large ISPs (like google, yahoo!, etc) for e-mail. In fact ISPs can now create extensions for Thunderbird that drop in their configuration files.

With the current nightly branch builds, when creating a new mail account, the account wizard now lists Gmail and .Mac (Mac OS X only) as default account types you can create. Choose one of these account types, and the next screen in the wizard asks for your username for that service.

That's the only piece of information you need to enter, Thunderbird figures the rest out!

We could use help testing the account settings we created for Gmail and .Mac though. If you use either of those providers for e-mail, it would be helpful to us if you could try out a nightly branch build to setup your account in Thunderbird.

For Gmail, we use POP3 over SSL and we default to leaving mail on the server.
For .Mac we use IMAP.

Try downloading and sending e-mail for the account.

Thanks!

-Team Thunderbird

[mscott]

Looking at the dotmac settings we use, I wonder if the .mac servers support imap over ssl and smtp over ssl / tls. I suspect we should use those settings if .mac supports it!

[ChrisI]

Scott, this looks like a great feature; and I blogged about it to get more people to test it.
Where can I find info/documentation about it. Bug number? Instructions on how to create an extension for an ISP? Can an extension be created for news accounts? If so, I'd definitely try to make one for news.mozilla.org.

[pberger]

One of the goals in Thunderbird 2 is to make account setup easier for folks using large ISPs (like google, yahoo!, etc) for e-mail. In fact ISPs can now create extensions for Thunderbird that drop in their configuration files.

Is there somewhere already documentation about the setting in the rdf file available?

[[BISI]]

http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Thunderbird_ISP_hooks

[mscott]

Chris I. Thanks for the blog shout out to get more testing on this!

Bisi already posted the link for the documentation we are trying to put together for this. Feel free to contribute back to it as you try to do this for news.mozilla.org.

[pberger]

http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Thunderbird_ISP_hooks

Thank you for the link. What about all the items under <other> in the example file (<NC>, etc)? Is this already somewhere documented?

I tried to create a file for our domain. Our servers need the full email address for POP/SMTP authentication. How can this be accomplished? It always seems to take just the part before the @ in the address.

Another thing I tried to achieve was to add a fixed part to the sender name (identity name). Something like %NAME_USER_ENTERED% - MyCompany. Is this possible?

What is <NC>true</NC> supposed to do? Shouldn't this set the new SMTP server as default? If so it doesn't seem to work.

Thanks
Pascal

[doutor.zero]

Thanks for this feature, is really welcome, because a lot of users get lost trying to setup some mail accounts.

But for me there is a small problem in the way it is implemented: when you add a Gmail account this way, folders are created for it. This is not what happens when you add a account in the traditional way (all the messages go to local folders).

This can lead to some confusion, since the user usually find all his messages in Local Folders and because it will need to do a extra step do make the messages go there again. So I suggest that you keep the same behavior of TB 1.5, or ask the users, as a option, if they want that all messages are placed in a another folder(s).

And there is another problem: if I create a account this way and later alter the account settings to make all messages go to Local Folders, I ended with some useless Gmail folders that I cannot remove. In this case I suggest two things: let me remove the folders (with a warning if they have something inside), or make Thunderbird remove them, moving first all the messages (again, a dialog to warn/ask is needed).

Sorry for my very bad english.

[mscott]

This is awesome that you are trying this out with your own RDF file. Thanks so much!

Thank nk. What about all the items under <other> in the example file (<NC>, etc)? Is this alreayou for the lidy somewhere documented?

I tried to create a file for our domain. Our servers need the full email address for POP/SMTP authentication. How can this be accomplished? It always seems to take just the part before the @ in the address.

I don't think we allow this through the RDF format. I'm going to file a bug to add an option for appending the domain to the user name for each server type.

What is <NC>true</NC> supposed to do? Shouldn't this set the new SMTP server as default? If so it doesn't seem to work.

I don't see that tag in our example files anywhere. I would expect it to do nothing at all since there's not actual attribute/property (i.e. NC:XYZ) following the NC.

[mscott]

Thank nk. What about all the items under <other> in the example file (<NC>, etc)? Is this alreayou for the lidy somewhere documented?

I tried to create a file for our domain. Our servers need the full email address for POP/SMTP authentication. How can this be accomplished? It always seems to take just the part before the @ in the address.

I don't think we allow this through the RDF format. I'm going to file a bug to add an option for appending the domain to the user name for each server type.

I just filed Bug #366439 to track this request.

[pberger]

I don't see that tag in our example files anywhere. I would expect it to do nothing at all since there's not actual attribute/property (i.e. NC:XYZ) following the NC.

aargh, stupid message boards (or stupid me for not using the preview !
i meant:

Code: Select all

smtpUsePreferredServer

(still not able to make it display correct with the tags...)

Do you have any answers to my other questions?

Thank you
Pascal

[mscott]

for dotmac testers, I've decided to make .mac use imap over ssl and smtp with STARTTLS.

See Bug #366516 for details. Hopefully that'll get checked in tonight for tomorrow's builds. Would be great if any dotmac testers could help test that out tomorrow.

[mscott]

Thank nk. What about all the items under <other> in the example file (<NC>, etc)? Is this alreayou for the lidy somewhere documented?

I tried to create a file for our domain. Our servers need the full email address for POP/SMTP authentication. How can this be accomplished? It always seems to take just the part before the @ in the address.

I don't think we allow this through the RDF format. I'm going to file a bug to add an option for appending the domain to the user name for each server type.

I just filed Bug #366439 to track this request.

pberger, are you around to help me test a fix for this issue? Can you add yourself to the bug if so? thanks!

[pberger]

pberger, are you around to help me test a fix for this issue? Can you add yourself to the bug if so? thanks!

Sorry, I must have overlooked you response earlier. I've CC myself to the bug. Just let me know how can I help you test something

[alavaliant]

Thats a very handy feature. I've just started looking into using this at my company to help users set themselves up.

We use an ldap addressbook however. Is there a way to set that up as well via this? I've found how to pick which ldap server an account should use but not how to add one when adding an account so it looks like my users will still have to do that step by hand (which many find very confusing resulting in calls to the help desk etc. (and yes I know there are other autosetup options. I'm looking into those as well but this if I can get it to do what I need seems the easiest to setup.)).

Also is there a way to add multiple accounts as once? My company has two news servers as well as the imap mail server. I'd like to make an entry that adds all 3 in one step but if I add in multiple NC:nsIMsgIncomingServer entries it seems only the first one is used.