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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 01 Oct 2019 15:02, Magnus Melin
wrote:<br>
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<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:2bb9a19f-904c-e50c-33f1-eecabcc8b860@iki.fi">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>.</blockquote>
<p><tt>I think this is not the right way to go about it.</tt></p>
<p><tt>What we should do is look at selected set of add-ons and see
what they do. This is not hard, since developers are also add-on
authors and many add-on authors are also volunteers.</tt></p>
<p><tt>Take some examples:</tt></p>
<p><tt>Quick Folder Move written by Philipp: Changes a context menu,
the one for "Move To", takes a search string in popup that pops
up from the context menu, searches for folders matching the
string, presents a menu with the result, lets the user pick one,
moves the messages. Doable with today's set of APIs? If not,
there's something missing.</tt></p>
<p><tt>Shrunked image resizer written by Geoff: Observes the message
body and attachment bucked of the compose window for images
being added, offers to resize those images in a notification in
the status bar, resizes them and changes the item in the message
body or attachment bucket. IOW, it messes with the message body.
</tt><tt>Doable with today's set of APIs?</tt></p>
<p><tt>ThunderHTMLedit written by me: Adds a tab to the compose
windows' body, lets switch to the tab to display the HTML of the
message. It doesn't need to be a tab, it could be another
toggle. Lets user edit the HTML in a 3rd party HTML editor, and
when the user switches back to the message body, replaces the
body with the HTML. </tt><tt><tt>Doable with today's set of
APIs?</tt></tt></p>
<p><tt><tt>Various add-ons add a custom column to the thread
pane/message list. Doable with today's set of APIs?</tt></tt></p>
<p><tt><tt>If I spent 10 more minutes on this, I could come up with
another set of "common" scenarios. I'm sure, Axel could
provide a list of what his complex add-ons do. I don't know
much about them, but they do some stuff already mentioned
above. I think messing with the message being composed is very
common to many add-ons, like the ones mentioned or QuickText
or SmartTemplate.</tt></tt></p>
<p><tt><tt>In summary: It's not efficient to let add-on authors
discover that is needed, it's more efficient to go through
some common functionality and check whether it is covered by
APIs or not.<br>
</tt></tt></p>
<p><tt><tt>Jörg.<br>
</tt></tt></p>
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