<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr">On Sat, Oct 5, 2019 at 8:45 AM <<a href="mailto:tb-planning-request@mozilla.org" target="_blank">tb-planning-request@mozilla.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><br>
Date: Fri, 4 Oct 2019 16:14:41 +0200<br>
From: Will <<a href="mailto:will@impamark.co.uk" target="_blank">will@impamark.co.uk</a>><br>
To: <a href="mailto:tb-planning@mozilla.org" target="_blank">tb-planning@mozilla.org</a><br>
Subject: Re: Intent to de-support: traditional add-ons<br><br>
On 04/10/19 01:22, Geoff Lankow wrote:<br>
><br>
> DL itself hasn't been updated for over two years, so it's not just<br>
> your extension that's not had any maintenance. Looked into WebDAV?<br>
><br>
<br>
The author of DL posted on their list:<br>
<br>
"I'm still supporting the DL server though, the command line client as<br>
well as the "wx" windows GUI. I'm lagging in terms of available time,<br>
but I'm actively using DL for a variety of reasons, so that's not going<br>
away."
He has confirmed that to us privately as well.
<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Will, </div><div><br></div><div>Your best way forward would be to get DL Provider for Thunderbird add-on converted to a webextension as suggested by TB Team so you can upgrade to more recent version of Thunderbird and future ones... just from a security point of view that would be advised at some point.</div><div><br></div><div>Maybe ask lead developer of the add-on what would it take to migrate it to a mailextension (webextension for Thunderbird) to make it compatible with recent version of TB (e.g 60.8 at the least which is should still be compatible with legacy add-on in theory) and later for the future? </div><div><br></div><div>The first step may be to create a new branch to keep maintaining current legacy add-on code separately on its own... and use the master branch
for mailextension conversion and future development... starting by moving it to an upper version number... from 0.xx.x to 1.xx.x... those are just ideas... also a ,xpi file is just a .zip folder containing source code so it can easily be extracted if need be... to access code and look at it...</div><div><br></div><div>Perhaps then the thing may be to list:</div><div>- what need to be done for the conversion to happen</div><div>- how long it would take (and cost if any associated)</div><div>- would it require any new Thunderbird webextension APIs (<a href="https://thunderbird-webextensions.readthedocs.io/en/latest/" target="_blank">https://thunderbird-webextensions.readthedocs.io/en/latest/</a>) to be developed? There is already a file sharing system implemented in May for attachment so supposedly the required extension shall already exists...</div><div><br></div><div><div>The following from previous post may help as well...</div><div><br></div><div>"...</div><div>As an author of a traditional add-on, what should you do? There are two <br>routes: A) convert your add-on to a MailExtension. If the API you need <br>doesn't exist yet, tell us about it <br><<a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Thunderbird&component=General">https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Thunderbird&component=General</a>>. <br>B) convert your add-on to a Web Extension Experiment <br><<a href="https://thunderbird-webextensions.readthedocs.io/en/68/how-to/experiments.html">https://thunderbird-webextensions.readthedocs.io/en/68/how-to/experiments.html</a>>. <br>Most add-ons should be able to be converted to an experiment with a <br>reasonable effort. The recommended path is forward is to convert it to <br>an a MailExtension though. <br></div><div>..."</div><div>Source: <a href="https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/tb-planning/2019-October/006995.html">https://mail.mozilla.org/pipermail/tb-planning/2019-October/006995.html</a></div></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
We had been intending to assist in the core code as well... but currently fence sitting on that.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>That may be the best way forward, what is blocking you?</div><div><br>If not you directly, you could also try to find a third-party developer that may be willing to help you working on it and send GitHub pull requests to the lead developer that may be in measure to at least review them and possibly merge them into source code and then publish updated version on <a href="http://addons.thunderbird.net">addons.thunderbird.net</a> (a.k.a. ATN). Both legacy and mailextension version of the add-on shall be able to seat together for now in the same ATN location... from my understanding... may be just a matter of playing with version numbers...</div><div><br>Some people in this mailing list have worked at migrating legacy add-on to mailextension they may be able to provide advise on how to start and proceed... <br>This may also be of help as starting point as well: <a href="https://extensionworkshop.com/documentation/develop/porting-a-legacy-firefox-extension/">https://extensionworkshop.com/documentation/develop/porting-a-legacy-firefox-extension/</a></div><div> <br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">Latest commit a47ff1d<br>
<<a href="https://github.com/DownloadTicketService/dl/commit/a47ff1dd8124a87575188a5dd86889a16ea4f9e0" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://github.com/DownloadTicketService/dl/commit/a47ff1dd8124a87575188a5dd86889a16ea4f9e0</a>><br>
on 11 Jul - not that it was anything particularly important, but.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>At least it shows that it is still maintained somehow and the lead developer is still merging contribution from others... so that looks promising... just a matter of finding resources and a good will from lead developer (which you seems to have) :-)</div><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">In any event, we have not had any issue with it and we don't see any<br>
major Issues logged there.<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Well the major issue is compatibility with upper version of TB starting from 60.0</div><div><a href="https://github.com/DownloadTicketService/dl/issues/74">https://github.com/DownloadTicketService/dl/issues/74</a> </div><div>This is where it got to a stale...</div><div><br></div><div>Apparently the lead developer and his group are no longer using TB **because** they could not keep up with TB changes and "undocumented" features so their extensions keep breaking :-)<br></div><div><br></div><div>Though as per recent post from June, he may be happy to help if someone wants to contribute or take over the Thunderbird add-on...
with or without a financial bounty from my understanding :-)
</div><div><br></div><div>Some way forward possible then... good luck!</div><div><br></div><div>Regards,</div></div></div>