thunderbird not using indicator applet

Bug #367175 reported by Alexander Krivács Schrøder
538
This bug affects 99 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Mozilla Thunderbird
Fix Released
Wishlist
thunderbird (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Wishlist
Unassigned
Nominated for Karmic by Brian Lacy

Bug Description

Binary package hint: thunderbird

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 9.04
Release: 9.04

$ apt-cache policy thunderbird
thunderbird:
  Installed: 2.0.0.21+nobinonly-0ubuntu1.9.04.1
  Candidate: 2.0.0.21+nobinonly-0ubuntu1.9.04.1
  Version table:
 *** 2.0.0.21+nobinonly-0ubuntu1.9.04.1 0
        500 http://ftp.uninett.no jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

With the Upgrade to 9.04, I got the indicator applet in my task bar, and I like it a lot. However, while Pidgin and volume control and brightness control and such use it, my Thunderbird mail client is not using the indicator applet. I was under the impression that this indicator applet would show when one had incoming mail, and even show the amount of mail you have waiting for you. This does not seem to be the case with Thunderbird. This is a request for support for the indicator applet in Thunderbird.

Revision history for this message
In , Mkmelin+mozilla (mkmelin+mozilla) wrote :

xref bug 469880 which added it to firefox

Revision history for this message
In , David-humphrey (david-humphrey) wrote :

Adding this demo of notifications from Shuttleworth's blog, see URL above.

Revision history for this message
In , Chinmay-patel (chinmay-patel) wrote :

Created an attachment (id=363937)
Libnotify Support

This patch uses LIBNOTIFY by default to show notifications.

Revision history for this message
In , Bugzilla-standard8 (bugzilla-standard8) wrote :

(In reply to comment #3)
> Created an attachment (id=363937) [details]
> Libnotify Support
>
> This patch uses LIBNOTIFY by default to show notifications.

I haven't looked at this in detail yet. My immediate question is given the code you are removing, what happens if libnotify isn't installed?

Revision history for this message
In , Chinmay-patel (chinmay-patel) wrote :

Created an attachment (id=364802)
Notification when Libnotify is installed and enabled.

Notification Looks like this image, when Libnotify is installed and enabled.

Revision history for this message
In , Chinmay-patel (chinmay-patel) wrote :

Created an attachment (id=364803)
Notification when Libnotify is not installed.

Notification looks like this image when Libnotify is not installed in the machine.

Revision history for this message
In , Chinmay-patel (chinmay-patel) wrote :

Created an attachment (id=364831)
Adding Libnotify Support

I have checked that this patch works fine when Libnotify is not installed in the machine.
The only issue with this patch is that it shows libnotify notifications only with trunk build, not with 1.9.1 branch.

In the trunk there is a check at line
http://mxr.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/source/toolkit/components/alerts/src/nsAlertsService.cpp#78 available. It checks wether Libnotify is available or not. If it there, use Libnotify notifications.

But this check is not available in the 1.9.1 branch.

I have checked the patch with latest mozilla trunk and it worked pretty well.

Revision history for this message
In , Alexander Sack (asac) wrote :

IMO, this patch is not enough for thunderbird. The new notification system involves improvement to the notification bubbles, but since it removes the ability to use actions, it is supposed to go in together with a more stateful indicator for message notifications: libindicate.

Just this patch would be a regression, as it a) doesn't support accumulated notifications (e.g. notify more than one new message) and b) libnotify implementation on trunk doesn't provide actions - which is why we didn't pull this to 1.9.1 branch yet; and c) notification daemon in ubuntu will not have action support.

The complete approach would be:
 1. design a toolkit interface for abstract messaging notifications
 2. implement a default implementation that is xul based (in xulrunner)
 3. implement libindicate/libnotify support which is used if both are available on the system (in xulrunner)
 4. make thunderbird (and other messagin/chat apps based on xulrunner) use new messaging notification component.

Revision history for this message
In , Dmose (dmose) wrote :

Since Ventnor is responsible for the toolkit code, I think his thoughts would be helpful here. Adding him to the CC.

Revision history for this message
In , Ventnor-bugzilla (ventnor-bugzilla) wrote :

So how is libindicate different from libnotify exactly?

I can't find any API documentation on libindicate.

Revision history for this message
In , Bugzilla-standard8 (bugzilla-standard8) wrote :

(From update of attachment 364831)
Based on comments 8 and 10, this seems a little early.

If I understand "action" correctly, as being able to click on the alert and Thunderbird will come up, then loosing that certainly isn't acceptable.

Additionally, as there isn't libnotify support on 1.9.1 branch, I expect we'd either want to ifdef MOZILLA_1_9_1_BRANCH or hold off a month or two until we do a formal comm-central branch if its going to regress functionality.

If I've understood wrong, feel free to re-request review.

Revision history for this message
In , Alexander Sack (asac) wrote :

No its allright. We don't want this patch without libindicate support in thunderbird/messaging.

Maybe some background on libindicate.

In short libindicate is supposed to answer the frequently asked question: "What to do with notifications where actions are valid use case".

So, the canonical design team found that there are a few use cases where actions in notification make sense. One is messaging notifications. However, they found that actions in notifications are only one possible answer and that one should rather use a more stateful messaging indicator on the desktop. This is why ubuntu now ships a messaging indicator on the gnome-panel by default; apps like evolution and pidgin add their messages there.

Similarly, the idea would be that thunderbird adds its messages there. ... chatzilla too or other xulapps that want to provide messaging.

To make the transition smooth, we could make that toolkit component sensitive on whether the right facilities are available on the desktop or otherwise fallback to actionful notifications.

Oh, I will provide more info on the libindicate API details once we have them. so stay tuned.

Revision history for this message
Alexander Krivács Schrøder (alexschrod) wrote :

Binary package hint: thunderbird

$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 9.04
Release: 9.04

$ apt-cache policy thunderbird
thunderbird:
  Installed: 2.0.0.21+nobinonly-0ubuntu1.9.04.1
  Candidate: 2.0.0.21+nobinonly-0ubuntu1.9.04.1
  Version table:
 *** 2.0.0.21+nobinonly-0ubuntu1.9.04.1 0
        500 http://ftp.uninett.no jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

With the Upgrade to 9.04, I got the indicator applet in my task bar, and I like it a lot. However, while Pidgin and volume control and brightness control and such use it, my Thunderbird mail client is not using the indicator applet. I was under the impression that this indicator applet would show when one had incoming mail, and even show the amount of mail you have waiting for you. This does not seem to be the case with Thunderbird. This is a request for support for the indicator applet in Thunderbird.

Revision history for this message
Eemil Lagerspetz (eemil-lagerspetz) wrote :

The volume control and brightness control and such do not use it. They only use the new black notifications, not the indicator applet. Brightness change, volume control change and such do not appear to the menu that opens when you click on the envelope (indicator applet) in the notification area. If You only want the new black notifications for thunderbird, look here: https://launchpad.net/libnotify-mozilla/+download and download the extension. It can be installed in thunderbird in the usual way, i.e. click Tools - add ons, click Install, and browse to the .xpi file contained in the downloaded tar.gz.

To my knowledge, thunderbird does not yet queue events in the indicator applet. And I agree that it should.

Revision history for this message
In , Ventnor-bugzilla (ventnor-bugzilla) wrote :

Would love to look into providing a service for this but I still cannot find any documentation on the API (which is strange, Ryan Paul said he got libindicate working in his messaging program).

Revision history for this message
Alexander Sack (asac) wrote :

already reported upstream. linked accordingly.

Changed in thunderbird (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
status: New → Triaged
Changed in thunderbird:
status: Unknown → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
In , Quartz (ghexsel) wrote :
Revision history for this message
In , Quartz (ghexsel) wrote :

That gives some examples on how to use libindicate in a couple of languages and has some pointers (Disclaimer: I didn't try it myself, just googled it to help Michael).

Revision history for this message
In , Ventnor-bugzilla (ventnor-bugzilla) wrote :

Maybe I'm missing something, but I find this a really braindead API decision: indicate_server_set_desktop_file

1) How are we supposed to find out where the desktop file is?
2) What about users who don't have a desktop file for Thunderbird or any other Mozilla application that will use this?
3) Why can't we set the name and icon of our application directly (and anything else the library reads from the desktop file)?

Revision history for this message
ChrisDesjardins (cddesjardins) wrote :

Any update on Thunderbird being integrated with the indicator-applet?

Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

Chris look at the upstream bug report its at the top of the task lists on top of this page

Revision history for this message
Ruben Verweij (ruben-verweij) wrote :

I've added experimental support for the Indicator Applet to the Libnotify addon. See this bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/libnotify-mozilla/+bug/429395.

Revision history for this message
In , Matěj Cepl (mcepl) wrote :

(just adding Fedora me too from bug https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=550689)

Revision history for this message
In , Ludovic-mozillamessaging (ludovic-mozillamessaging) wrote :

(In reply to comment #17)
> (just adding Fedora me too from bug
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=550689)
Can you use the see also function for that ?

Revision history for this message
In , Stransky (stransky) wrote :

Shat is the status of libindicate? If you want to support it, is it available/supported by any other linux distribution? Is it a part of any desktop environment? I can't find any Fedora package for instance.

Revision history for this message
Excedio (excedio-ubuntu) wrote :

If you would like to add Thunderbird to the indicator applet (Envelope) please do the following:

sudo gedit /usr/share/indicators/messages/applications/thunderbird

Add the following line

/usr/share/applications/xxxxxxxxxx.desktop

xxxxxxxxxx should be changed to the command used to summon Thunderbird. For me it was thunderbird-3.0

After this you should be able to see Thunderbird when you click on the indicator applet (Envelope)

Revision history for this message
In , Feedback-launchpad (feedback-launchpad) wrote :

Ted Gould added the following comment to Launchpad bug #334344:

The reason that we used the desktop file is becuase it provides a lot of nice information. The high resolution icon, the name, the description and those are already translatable. Desktop applications on Linux do have desktop files whether they get added by upstream sources or distributors. For instance, Thuderbird wouldn't show up in the software center to be installed unless it had a desktop file.
We haven't uploaded the API documentation anywhere on the web officially. It is included in the libindicate-doc package. I have uploaded that here:
  http://people.canonical.com/~ted/libindicate/current/
Hopefully that helps.

--
http://launchpad.net/bugs/334344

Revision history for this message
In , M-kato (m-kato) wrote :

Created an attachment (id=423907)
patch v2 for comm-central

You know, libnotify supports from 1.9.2. The target of comm-central is 1.9.2 and trunk (1.9.3). So we should cleanup code for this.

Changed in thunderbird (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Carlos Aguilar (carlos-aguilar) wrote :

Hi,
I have changed the status to Confirmed and removed the bug dubplicate status.

The bug #334344, which was supposed to be a duplicate, and the mozilla-bug #478463 deal with adding libnotify support for thunderbird (the dark osd messages that appear on the upper right corner).

This bug deals with the fact that thunderbird does not use the indicator applet.

In other words :
- Thunderbird should be launchable from this applet
- There should be a stack of messages on the menu when you click on the applet as for empathy
- The icon should be dark when there is mail

This is related to the mentioned bugs, but to me it is not a duplicate. Indeed, even if the dark osd messages begin to appear this does not mean that the features above will work.

If I made a change that I shouldn't sorry about that, but please explain me why.

Thx

Carlos

Revision history for this message
In , M-kato (m-kato) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Micah Gersten (micahg) wrote :

Marking this Triaged as we have an upstream bug.

Changed in thunderbird (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Changed in thunderbird:
milestone: none → 3.1
Changed in thunderbird:
status: Confirmed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Jugney (jugney) wrote :

Dear Bug Watch Updater (Yes, I imagine you are automated),

Where can we find / how can we apply this fix?

Revision history for this message
Micah Gersten (micahg) wrote : Re: [Bug 367175] Re: thunderbird not using indicator applet

Support will be included in Thunderbird 3.1 at the moment.

On 03/09/2010 10:00 PM, Jugney wrote:
> Dear Bug Watch Updater (Yes, I imagine you are automated),
>
> Where can we find / how can we apply this fix?
>
>

Revision history for this message
u-foka (ufooka) wrote :

And thunderbird 3.1 will land in lucid?

Revision history for this message
Micah Gersten (micahg) wrote :

Not immediately. Possibly at some point.

On 03/18/2010 05:52 PM, u-foka wrote:
> And thunderbird 3.1 will land in lucid?
>
>

Revision history for this message
Ralf Nieuwenhuijsen (ralf-nieuwenhuijsen) wrote :

Can I reiterate the importance of this? Most people use thunderbird. I'm sure some people use evolution, but I don't know anyone who prefers it. Perhaps it's the default configuration, perhaps is the horrible cluttered UI, i'm not sure. But I think for the indicator to be a success, we need thunderbird integration.

Revision history for this message
Martyn Welch (martyn-welch) wrote :

I have to agree with Ralf. All the Ubuntu users I know remove evolution and install Thunderbird. I assume that evolution is in the official build due to it's Exchange plugin, the fact is, I don't know a single person that uses it. Everyone, other than for work, use POP3, IMAP or web based email. At work they may need exchange, however those PCs are also set up by an IT department.

Without the indicator integration in Thunderbird, most of the Ubuntu users I know will be missing out of what I'm sure is some quite impressive integration work.

Revision history for this message
Raymond (raykroeker) wrote :

I'll agree with Martyn and Ralf and add that I use it at work in an
Exchange environment configured for IMAP and using Sunbird to manage
my calendar after becoming S & T of Evolution's BS.

Thunderbird 3.1 looks amazing and am going to upgrade once my testing
is complete.

Raymond

On Sat, Mar 27, 2010 at 17:11, Martyn Welch <email address hidden> wrote:
> I have to agree with Ralf. All the Ubuntu users I know remove evolution
> and install Thunderbird. I assume that evolution is in the official
> build due to it's Exchange plugin, the fact is, I don't know a single
> person that uses it. Everyone, other than for work, use POP3, IMAP or
> web based email. At work they may need exchange, however those PCs are
> also set up by an IT department.
>
> Without the indicator integration in Thunderbird, most of the Ubuntu
> users I know will be missing out of what I'm sure is some quite
> impressive integration work.
>
> --
> thunderbird not using indicator applet
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/367175
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
---------------------------------------------------------
Raymond Kroeker

Revision history for this message
Marc Bowes (marcbowes) wrote :

Evolution's Exchange plugin is broken for Exchange 2007+, so there really is no reason to use Evolution anymore.

I'm using DavMail + Thunderbird + Lightning to talk to Exchange at work, and (IMO) it's a much happier experience than using Outlook on Windows. The only piece of the puzzle missing is the indicator applet. I'd be most happy if this was added :)

Revision history for this message
In , Bugzilla-standard8 (bugzilla-standard8) wrote :

(In reply to comment #22)
> landed
> http://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/5c4928d99bad

As discussed with Makoto, partly as a result of bug 555536, I've just backed this out from the comm-1.9.2 branch:

http://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-1.9.2/rev/e54fc70745ba

Therefore updating the target milestone accordingly.

Revision history for this message
Dmitri (dmitry-a-moudraninets) wrote :

And how to get new-mail notifications to work in Thunderbird in Lucid?

Revision history for this message
MarkieB (ubunt-u-markbenjamin) wrote :

relatively full instructions for how to put thunderbird rather than evolution in the indicator-applet messaging menu - see https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/540953

I'll make a patch to more precisely describe the necessary changes to thunderbird.desktop

Revision history for this message
MarkieB (ubunt-u-markbenjamin) wrote :

Modification to thunderbird.desktop to allow full indicator-applet integration

Revision history for this message
MarkieB (ubunt-u-markbenjamin) wrote :

improved patch as debuild already makes a debian/thunderbird directory; now confirmed that it debuilds

Changed in thunderbird (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → In Progress
Revision history for this message
MarkieB (ubunt-u-markbenjamin) wrote :

I should clarify that this aspect of it - simply adding thunderbird menu items to the applet menu - need not wait for further upstream changes / 3.1; it could be merged to the debian package now to save several predicted forum threads :-)

Naturally the patch makes no changes to the lack of applet-managed notifications when thunderbird has new messages, that's a different matter, that refers upstream

Revision history for this message
In , Philip-chee (philip-chee) wrote :

*** Bug 296683 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Revision history for this message
In , Robert Hrovat (robi-hipnos) wrote :

Thunderbird 3.1 final is out. How do you make it to use this feature?

Revision history for this message
In , Alan Lord (theopensourcerer) wrote :

You don't. It has been moved to target Thunderbird 3.2 according to comment 23 above: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=478463#c23

However, there is an extension that works with libnotify and the indicator applet. See here for more details: http://ubublogger.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/new-version-of-libnotify-for-mozilla-0-2-stable/

Revision history for this message
In , Alan Lord (theopensourcerer) wrote :

Why is this marked as Resolved/Fixed?

Revision history for this message
In , Robert Hrovat (robi-hipnos) wrote :

My thought exactly. Such important feature is missing.

Revision history for this message
In , Dmose (dmose) wrote :

RESOLVED/FIXED does indeed appear to be a mistake. Reopening.

Revision history for this message
In , Ben-bucksch (ben-bucksch) wrote :

Now I'm confused. Comment 22 says this landed on trunk. Comment 23 says this was backed out of TB 3.1 (but that means it stays on trunk = TB 3.2). A bug is "FIXED" when it landed on trunk (independent of any releases).

Revision history for this message
In , Dmose (dmose) wrote :

Quite right; my mistake. Good catch, Ben!

Revision history for this message
Vish (vish) wrote :

Well , this is not specifically "indicator-application" , but messaging menu , but that was the closest tag I could find :)

tags: added: indicator-application
Micah Gersten (micahg)
Changed in thunderbird:
milestone: 3.1 → none
Revision history for this message
Micah Gersten (micahg) wrote :

Setting back to triaged. We decided not to do partial integration and will wait for Natty to do proper integration with the messaging menu.

Changed in thunderbird:
milestone: none → 3.3
Changed in thunderbird (Ubuntu):
status: In Progress → Triaged
Changed in thunderbird:
importance: Unknown → Wishlist
Revision history for this message
David Britton (dpb) wrote :

Wanted to update this in case anyone else came in, the thunderbird extension here appears to be actively developed and works really well in my environment:

  https://launchpad.net/libnotify-mozilla

It was in a comment earlier, but this is a more direct link.

Revision history for this message
oldmankit (oldmankit) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Jason S. Wagner (jasonswagner) wrote :

So, is libnotify-mozilla the code that will eventually ship with Natty?

Revision history for this message
JW (arch0njw) wrote :

A few months have gone by here. Natty has shipped. Has this been fixed or is this now slated for 11.10?

Revision history for this message
Jason S. Wagner (jasonswagner) wrote :

This appears to be resolved. Thunderbird is now the default email client in Ubuntu (since 11.10?) and it works with the notifications as expected. Shall we close this?

Jonathan Davies (jpds)
Changed in thunderbird (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Fix Released
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