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<p>Correct bugzilla link to file bugs about needed APIs is
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Thunderbird&component=Add-ons:%20Extensions%20API"><https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Thunderbird&component=Add-ons:%20Extensions%20API></a></p>
<p> -Magnus<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 01-10-2019 16:02, Magnus Melin
wrote:<br>
</div>
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cite="mid:2bb9a19f-904c-e50c-33f1-eecabcc8b860@iki.fi">
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<p>Since version 57, Firefox only supports add-ons through the
WebExtensions APIs. At the time, Thunderbird decided to continue
supporting traditional add-ons, since we hadn't yet been able to
develop replacing APIs for add-on developers to use. <br>
</p>
<p>Since then, Thunderbird has been developing WebExtensions APIs
(aka MailExtensions), and the number of APIs available is
continuously growing: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://thunderbird-webextensions.readthedocs.io/"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://thunderbird-webextensions.readthedocs.io/</a><br>
</p>
<p>Because the toolkit support for traditional add-ons has been
largely removed, this has meant a lot of work for Thunderbird to
keep things going for add-ons. For the server side it has also
meant a lot of extra work (addons.thunderbird.net is a fork of
addons.mozilla.org). Add-on developers haven't had an easy ride
either: The number of changes to make an add-on compatible has
been significant. <br>
</p>
<p>Going forwards we want to change this. Support for traditional
add-ons is going to be dropped as soon as we're ready to do so
internally. There are a few pieces of code that we need to
convert over internally: <br>
</p>
<ul>
<li>Lightning: to be integrated into the code base<br>
</li>
<li>Mozmill (used in our test infra): we're converting over to
using mochitests instead</li>
</ul>
It's not yet clear exactly when we're ready to rip out the support
for traditional add-ons from the code base, but it should be
whitin the Thunderbird 72 time frame - so by end of 2019. The next
major version of Thunderbird, version 78, will be out around June
2020. Up until then, code wise many things are going to change.
For instance, what is left of XUL will be gradually going away,
and documents will shifted to being XHTML with a less and less XUL
flavor. <br>
<p>Dropping support for non-MailExtension add-ons is also needed
for addons.thunderbird.net. Supporting old-style add-ons would
require a significant investment in the back-end there, since
the Django version of the back-end would reach EOL and have to
go through a painful and expensive upgrade.</p>
<p>As an author of a traditional add-on, what should you do? There
are two routes: A) convert your add-on to a MailExtension. If
the API you need doesn't exist yet, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Thunderbird&component=General">tell
us about it</a>. B) convert your add-on to a <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://thunderbird-webextensions.readthedocs.io/en/68/how-to/experiments.html">Web
Extension Experiment</a>. Most add-ons should be able to be
converted to an experiment with a reasonable effort. The
recommended path is forward is to convert it to an a
MailExtension though. That will make sure the add-on works
without significant changes over many years. If you go with
option B, you'll have to maintain a lot of more code yourself
and breakages can and will be bad unless you keep up really
close. MailExtension Experiments should be seen as such,
experiments with the goal of getting the API they need into
Thunderbird core. Please work with us on getting the needed
pieces in as a supported API. Initially we'll be allowing
experiments to be exposed to the general public, but over time
(years) Thunderbird will gravitate towards not having the
experiments available to the general public, the same way it
works for Firefox.<br>
</p>
<p> -Magnus<br>
</p>
<br>
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<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
tb-planning mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:tb-planning@mozilla.org">tb-planning@mozilla.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/tb-planning">https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/tb-planning</a>
</pre>
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