Google Contacts 0.5.10

Google Contacts 0.5.10 is now available for download. It improves a performance of Interactive synchronization. It will creates a "xml" directory in a backup directory even if the number of backup files is set to 0. It is used to reduce unnecessary synchronization. So, don't remove the directory and its contents.

Google Contacts 0.5.00

Google Contacts 0.5.00 is now available for download. It includes the following changes:

• Added: Convert Thunderbird and Gmail's address field and synchronize them (disabled by default)
  
• Added: Implement UI to custmize backup options
• Added: Gmail's system groups are synchronized
  
• Fixed: Some contacts will not synchronized when you synchronize more than 100 contacts by Batch mode
• Changed: Show alert when contacts will be deleted by default
• Fixed: Fails to retrieve password for an account
• Added: Clear all prefs when it is uninstalled
• Changed: Disable a functionality which excludes an account from sync accounts when its address book is removed
• Fixed: Fails to synchronize Gmail groups which include non-ASCII characters
• Fixed: Adding and removing email from a mail list is not synchronized

It includes fixes of serious problems. I recommend all users to update.

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.6.10

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.6.10 is available for download now. It newly adds a locale switching option in the account setup wizard, which was desired by many users.

Gmail IMAP Account Setup requires that Thunderbird's language is the same as Gmail's display language. If Thunderbird language setting differs from one for Gmail, select Gmail's display language in the menulist at the bottom of the account wizard.

If you are Ubuntu Linux user, the option will not work correctly. It is a problem in Ubuntu, not in the addon. Please change locale by starting up Thunderbird with -uiLocale option.

It also includes new locales. Please see the post for supported locales.

Open New Tab Extension for Thunderbird3

I started to use Thunderbird3b1 in order to study feasibility of updating my extensions for Thunderbird3.　My first impression for Thunderbird3b1 is that the tab accessibility is not enough. It seems there is only one method to open a tab: from the context menu of the thread pane. So, I created an extension to add other methods to open a tab: New Tab Button Extension. I'm glad if you like it.

It provide you the following functionalities:

• Open a selected message in a tab by a toolbar button
  
• Open a message in a tab by double-clicking it when the toolbar button's dropdown menu is checked
  
• Open a selected message in a tab by Shift+T shortcut key

I made it to taste add-on development for Thunderbird3. So, I don't plan to add other features to the extension. And I also think these features would be provided by Thunderbird3, not an extension.

BTW, I read some codes of Thunderbird3b1 and I seems that alomost all my extensions will not work on Thunderbird3. I'm going to start to update them for Thunderbird3 after Thunderbird3b2 release but some of them may not be updated in time for Thunderbird3.0 release.

Call for Priority Switcher icons (and v0.5.30 release note)

Priority Switcher 0.5.30 is now available for download. It newly has a icon switching function, which changes priority icons for the thread pane. You can choose one of two icon sets in the option dialog: "Default" and "Outlook like". The Outlook like icon set is provided by a Priority Switcher user, Joshua_X.

If you want to bundle your icons to the package, please send me the following icons:
highest_tri.png (16x16 highest priority)
high_tri.png (16x16 high priority)
normal_tri.png (16x16 normal priority)
low_tri.png (16x16 low priority)
lowest_tri.png (16x16 lowest priority)
none.png (16x16 no priority)
prio_col.png (12x12 thread pane header, no sort)
prio_col_a.png (12x12 thread pane header, ascending sort)
prio_col_d.png (12x12 thread pane header, descending sort)
* png or gif format is required

In addition to the icons, please tell me the icon set name, which will be shown in the option dialog.

Thanks in advance.

Google Contacts 0.5b8

Google Contacts 0.5b8 is available for download.

In this beta, synchronization of Gmail's system groups is newly added. Your system groups are mapped as follows:

• My Contacts -> System Group: My Contacts
• Friends -> System Group: Friends
• Family -> System Group: Family
• Co-workers -> System Group: Coworkers

Please note that all you can do for them is adding/removing contacts from them. Renaming/deleting them are not allowed.

I write this post since this change may involve some bugs and I should notify the risk to you. Please use it carefully and let me know if you find any problems.

Tag Toolbar 0.7.80

Tag Toolbar 0.7.80 is now available for download. It fixes the following issue:

• Toolbar is hidden if Thunderbird was finished with activating Lightning in the previous session.

If you use Lightning, I recommend you to update.

It was submitted to AMO and is waiting for a review. It will take some times before it is downloadable at AMO.

Google Contacts becomes public Add-on

After the long long wating in the review queue in AMO, Google Contacts has been reviewed by an AMO editor and been made public at AMO. It means you can download it without AMO account and can be notified when it is updated.

In order to become a public add-on, it must be reviewed by many users and has a high quality. Namely, it was be able to become a public add-on thanks to many discussion here and users' reviews at AMO.

Thank you for your comments and reviews for Google Contacts. Please let me hear your voice more and let's make Google Contacts more useful add-on.

Backup option of Google Contacts

As you may know, Google Contacts has a backup functionality but it did not have a UI to change its options. Now, the UI is added to the latest beta, v0.5b4.

You can set up the following options:

• Maximum number of backups: A backup file will created whenever it synchronizes Thunderbird and Google. So, many backups will be created. The option specifies the limit of backup files. If the number of backup files exceeds the limit the oldest file will be overwritten. Set 0 if you don't need the backup functionality.
  
• Directory: The option specifies the location where backup files are created. Default setting is profile_directory/GoogleContacts/. Click the "Select directory" button to change the path. "Open directory" button opens the directory by a filer; it may not work depending on your environment.
• Character encoding: The options specify each character encodings for Thunderbird and Google backups. By default, Thunderbird encoding is the value of intl.charset.default and Google encoding is UTF-16. In general, you don't need to modify the setting for Google but Thunderbird one may be wrong. In order to set up Thunderbird encoding, export your address book as "Comma Separated" file by Tools-Export menu of an address book window and see its encoding.

Please let me know if you find problems.

Google Contacts 0.5b3

I've updated beta of Google Contacts. It includes fixes of the problems of the postal address conversion, which is newly added by v0.5b1.
In addtion to the fixes the following features are added:

• delimiter for the postal address conversion: By default, Gmail's postal address is splitted by ", " and converted to Thunderbird's postal address. Now you can change the delimiter by the addon's option dialog.
• clearing preferences on uninstalling: When you uninstall the addon, all preferences that were made by the addon are removed. The addon sometimes does not work since its preferences are messed up by some reason. In such case, you can fix it by uninstalling and re-installing the addon.

Converting Gmail and Thunderbird postal address fields

I've implemented postal address conversion between Thunderbird and Gmail. Please try Google Contacts 0.5b1.

The function is disabled default. You can enable it by the addon's option dialog. The Format listbox specify the fields to be synchronized and order. In the case of the image, Gmail's postal address will be the following format: Address1, Address2, City, State, Zip Code, Country.

Please let me know if you find problems.

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.6

I've received many request to add a locale switching functionality. Moreover, many users failed to set up Gmail IMAP due to a mismatch between Thunderbird and Gmail language settings. So, I've implemented the locale switching in Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.6.

"Language of Gmail" setting is added in the first page of the account setup wizard. This option is enabled when you choose "Gmail IMAP" or "Gmail IMAP (Google Apps). The locale which is the same as the one Thunderbird uses is showed by default. If it differs from Gmail's language setting, choose the correct locale. For example, select "en-US" if your Gmail setting is US English. If your locale is not showed in the list, it is not supported so far. The locale switching requres restart of Thunderbird. Continue the account setup after Thunderbird was restart.

Newly added strings have not been localized yet because v1.6 is an experimental release.
Please let me know if you find any problems.

Visual XUL Editor

Designing UI is one of bothring part in developing addons for Firefox/Thunderbird or XUL applications. XULPIX is an application which enables you to define UI visually. You can edit UI by looking both DOM tree and preview of the UI. It seems useful when I create an addon from the beginning, especially when I make an option form. See the demo below for details.

Google Contacts 04.20

I forgot to post the release of Google Contacts 0.4.20. It is a bug fix version of v0.4.10 and no new feature is added. It fixes the following problem:

• Fixed: Synchronization will be failed if taking backup for either Thunderbird address books or Google contacts fails
  

Shredder Alpha 3

Mozilla Messaging released Shredder Alpha 3, which was planed to be the first Thunderbird3 preview: Thunderbird3 beta1. It is an alpha version yet, but some remarkable features have landed. The following features are newly added. See the release note for more details.

• Improved Message Reader View
• Add/Edit Contacts from the Message Header
• Integrated Vista Search
• Automatic Message Download for IMAP
• Birthday Field in Address Book

Some users may do not prefer the new header view, but I like it. Especially, the expanded style seems to be more functional.

Collapsed header view.


Expanded header view. You can easily add an email address by clicking the star near the address. It is similar to the way that Firefox bookmarks a web page.


Automatic Message Download for IMAP is one of long awaited features.


Address book has a birthday field.

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.5.10

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.5.10 is a revised version of v1.5.00. No new functionality is added since v1.5.00. v1.5.00 was rejected by AMO editor due to a probability of conflicts with other addons. In order to avoid the conflicts, all codes of the addon have been rewritten with a object-oriented style. The drastical change may includes problems which I have not noticed; of course, I tested it carefully. If you find any problems, please let me know.

Thunderbird 3.0b1 renamed to Shredder 3.0a3

Mozilla Messaging decided to rename Thunderbird 3.0b1 to 3.0a3. dmose described more details in his blog.

BlueGriffon

Glazman, the developer of Nvu, announced a new Mozilla-based WYSIWIG HTML editor called BlueGriffon. A few amount of information is available so far.

Tag Toolbar 0.7.70

Tag Toolbar 0.7.70 is now available for download.
It improves detection of a sent message when you add tags to it.

Locale update

I've updated a summary for supported languages of each addons.
Google Contacts supports 10 languages now! Thanks, translators!

If you are interested in translating my addons, please join BabelZilla and translate them.
Thanks in advance!

Google Contacts 04.10

Google Contacts 0.4.10 is now available for download. It includes minor improvements for a simple backup system and new locales.

• Use UTF-8 for Thunderbird address book backups if there is a character which cannot be encoded in a default charset
• Add preference to specify charset for Thunderbird address book backups: gmcont.dump_charset
• Add de-DE and ru-RU locales

Google Contacts determins an encoding for Thunderbird address book backup file according to the value of intl.charset.default. For example, in Japanese Windows and Japanese locale Thunderbird environment, the value is Shift_JIS and the backup file is saved in Shift_JIS encoding. However, in Japanese Windows and English Thunderbird, the value is ISO-8859-1 and cannot handle multi-byte characters. Namely, Google Contacts may create backup in a wrong encoding and you may fail to import the backuped csv file.

If you are in the same trouble, install v0.4.10 and set gmcont.dump_charset to the proper charset by the Config Editor. In order to check the proper charset, export an address book to a csv file by Thunderbird's export function and see the encoding of the file by a text editor which can see a file encoding.

Rollbacking Thunderbird address book and Google Contact

Google Contacts has newly had a backup functionality since v0.4.00. It will takes snapshots when you click reload button. It takes them when Thunderbird starts up if you enabled reloading contacts at startup option.

The backup files are stored in [profile_directory]/Google Contacts/[account]/Google/ and [profile_directory]/Google Contacts/[account]/Thunderbird/. The Google directory includes backups for Google Contact and the Thunderbird directory includes backups for Thunderbird address book. By default, it stores 10 backups. If you want to change the number, create gmcont.max_backups and set it to the value by the Config Editor. If you want to disable the functionality, set it to 0.

The both backups are CSV files and they are named as account-yyyymmdd-hhmmss.csv. They can be imported by the import functionalites of Thunderbird and Gmail.

The functionality assume to use the import functionalities of Thunderbird and Gmail, the following fields cannot be restored:

• Thunderbird cards: Screen name, Prefers to receive messages formatted as, and Allow remote images in HTML mail
• Google contacts: Other fields In the More information, photo.
  

Moreover, mail lists in Thunderbird and groups in Google Contacts are not be able to restore either.

It is an experimental functionality. If you find problems or have suggestions, please let me know.

Update 1:
If you cannot import a backup file for a Thunderbird address book due to a character encoding problem, see the post and try Google Contacts v0.4.10.

Google Contacts 0.4.00

Google Contacts 0.4.00 is now available for download. It includes the following changes:

• Added: backup Thunderbird address book and Google Contact for each accounts
• Added: it-IT, ca-AD and zh-CN locales

See the post for the details of the backup functionality.

Google Contacts 0.3.70 and Priority Switcher 0.5.20

I've updated Google Contacts and Priority Switcher. They are updates for pt-BR locales.
Thanks RodrigoBiker!

Changing icons of Priority Switcher

You may think you want to change the priority icons that are added by Priorty Swithcer. I show you the way to change these icons.

1. Copy icons you want to use to the "chrome" directory in your profile. It exsit in C:\Documents and Settings\Application Data\Thunderbird\Profiles\chrome on Windows XP. If the directory does not exist, create it.
2. Copy userChrome.css to the same directory. If you already have had the file, append to it.
3. Modify the uri() in the file. If there is an element you want to use default icon, delete the setting for it. For example, if you want to use "lowest.png" for the lowest priority icon, change uri("flag_purple.png") in treechildren::-moz-tree-image(colPSWPriorityIcon, lowest) to uri("lowest.png"). If you don't want to change the icons in the thread pane header ("!" icon), delete the following elements: #colPSWPriorityIcon, #colPSWPriorityIcon[sortDirection="ascending"], and #colPSWPriorityIcon[sortDirection="descending"].

I don't have a skill for creating cool icons and I think the default icons are not so good. If you have nice icons and want to make it default, please let me know. I'll mull over bundling them.

Postbox: Another Mozilla-based Email Client

Scott McGregor, who was a former Thunderbird lead engineer, announced a new mozilla-based email client called Postbox. It enhances managing and searching of messages, attachments, images, etc. I sympathize with the ideas they try to realize. I think an email client should be like a knowledge base which manages information from many messages. Postbox may become a solution for the challenging issue. I hope Thunderbird and Postbox will evolve through friendly competition.

There is not beta which you could download but you can see a few screenshots and a demo. The following is presentation at the TechCrunch 50 conference.


Webcam chat at Ustream

Google Contacts 0.3.60

Google Contacts did not remember a password and asked it if you had changed it.
v0.3.50 fixes the problem. I recommend all users to update.

It also includes new locales: fr-FR and es-ES.
Thanks translators!

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.5.00

As you know, Gmail IMAP Account Setup sets up accounts by following the Google's recommended settings. I've notified that one of the settings is changed by a user; browser.cache.memory.capacity is changed to 30720. Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.5.00 set up accounts by following the new setting.

The value is changed when you install the new version and the value is old setting: 31457280. The rewriting is done only once. So, if you prefer to keep using 31457280, set the value to 31457280 again after the addon change it. And it will changes only when the old value is 31457280. It will not change it if you use another value.

In addtion to the change, it includes new locale: ko-KR.

Google Contacts 0.3.50

Google Contacts 0.3.50 is now available for download. It includes the following changes:

• Fixed: mail lists will not be deleted in synchronizing
• Fixed: duplicated cards are created in creating a mail list
• Fixed: bypassing cache (set gmcont.bypass_cache to false if you need caching)

I've submitted v0.3.50 to AMO, too. It means v0.3.50 becomes a stable version and bugs in v0.2.xx is not fixed anymore. Please update if you use v0.2 series.

I've also submitted it to BabelZilla and start to collect locales. Please sign up BabelZilla and translate it into your language.

Thanks.

Google Contacts 0.3.40

Google Contacts 0.3.40 is now available for download. In this version, you can undo deletion of contacts. Since the addon is untable yet, it may delete contacts in Google by a bug. You may delete them by mistake, too. You can recover the deleted contacts/groups by using this new functionality.

You can invoke the function from a drop down menu of the Reload button in the address book window (see the image). The Reload button is not added by default settings. Customize the toolbar and add the icon if you have not added it yet.

There are a few limitaions:

• only Google entries deleted from the address book window can be recovered
• a mail list can be recovered but email addresses which are stored in it are not restored
• only entries deleted in the session will be restored; i.e, all cache are purged when you finish Thunderbird

Please let me hear your comments about the new features in v0.3.30 and v0.3.40!

Google Contacts 0.3.30

I've uploaded Google Contacts 0.3.30. It includes the following new features:

1. Progress meters appear while synchronizing contacts
2. Confirm deletion when synchronizing offline changes

The 1. is added to notify a user of the end of synchronization. Synchronizations may take some time ; it depends on conditions of your network, amout of data, load of Google, etc. If you edit address books while the addon synchronizes, it may fail. So, don't modify address books while the progress bars appear in the status bars of main (messenger) window and address book window.

The 2. feature is disabled by default. You can enable it by the option dialog. When the addon apply offline changes, it deletes some items. It judges them based on the last updated dates of them. However, the judgement is very difficult and it is impossible to do perfectly. In order to avoid wrong deletions, it asks a user items to be deleted by a popup. Uncheck items you don't want to delete.

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.4.60 and Priority Switcher 0.5.10

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.4.60 and Priority Switcher 0.5.10 are now available for download.

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.4.60 newly includes ca-AD and hu-HU locales. It supports 18 languages now! Thanks translators and BabelZilla staffs!

Priority Switcher 0.5.10 is a locale update for 0.5.00.

Google Contacts FAQ is updated

I've updated FAQ for Google Contacts. It includes 4 new tips.
Please refer to them if you are in trouble.
I hope they'll help you.

Google Contacts 0.3.20

Google Contacts 0.3.20 is now available for download. It fixes the following serious problem. Please update if you use 0.3 series.

• Fixed: all contacts in Gmail will be removed when you reload contacts

It does not happen if you have ever reloaded contacts by 0.2.90 or 0.2.100.
Anyway, please don't use 0.3.00 and 0.3.10 anymore.

Tag Toolbar 0.7.60

Tag Toolbar 0.7.60 is now available for download. It fixes the following problem:

• Fixed: Cannot tag a composed message when "Place replies in the folder of the message being repiled to" is checked in a "Copies & Folders" option
  

Makeshift download page

The download pages are down now. Please download the latest addons from the following links.
Please note the links are temporaly and will be removed after the server is recovered.

[Updated 8/8]
The server is now available. The following links will not be updated and will be useless. Please download addons from my homepage.


Maximize Message Pane

• 0.9.100
• 1.0.00b3

Get before Send

• 0.7.80

Check and Send

• 0.8.30

Priority Switcher

• 0.5.00

Gmail IMAP Account Setup

• 1.4.50

Tag Toolbar

• 0.7.50

Google Contacts

• 0.2.100
• 0.3.10
  

The server has been down 3 times since I move the download pages to where. And this down is the longest. I'm searching more stable server for the pages. Please recommend if you know servers which fulfill the following requrements:

• 30MB or more spaces
• Google AdSense is allowed
  
• Free or cost a few dollers for month
• Ruby, especially eruby or ERB is available
• Both English and Japanese pages are allowed
• XPI files can be uploaded

Thanks for your patience.

Server down

The server at which the download pages locate is down now. Please wait it is recovered or download addons from AMO.

Thanks for your patience.

Google Contacts FAQ

This post shows frequently asked questions and answers. Please read them before you ask me.

I've tried some features including Google's Contacts Data API, Thunderbird's address book API, E4X/XMLHttpRequest of JavaScript. They are all new for me. So, it may invoke some problems. Indeed, some bugs have been found and Google Contacts has been updated frequently. Please check the blog regularly and use the latest version. If you find bugs, please let me know error messages in the Config Editor and methods how to reproduce them.

1. It does not retrieve all contacts in Gmail.
It retrieve only about 25 contacts by default. If you have more contacts, set the maximum number of the contacts in the Google Contacts' option dialog. This limitation will be removed in v0.6.34.

2. It does not synchronize at all.
At first, verify there is at least one account checked in the Accounts Window from the options. Then authorize your accounts before you synchronize Thunderbird and Google It is done by clicking Reload button. If uncheck the "Load contacts at startup" option, you have to reload contacts manually before you modify address books.

3. It does not add contacts.
Duplicated email addresses are not allowed in Gmail. Confirm the address you want to add is unique.

4. What's the difference in the Interactive and Batch mode?
The interactive mode publish changes you did in Thunderbird to Gmail immediately . On the other hand, the batch mode does not publish them immediately. The changes are sumitted to Gmail only when you click the Reload button. I recommend you to use the interactive mode for daily use. Use the batch mode when you changes many cards and mail lists at once or you manage them offline.

5. Some groups are not mapped if several accounts are synchronized.
Thunderbird does not allow duplicated mail lists even if they are in different address books. So, if there are groups whose name is the same in accounts, only one of them is mapped and the others are ignored. It is due to a limitation of Thunderbird's database and I can do nothing about it.

6. Do I have to install your IMAP addon, Gmail IMAP Account Setup, too?
No. Gmail IMAP Account Setup is not needed for Google Contacts.

7. What fields are synchronized?
Only fields exist in both Thunderbird and Gmail. Fields only exist in Thunderbird are stored in Google's database so you can share them among Thunderbirds but you cannot see them in Gmail. See here following for the mapping.

8. No contact is retrieved after I deleted the address books created by the addon.
When you delete address books, the accounts to which the address books are bound are set not to synchronize anymore. If you want to synchronize them again, open the addon's option and check the accounts in the "Accounts" section. They will come back after you restart Thunderbird.

9. Where is the Reload button?
It is not added to a toolbar automatically. It exists in the toolbar palette of the both main (messenger) and address book windows. Please add it manually.

10. It sometimes fails to retrieve contacts.
A synchronization takes some times because it sends requests to Google and waits for replies. The time depends on the amount of data, your network conditions and load of Google. Please wait for a few minutes after it started to synchronize.

11. How can I reset it to the initial settings?
You cannot initialize it only by removing and reinstalling the addon. Please reset it as follows:

1. Delete address books created by the addon
2. Open the Config Editor
3. Type gmcont in the filter
4. You will see preferences starts with gmcont; Clear all of them by right-clicking a pref and choose "Reset"
5. Restart Thunderbird

12. Does Google Contacts supports Shredder/Thunderbird3 beta?
It does not support Shredder and Thunderbird3 beta so far. And it will not work even if you install it by modifying install.rdf since APIs for address books are changed in Thunderbird3. I plan to start to implement when Thunderbird3 beta2 is released.
Test builds for Thunderbird3 Beta are available now. Please see the Thunderbird3 Compatibility Testing Thread and try the latest builds.
Now v0.6 or later support Thunderbird3.

13. Does Google Contacts supports Google Apps?
Yes, it does. But it cannot detect your Google Apps accounts automatically, not as it finds POP/IMAP Gmail accounts. So, after you install the addon, open the addon's option dialog and add your Google Apps accounts to the account section manually.


14. Why is a password needed to download Google Contacts?
Google Contacts is placed in the sandbox system in AMO, where experiment addons are stored. You have to sign up AMO account and login to download them. In order to push them into a public space, they have to be reviewed by AMO editors and be approved. I nominated for the review and am waiting for the approval. However, the review takes many times since many addons are waiting for the review.
Google Contacts becomes a public add-on. You can download it without an AMO account.


15. I cannot receive a update notification for Google Contacts.
As I wrote in the question 14, it stored in the sandox of AMO. You will get the notification after it is pushed to a public. Please wait until it is approved.

Google Contacts 0.2.100 and 0.3.10

Google Contacts 0.2.100 and 0.3.10 are now available for download. It fixes one bug.

• Fixed: Synchronization will fail when a value of a card or a mail list inludes "/"

I've update the both v0.2 and v0.3 serieses since v0.3 is unstable yet.

Check and Send 0.8.30

Check and Send 0.8.30 is available for download.
It is update for the following locales: es-ES and ru-RU.

Google Contacts 0.3.00 can manage offline changes now

Google Contacts 0.3.00 is available for download now. It can submit changes you did offline when you reload contacts. Moreover, a new synchronization mode, Batch mode, is added. You can change mode in the option dialog. There are two mode: Interactive and Batch. Interactive mode will submit changes immediately; it is the same as the prevous versions' behaviours. Batch mode will not submit changes immediately; it submit them when you reload contacts.

Before you use the Batch mode, you have to reload contacts without offline changes after it is installed. The reloading is required only once after the installation; it records last modified date for each cards and groups in order to decide which is newer: Google and Thunderbird.

If you find any problem in synchronization, please let me know. A synchronization is very complex so tell me operations to reproduce a problem.

It includes many changes. If you do not need offline support or need more stable one, use v0.2.90.

Get before Send 0.7.80

I've updated Get before Send. It includes the following fix:

• Fixed: cannot receive messages before sending when you send a message from the downarrow menu in the Get->Send button

This fix includes the changes of its basic functions. It may also fix other problems in receiving messages.

Google Contacts 0.2.90

Google Contacts 0.2.90 is available for download now. It includes the following fix:

• Fixed: Deletion of cards in a mail list is not synchronized

I recommend all users to update.

Check and Send 0.8.20

Check and Send 0.8.20 is available for download. It includes the following changes:

• Fixed: cannot send to mail lists if "Remove recipient names" option is enabled
• Added: de-DE locale is updated

Google Contacts 0.2.80

I've updated Google Contacts. The following functionality is added in v0.2.80:

• Added: accounts to be synchronized can be added manually

As Xavy reported, the extension could not detect Gmail accounts if their pop/imap server are localhost. In this version, you can add an account manually by the extension's option dialog if it is not detected automatically. The delete button is disabled when you select an account which is detected automatically. It is not a bug.

Using the functionality, you can also retrieve Google contacts without setting up Gmail account.

Please note that you must enter an account including its domain name. When you enter an account name, it verify whether "@" is included in the name or not. If it lacks "@", it will show an alert.

Google Contacts 0.2.70

Google Contacts 0.2.70 is now available for download. It fixes the following problem:

• Fixed: an alert appears when no email address is entered

I said that a primary email is required in this blog but it is not correct. A google contact requires either an email address or name. It is the correct limitation. In v0.2.70, the alert appears only when both the email address and display name are empty in a card.

Tag Toolbar 0.7.50

Tag Toolbar 0.7.50 is now available for download. It includes the following fix:

• Fixed: an error message is appear when a message is saved by a message compose window
  

Priority Switcher 0.5

Priority Switcher 0.5.00 is available for download now. It includes the following new functionalities:

1. Added: option to enable/disable changing priority by clicking on a priority icon in the thread pane
2. Added: option to warn before deleting starred messages
   

New strings are not translated; they have been translated by translator at BabelZilla. I'm going to release 0.5.10 when the translation is done.

Update: Google Contacts 0.2.60

Google Contacts 0.2.60 is available for download now. It inclues the following fixes:

• Fixed: Screen Name/Instant Messaging is not synchronized
• Fixed: Changes of some card fields do not invoke synchronization

Update: Google Contacts 0.2.50

After I've released v0.2.40, I found a few problems in the version. v0.2.50 fixes the following bugs:

• Fixed: Mail lists which were deleted but is created now are not created.
• Fixed: An error message appears when a message sending is done.
• Fixed: Some debug messages are removed.
  

Please let me know if you find any other problems.

Update: Google Contacts 0.2.40

Google Contacts 0.2.40 is available for download now. This version includes fix of serious crashing bugs. So, please update it as soon as possible if you use v0.2.xx series.

• Fixed: Thunderbird will crashes when Google contacts are retrieved manually.
• Fixed: Thunderbird will crashes when a mail list is selected.
• Fixed: Duplicated mail lists are created.
• Fixed: A card is not added to a mail list when the card is dropped on the list in the address book tree.
• Fixed: A card is removed from an address book when it is remove from a mail list.
  
• Added: Show alert to specify the maximum number of contacts at the first time after the extension was installed.
• Added: Reload button in the messenger window is enabled again.
  

Update: Google Contacts 0.2.30

Google Contacts 0.2.30 is available for download now. It includes the following fixes:

• Fixed: cannot detect Gmail account if user name or server name have ever been changed
• Fixed: fails to retrieve contacts if user name does not include domain name

These fixes would solve the problem of the empty address books. If you have ever tried the extension but been given up due to the problem, try it again!

Update: Tag Toolbar 0.7.40 and Google Contacts 0.2.20

Tag Toolbar and Google Contacts have been updated.
These are bug fix releases so I recommend all users to update.

Tag Toolbar 0.7.40:

• Fixed: tagging does not work if you open a messeger compose window from address book window

Google Contacts 0.2.20:

• Fixed: dupulicated cards are created if the address belongs to mail lists
  

Google Contacts 0.2.10 supports contact groups now!

Google has started to provied new APIs to manage contact groups in Google Contacts. Google Contacts 0.2.10, which is available for download now, maps Google's contact groups to Thunderbird's mail lists. As previous versions updates cards/contacts interactively, lists/groups are synchronized.

Moreover, you can store Thunderbird specific card items to Google a contact. This is achieved by using new Google APIs for extended properties. These properties are not shown in Gmail but you can see them everywhere if you access them by Thunderbird with the extension.

The new APIs includes another interesting features: support for contact photos. This is not implemented yet in the extension because TB address book card does not include photos.

This version includes many changes from the previous versions. But it is not tested enough and it may involve serious problems. So, don't forget to backup your Google contacts. And please let me know if you find any problems.

Server down

The server for my download page is down now. Please download my extensions from AMO or my Japanese pages (through Google translation). Thank you for your patience.

Update:
The server is recovered now.

Google Contacts 0.1.30

I've updated Google Contacts again. This update includes an important fix, so I recommend everyone to update.

The fix is the maximum number of contacts to be synchronized. Google has a default limit for retrieving contacts, which I didn't notice. So, the previous versions cannot retrieve all contacts if the number of your contacts exceeds the limit. In this version, you can specify the limit. If you cannot see all contacts in your address books, please increase the limit.

This version newly has an option dialog. From this dialog, you can configure some settings, including the limit for contacts.

Google Contacts 0.1.10

I've updated Google Contacts. This version fixes the problem that synchronization at startup sometimes failds. Please update immediately if you use v0.1.

Shredder Alpha 1 compatible

I have recieved requests to make my extensions support Shredder Alpha1 (TB3a1). However, I'm not plan to add Shredder a1 support. Shredder a1 is the initial version and it will be changed drastically. So, I will not add TB3 compatibility at least until TB3b1 is released.

Moreover, I don't decide whether Maximize Message Pane and Gmail IMAP Account Setup will support TB3 or not. TB3 will have a tab functionality, which will be a substitute for Maxmize Message Pane. TB3 also will support easy setup of Gmail IMAP. Do you need them despite TB3 has similar functionalities? Please let me hear your thoughts on them.

Synchronizing Google contacts and Thunderbird address books

I've developed a new extension for Thunderbird named Google Contacts. This extension accesses to Google contacts and synchronize them with Thunderbird address books.

After you installed the extension, it detects all the Gmail accounts which have already set up on Thunderbird and accesses to the contacts for them. Then, it creates address books named Google-accountname for each of them. It is OK to rename them.

When you update cards in the address books, the changes are immediately applied to the contacts in Google; if you delete a card, the contact will be remove from Google; if you add a new card to the address book, a contact is added to Google. This is similar to the way IMAP updates messages.

If you delete the address book, the contacts for the account are no more synchronized. If you want to sync them again, open Config Editor and change the value of gmcont.accountname.sync to true.

The extension retrieve Goolge contacts automatically when Thunderbird launches. If you don't want to synchronize at startup add gmcont.auth_at_startup and set its value false. Please note that you should sync Thunderbird and Google by clicking the Reload button in either the main or the address book window before you modify address book cards if you use the configuration.

There are the following limitations:

• Only items shared by Google and Thunderbird are synchronized,
• You have to input an email address or display name for a card. This is specification of Google,
• All the changes while you did on offline will be discarded when you go online,
• Only accounts which already set up are synchronized.

This is initial version and may involve serious bugs. So, please don't forget to backup Google contacts before you use the extension.

If you find any problems or have requests, please let me know.

Update1
There is one more limitation which I forgot to write. It cannot sync Thunderbird's lists and Gmail's groups. This is because Google does not provide API for retrieving and modifying groups. Therefore, it is difficult to realize the functionality so far.

Update2
The latest version has an option dialog. So, you can set up preferences easily by the dialog, not by the Config Editor.

Update3
Gmail's contact groups are supported by Google Contacts v0.2.10. TB specific properties are also stored in Google contacts by the version. See this post for details. Try it!

Update4
Offline changes can be synchronized when you click the Reload button. It has been supported by v0.3 or later.

Check and Send 0.8.10

I've finished the beta test for Check and Send 0.8 and released v0.8.10. Thank you for your feedbacks during the test.

v0.8.10 includes the following new functionalities:

• check file extensions for attachments
• check a message subject in attachments/word checking
• negated expression in attachments/word checking
• recipient name checking

See the extension's option dialog for the details.
You can control the timing when the recipient name checking is invoked. See the post for the setting.

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.4.50

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.4.50 is now available for download.
tr-TR locale is newly supported in this version.

Shredder Alpha 1 (Thunderbird3a1) is out!

Shredder Alpha1 is available now. Shredder is used for alpha of Thunderbird in order to prevent users from mixing with a product release, as alphas of Firefox did. I like the name because the word well describes the dangerousness of Alpha. Please note that you should use Shredder for test not for daily use. It's alpha and you should use it at your own risk.

This is the first alpha for Thunderbird 3 but it includes some noticeable features have already been added. You can see newly added features from a release note. The new addons manager looks.

Thunderbird team is now towards Shredder Alpha2. Code freeze for alpha2 is planed on July 8, 23:59 Pacific.

Check and Send 0.8.00b9

Check and Send 0.8.00b9 is available for download now. This will be the last beta for v0.8 release. I don't plan to add new functionalities to v0.8 anymore; if you need a new functionality, this will be implemented in v0.9. b9 has been translated to some languages but some strings have not been translated yet in some locales. Translators are working for these strings now, so they will be fully translated by the time when Check and Send 0.8.10 is released.

In addtion to the locale update, b9 includes a hidden preference: chksend.recip_replace_event. This preference determins when the recipient name checking is performed. If you want to use the preference set up it as follows:

1. Open Config Editor
2. Create new preference as Interger
3. Set its name chksend.recip_replace_event
4. Set its value to
• 0: check on opening a composer
• 1: check before sending a message
• 2: both

If you want to set this option only for an identity and you know the key for the identity, create mail.identity.idXXX.chksend.recip_replace_event instead of the preferece above.

Tag Toolbar 0.7.30

Tag Toolbar 0.7.30 is available for download now. It includes the following fix:

• Fixed: a setting for hiding access keys is not saved

I recommend all users to update.

Updates: Tag Toolbar, Priority Switcher, Gmail IMAP Account Setup

I've updated Tag Toolbar, Priority Switcher, Gmail IMAP Account Setup. You can download them from my homepage.

Tag Toolbar 0.7.20:

• Fixed: a tag toolbar will be hidden when Lightning 0.8 is installed
• Fixed: zh-CN strings is not translated fully (Thanks fiag!)
• Added: tags can be sorted by alphabetical order in the Category Editor

Priority Switcher 0.4.70:

• Added: finnish locale is added (Thanks MiK546!)

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.4.40:

• Fixed: a starred icon does not appear on some themes

Supporting Lightning 0.8

Lightning 0.8, which was released recently, has a task mode and some of my extensions involve errors due to the newly added mode. I know the following extensions have a problem so far:

• Maximize Message Pane: error messages are shown when you change a mode
• Tag Toolbar: a tag toolbar is not shown when you back to the mail mode from other two mode

I've released Maximize Message Pane 1.0.00b3 and Tag Toolbar 0.7.20b1, which fix the problems, on my homepage. If you know other problems due to Lightning, please let me know. I'll fix them.

Tag Toolbar 0.7.10

Tag Toolbar 0.7.10 is available for download now. The key feature that is added in this version is a multiple tag toolbar. One or more toolbars are added when a tag toolbar overflows. In order to use this functionality, specify maximum number of tag toolbars in advance.

Basically, I released new version after it had been approved by AMO reviewers. However, they seems to be busy for reviewing add-ons which support Firefox3. I submitted it about 2 weeks ago, but it is still waiting for approval. So, I decided to release it only on my Homepage. Thus, it is not updated automaticall yet; please download it and install manually. If you don't want to do it, please wait until it is approved by AMO.

Changes from previous version, Tag Toolbar 0.6.20, are as follows:

• Added: add a new toolbar automatically when a tag toolbar overflows (set maximum number of toolbars before you use this functionality)
• Added: a button/menu to add/remove all tags in a category
• Added: the category editor shows a query of a saved search category
• Added: a tooltip of a saved search category shows a query of it
• Fixed: the category editor is too narrow in some languages
• Fixed: some icons are missing in some themes
• Fixed: unnecessary updates of a tag toolbar on startup of Thunderbird

Thank you for your joining for the beta test and useful feedbacks!

Feature request and support thread

This thread is closed. Post comments to the following new thread:

Feature request and support thread #2

 

This is support and discussion thread about my extensions. Please feel free to post your comments here, including feature requests, questions and bug reports. Please include the following information when you ask questions or report bugs:

• OS
• version of an extension
• version of Thunderbird
• installed extensions
• installed themes
• error messages in an error console

The error console can be opened by Tools->Error Console menu. I've developed several add-ons. Please write the add-on name you want to mention, too.

Attachments will be something like "Part1.2" on Thunderbird with Gmail IMAP

You probably have seen that attachment files of a message became a strange name such as "Part1.2". It seems that it will happen when you open a message with two or more attachments whose name include non-ascii characters and the problem stems from the way of fetching a message.

If you troubles with the matter, set mail.server.serverXXX.mime_parts_on_demand to false, where serverXXX is a server key of a Gmail IMAP server. In case you don't know the server key, type server in the Config Editor's filter. You will find the mail.server.serverXXX.name whose value is an account name of Gmail IMAP. Use the serverXXX for the mime_parts_on_demand option.

Please note that once you set this option to false, entire message including attachments is fetch when you open a message. Therefore, this workaround may lower the performance of your Thunderbird.

For information of this option, refer to MozillaZine knowledge base.

AMO Redesign

New AMO has launched. The site is rearranged and improved usability. You can see sandbox pages, where you could not see in the previous version of AMO without login, even if you do not sign up an account for AMO; of course you have to login to download an addon in a sandbox. Moreover, you can know how many times an addon is downloaded in a week. It is very useful information for searching nice addons.

In addtion to the redesign, the new AMO provides new tools called statistics dashboard for developers. Addon developers could know total and weekly downloads in a developer page. The new tools newly include the number of active users, users' environments, versions of Firefox/Thunderbird etc. The information is very valuable for improving addons. Only developers can access it in default but if they make public it, users can see it too. If you want to see information of my extensions, please add comment to this post. I'll push it public page if many users want to see.

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.4.30

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.4.30 is available for download now. It newly includes English (British), Slovak, and Indonesian (Indonesia) locales. Please refer to the following for all supported languages: http://hogiblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/call-for-translation.html

This extension is submitted to AMO but it is in a sandbox page yet. It supports many languages and no problems are found so far. So, I want to make it public. In order to do that, your reviews about it are required. So, please add your review to the sandbox page of the extension. If you don't have an account of AMO, please post your review as a comment for this post.

Thanks in advance.

Faceted browsing extension "Seek" and Maximize Message Pane

The SIMILE group at MIT has developed the "Seek" extension which adds faceted browsing features to Thunderbird2. Seek provides UI to filter messages in the thread pane as iTunes does by a genre, an artist name and an album title. A screencast in their site is useful to see its look and feel. I don't think the traditional 3-pane layout is good enough because a preview area is too narrow while I read a message; meanwhile, a preview shares too large space while I search a message. I'm very looking forward to see the evolution of Seek from now on.

If you install Seek, the message pane places at right-bottom of the window. You may think it is too narrow to read a message. The UI is changed to the original one by Ctrl-K but you may think the folder pane and the tread pane are not needed while you read a message. Maximize Message Pane can solve the problem. Download and install Maximize Message Pane 1.0.00b2 then open an extension's option form. You can see the textbox titled "Other:". Input "seekStatusPane,seekPane-deck,seek-mainSplitter" to it (without double-quotations). If you don't need the folder pane while reading a message, check the "Folder pane", too. The Seek's panes are collapsed and the message pane is expanded when you click the Maximize button or press F8 button.

Check and Send 0.8.00b7

Check and Send 0.8.00b7 is available for download now.
This version includes changes of an alert for a recipients' name correction.

I think it is getting stable now. So, changes of functionalities will be freezed soon.
Please tell me if you find problems or have features you want to add.

Final beta of Tag Toolbar 0.7

Tag Toolbar 0.7.00b4 is available for download now.
This will be the last beta of v0.7.

This version includes localization and some bug fixes. Some strings are not translated in some locales yet. These strings have been translated and tested by translators.

I'm plan to release v0.7.10 in the end of March.
If you find some problems, please post them here or contact to me.

Browsing AMO by Internet Explorer

A download page of my extensions links to AMO(addons.mozilla.org) for security issues. All my extensions are downloadable there. However, there is a problem when you access to the site by Internet Explorer. If you browse the page by IE, you will see several popup and cannot download an extension. It seems that developers of AMO did not check the site by IE because the site mainly provides Firefox extensions.

I recommend you to install Firefox. However, if you could not use Firefox by any reasons, please contact me. I'll send you my extensions.

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.4.20

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.4.20 is released.
You can set up a Gmail Imap account from the "Add Account" button in the Account Setting form, too; Only File->New->Account menu is available in the previous versions.
In addition to the fix, it support Swedish Gmail from now on.

• Download
  

FAQ about Gmail IMAP Account Setup

I have been asked many questions about Gmail IMAP Account Setup. This post shows frequently asked questions and answers. Please read them before you ask me. The extension set up by following the Google's recommended settins. So, I strongly recommend that you refer to the page, too.

Q1. Why does the extension set the delete model to "Mark it as deleted", instead of "Move it to the Trash folder"?

To mark a message in a folder as deleted means remove the label from the message. On the other hand, to move it to the trash means remove all labels attached to it and move it to the trash. If you set the option to "Move it to the Trash folder", messages will be completely removed even if you only want to remove the copies of the messages. It is very risky setting.

Q2. Why do you recommend not to enable the junk mail control of Thunderbird?

The junk mail control download and analyzes a message to judge the message is a spam or not on IMAP. This will slow down Thunderbird. Moreover, I think there are only a few cases when Thunderbird's spam filter is need to classify a message because Gmail has a smart spam filter. It is not worth lowering the performance of Thunderbird for such cases.

Q3. Why does the extension set not to save a sent message to a sent folder?

A sent message is automatically saved in Gmail and it appears in the Sent and All mail folders when you send it by Gmail's smtp server: smtp.gmail.com or smtp.googlemail.com. So, Thunderbird should not save a sent message.

Q4. Is it possible to synchronize Gmail's labels and Thunderbird's tags?

Gmail's labels are converted to folders and are passed to Thunderbird when Thunderbird accesses to Gmail by IMAP. In order to synchronize labels and tags, Thunderbird should find folders where a message is saved for all messages. Moreover, it should be done periodically because labels may changed on Gmail. I'm not going to make such extension because this will slow down Thunderbird.

Q5. Is it possible to synchronize colors of Gmail's labels and ones of Thunderbird's folders?

By the same reson of Q4, Thunderbird cannot retrieve any color information from IMAP data. It is not possible to synchronize them.

Q6. I already have an account set up by not using the extension. How do I set a star icon to the starred folder?

Please set up by following steps:

1. Install Gmail IMAP Account Setup and restart Thunderbird
2. Right-click on the starred folder and select "Copy Folder Location"; it copies the URI of the folder to a clipboard
   
3. Open Config Editor
4. Create "mail.server.serverXXX.gmailimap_starred" key and paste the copied URI to its value
5. Restart Thunderbird

Please note that you should rewrite the serverXXX by the server key of your account.

Q7. A message said it failed to set up folders. What should I do for it?

Set up the drafts, send, and spam folders by refering to the Google's recommended setting page. For setting up the starred folder, see Q6. For the trash folder, create "mail.server.serverXXX.gmailimap_trash" key and set the folder URI by the same way for a starred folder in Q6. In addition to that, search "mail.server.serverXXX.trash_folder_name" and correct the value by the trash folder name.

This message is shown when a locale for your language is not included in the package. If you are interested in translating the extension, please contact me.

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.4

Gmail IMAP Account Seup 1.4 is available for download now.
This version includes the following changes:

• support Google Apps' Gmail
• support Google Mail
• Restart of Thunderbird is required when setup is finished
• avoid to create duplicated trash folders
• support Spanish

Choose "Gmail IMAP (Google Apps) " in the first page in the account setup wizard if you want to setup Google Apps' custom Gmail address.

In order to set a trash icon to a trash folder, the previous versions set the trash option to "move to trash" first, and then change to "mark as deleted". Namely, they fake Thunderbird. However, it sometimes create unnecessary trash folder. To avoid it, v1.4 does not fake Thunderbird and sets the icon by itself. It means the icon is lost if you uninstall or disable the extension. Please note this.

• Download
  

Check and Send 0.8.00b6

Check and Send 0.8.00b6 is available for download now.
An alert for a recipients' name checking is changed in this version; Only names to be rewritten are popuped. Moreover, sending is aborted when you click the cancel button in the alert.

I'm going to fix functionalities of 0.8 by this version and localize newly added strings in the next beta.

• Download
  

Gmail IMAP Account Setup supports more languages!

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.3.20 is released. In this version, the following locales are newly included: French, German, Bulgarian, and Russian.

Thanks translators!

Check and Send 0.8.00b5

I've updated Check and Send Beta.

This version shows confirmation when the recipient names are changed. You can also specify recipients you don't want to change.

You can download it from here.
Please give your feedback in order to improve the extension!

Maximize Message Pane 1.0.00b2

I've updated Maximize Message Pane beta. In this version, the following options are added to the option dialog; they are implemented as hidden options in previous versions.

• Collapse Lightning's Today Pane
• Specify IDs which you want to collapse
• Disable left-click if you set to maximize by clicking the header
• Maximize even if no message is selected

Download

Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.3.10

Now, Gmail IMAP Account Setup is available for it-IT, nl-NL, pl-PL and pt-RB, adding to en-US and ja-JP. Thanks translators!

Of course, Gmail IMAP Account Setup needs more locales. Please translate it into your language, too!

Get before Send 0.7.60

I've updated Get before Send. In this version, you can set up a delay time after a receiving is completed. If you sometimes fails to send messages using this extension over POP before SMTP, the option may solve the problem. The option is in the General tab in the Get before Send's option form.

• download
  

Check and Send 0.8.00b3

Check and Send 0.8.00b3 is available for download now. This version has a functionality which checks a recipient name. You can choose one of following:

• Correct a recipient name if it is different from one in a address book
• Remove all recipient names
• Nothing is done

Gmail IMAP Account Setup needs your help!

Gmail IMAP Account Setup will fail to synchronize the special folders if the locale you use in Gmail is not included in the package. So, it needs to be translated into as many language as it can be. Now, it is submitted to BabelZilla and waiting for translation. If you concern about translation of this extension, please join BabelZilla and translate it into your language. In case you could not sign up BabelZlla account, please send me locale files you translated.

I've made the description page for the extension. Please refer to there for more information about the extension. Of course, you can post questions here and can ask by mailing me, too.

By the way, I read Thunderbird3 features in Mozilla Wiki and knew Thunderbird3 plans to support Gmail's Imap. So, the extension may comes to its end-of-life when Thunderbird3 is released. It's a sad news for me, as a developer of the extension, but it will be better to support it as a Thunderbird's feature than as an extension, I think.

Anyway, thanks in advance for your translation!

Tag Toolbar 0.7.00b3

Tag Toolbar 0.7.00b3 is available for download now. It includes the following changes from beta2:

• integrate + and - buttons which adds/removes all tags in a category
• improve performace adding/removing all tags in a category
• improve the initialization process
• show query of a saved search category as a tooltip
• show query of a saved search category in the category editor
• bug fix

Dowonload
Release note for TagToolbar 0.7.00b2
Release note for TagToolbar 0.7.00b1

First roadmap for Thunderbird3

David Ascher has posted the first roadmap for Thunderbird3. It seems that the main features of Thunderbird3 are calendering, searching, and STEEL. STEEL is an interface for extension developers to make the development easier; it is similar to FUEL of Firefox3. As an extension developer, the STEEL is the most interesting topic for me.

According to the David's plan, first alpha will land on in Q1 2008 and will hopefully be released for users in Q4 2008. It is so tight and it looks difficult to achieve. Anyway, it is pleased thing that I can see the future of Thunderbird. I'm looking forward to the evolution of Thunderbird.

Starred folder - Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.3

Since Thunderbird has a star functionality, which is the same as Gmail, Gmail IMAP Account Setup 1.3 sets a star icon to the Starred folder (see the preview).

Please note that if you uninstall the extension, the star icon disappears. So, please don't remove it. While if you don't need the star icon, please remove it.

If you already have set up account, but if you need the starred folder, please remove the account and setup it again by the extension. Please remove the setting for outgoing server too when you remove the account.

For more information and functionalities, please see the post for the previous release.

• download
  

Gmail IMAP Account Setup v1.2.10

I've updated a Thunderbird extension: Gmail IMAP Account Setup, which can assist you to setup Thunderbird for Gmail IMAP. In this version, it automatically sets up the followings based on Google's recommended settings:

• synchronize the sent folder
• do not copy a sent message to the sent folder; Gmail handles it
• synchronize the drafts folder
• save a draft to the drafts folder
• synchronize the spam folder
• add option to enable Thunderbird's spam control to the account wizard
• synchronize the trash folder
• set a message "mark as deleted" when it is deleted
• On Gmail's IMAP, deleting a message from a folder is different from moving a message to trash folder. The former meas removing label of Gmail and the latter means moving the message to the Gmail's trash. In other words, a message deleted by the former way still exists in the all mails folder, but a message deleted by the latter way is in trash and will be deleted after 30 days. Please note the difference.
  
• set browser.cache.memory.capacity to 31457280; it will improve the performance of TB
• set mail.server.serverXXX.fetch_by_chunks to false; it fixes the problem with huge attachments
• setup SMTP server
  

After you install the extension to Thunderbird, you can setup Gmail IMAP account from File->New->Account menu. If you suceed to setup, your folders will be like the image. Please note you must get Gmail account and enables IMAP before you use this extension.

Wizard for setting up Gmail IMAP account in Thunderbird

I've made a Thunderbird extension which adds wizard to setup Gmail IMAP account. After installing the extension, you can setup Gmail IMAP account from the File->New->Account menu. It creates new account and SMTP server settings. It also synchronizes draft, sent, and trash folders between Thunderbird and Gmail.

Please note that there are two limitations:

• You should use the same language setting in Thunderbird and Gmail
• Only English and Japanse are supported

If your settings don't satisfy the above, you will fail to sync up special folders.

You can download the extension from my homepage.

Priority Switcher 0.4.50 is released

Priority Switcher 0.4.50 is now available for download. This update is locale update; ca-AD and pt-BR are newly included.

• Download
• Release note for previous version: 0.4.40
  

Earth-friendly search engine

goo, a japanese portal site, has started earth-friendly search called "goo green label". If you search web by it, goo donates 15% of their income to NGO. Namely, your search will save the earth! Read about goo green label for the detail.

The page is simple and cool like Google top page. You can also see trees under the search box. The tree grow by your search. Note that it does not mean the number of trees goo planted. It only shows how many time the engine was used; one tree means 100 search. goo uses Google's database, so the search result is same as the one by Google. Therefore goo can show sufficient result even if you are non-japanese speaker.

goo also provides an extension for Firefox. It adds "goo green label" to the search box. I also recommend you the extension. It also changes background images of toolbars and status bar. If you feel difficult to see, you can remove the images by the extension's option.

Tag Toolbar 0.7.00b2

Tag Toolbar 0.7.00b2 is now available for download.

In this version, you can add more toolbars for tags; it is the solution for the request which was posted before. In order to use this functionality, you should specify the maximum number of toolbars. Open the Tag Toolbar's option dialog and set the number. If you set it to 0, toolbars are added indefinitely until all tags are shown in the toolbars.

Please let me know how you feel it.

• Download

• Release note for 0.7.00b1