Thunderbird Extension: No New Window 0.2.3 [2005-05-26]

[chuonthis]

<a href="http://www.chuonthis.com/extensions/tb/nnwodc.xpi"><b>No New Window on Double Click 0.2.3</b></a>
This extension prevents Thunderbird from opening a new main window. When you double click on a folder in the folder pane, the folder will expand or collapse if it has subfolders. Also, when a program tries to run Thunderbird while it is already running, the new window is closed and the first main window will be brought to focus. New mail windows can still be opened when right-clicking on a folder and selecting Open in New Mail Window. (Requires Thunderbird 0.7-1.0+)

[ <b><a href="http://www.chuonthis.com/extensions/tb/nnwodc.xpi">Download</a></b> / <b><a href="http://www.chuonthis.com/extensions/nnwodc.php">Homepage</a></b> ]

<b>History</b><ul><li><a href="http://www.chuonthis.com/extensions/tb/nnwodc_0_2_3.xpi"><b>0.2.3</b></a> - 2005.05.26 - Windows opened by right-clicking on a folder and selecting Open in New Mail Window are now allowed.
<li><a href="http://www.chuonthis.com/extensions/tb/nnwodc_0_2_2.xpi"><b>0.2.2</b></a> - 2005.04.28 - Fixed incompatibility with Enigmail (and possibly other extensions) by removing window.removeEventListener() because of <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=174320">bug 174320</a>.
<li><a href="http://www.chuonthis.com/extensions/tb/nnwodc_0_2_1.xpi"><b>0.2.1</b></a> - 2005.04.14 - Fixed a bug that prevented message windows from being opened.
<li><a href="http://www.chuonthis.com/extensions/tb/nnwodc_0_2_0.xpi"><b>0.2.0</b></a> - 2005.04.10 - Will now close windows opened when Thunderbird is run while it is already running. Increased minVersion to 0.7. Added extension icon.
<li><a href="http://www.chuonthis.com/extensions/tb/nnwodc_0_1_0.xpi"><b>0.1.0</b></a> - 2004.06.14 - Updated for new Extension Manager. New version numbering scheme. No changes to functionality.
<li><a href="http://www.chuonthis.com/extensions/tb/nnwodc_0_1.xpi"><b>0.1</b></a> - 2004.02.26 - Initial release
</ul>

[chuonthis]

Sorry for the barrage of Thunderbird extensions. Just thought we could finally have the options that everyone has been asking for.

Hopefully this is the only version that will be released.

[technomage]

nice. one recommendation though. occasionally i'll encounter an "expired" message on a newsgroup. it says "click to remove expired messages." when i click, it creates a new instance of TB, even with this extension. is there any way to stop this from happening?

[jedbro]

Nice.
Could you PM me or email databas[at]mozdev.org with as much of the following info as possible, to add it to ER and FF Help?
Thanks

extension's name, size, install url, small description, long description, and the authors name, e-mail and/or website and ScreenShot URL's with captions for each image..

[chuonthis]

nice. one recommendation though. occasionally i'll encounter an "expired" message on a newsgroup. it says "click to remove expired messages." when i click, it creates a new instance of TB, even with this extension. is there any way to stop this from happening?

Hmm...I've never seen the expired message before, but I have the option "Keep all messages" selected in the Offline/Disk space settings for the news server. I tried to search for where Thunderbird does the asking and then opening that you're talking about but I couldn't find it so I decided, what the hey, let's just prevent Thunderbird from opening a new mail window altogether. If that's okay with you, try this test version: <a href="http://www.chuonthis.com/extensions/tb/nnwodc-test.xpi">nnwodc-test.xpi</a>. If it works, I guess I can implement it as an option to disable all new window requests. Let me know how it goes.

[jhirshon]

chuonthis - you RULE!

Keep up the great work on these extensions, man!

cheers, an appreciative JH

[technomage]

test doesn't seem to change anything in the behavior. remove expired articles still opens a second instance.

[RickFriedman]

Finally! A way to prevent the double-click from opening a second instance of TB. My girlfriend does this all the time and it drives her crazy. And, if she's driven crazy, she winds up driving me crazy!

Thank you for returning my sanity to me!

Rick

[dashrendar]

Does this also prevent TB from starting a second instance in GENERAL? Like if I click the TB icon a second time, will it open a window for it?

[technomage]

AFAIK, clicking the TB icon a second time never opens a second instance. it sometimes does very little, sometimes gives TB focus.

[chuonthis]

Actually, from my experience, clicking on the Thunderbird icon a second time opens a new main window. No, the extension linked to in the first post only prevents a new main window from opening when double clicking on a folder. Then the test one linked in the 5th post was my attempt to stop Thunderbird from starting more instances of itself but it was a no go. It only blocked the new window requests when you right clicked on a folder and chose Open in New Mail Window. I started working on another test version to block the new window request that technomage was talking about (I finally saw the expired message) but I couldn't stop it. I'll look into it some more. I'd definitely want to stop the 2nd window from opening when you click on the icon again because it's annoying. It should just give the first window focus.

[technomage]

well, I just tried it out on my computer that *doesn't* have this extension installed, and if I click a TB icon, it gives TB focus if it's maximized but not the currently selected program, and it "flashes" the TB taskbar icon if TB is minimized (I guess you could say it tries to give TB focus but fails). No new instance created. This computer is running WinXP home SP1 and Mozilla Thunderbird 0.5 (20040207).

Also, chuonthis: I was emailing back and forth with someone who uses Mailwasher, and she says that when she runs that program, it creates a new instance of TB every time. I'm not familiar with the program, but I thought maybe you would be (or maybe someone else here) and could test your extension (and later releases of it) against TB+MW. Or maybe someone who uses MW can offer a tip that would help her.

[Moonwolf]

I'm not certain that an extension can do anything about a second instance of Thunderbird being launched by another application or the shell. Thunderbird needs to be checking for multiple instances itself, which will probably require OS-specific code.

[sboulema]

I don't think your extension is listed on extensionroom. If you'd like that, please fill out below and send it to database@mozdev.org

* Extension name (e.g. "My Extension")
* Version number (e.g. 0.4)
* Release date (e.g. 2003-03-05)
* Author name (e.g. John Doe)
* E-mail address (e.g. john.doe@domain.com)
* URL to extension homepage (e.g. http://domain.com/)
* URL to .xpi file (e.g. http://domain.com/myextension.xpi)
* Size of .xpi file (in KB, e.g. 256)
* A short description
* A good description (e.g. "This extension adds a toolbar button, allowing you to...")

[chuonthis]

technomage, you're right. The shortcut I was using was the Windows XP "default email application" shortcut. That runs a new instance if I click it again. However, if I have a shortcut that is directly to the thunderbird.exe, it gives the last TB window focus.

The way I was going to take on the "single window" mode was to detect any new windows being opened and close them before they are drawn. It's the only way that I can see how to do this but I'm worried that this method might be unorthodox and it might cause memory leaks (even though I monitored the memory usage and it looks good).