Changes up to Thunderbird 115 ESR

Thunderbird 105 Beta

action API (MV3)

  • Added the action API, which is part of the Manifest v3 changes and replaces the browserAction.

Thunderbird 106 Beta

action API

  • Introduced a default_windows manifest property, to allow a action buttons to be displayed in stand alone message windows.

commands API

  • Added the tab parameter to onCommand, to get information about the active tab, when a command occurs.

compose API

  • Added onAfterSave event, to be notified when saving a message as a draft or a template succeeded or failed.

  • Added onAfterSend event, to be notified when sending a message succeeded or failed.

contacts API

  • Added contacts.getPhoto to be able to retrieve the photo of a contact.

mailTabs API

messages API

messageDisplay API

  • Fixed messageDisplay.onMessageDisplayed to be triggered for external messages.

Thunderbird 107 Beta

contacts API

  • Added contacts.setPhoto to be able to set the photo of a contact.

Thunderbird 111 Beta

messageDisplay API

  • Improved open(openProperties) to honour the location property also for external messages. They can now also be opened in tabs.

protocol_handler API

windows API

  • Fix create([createData]) to properly support top and left properties.

  • Fix beforeunload event not fired in popup windows. Note: There must have been some sort of interaction with the window (for example a mouse click into the window), for this event to be fired when the window is closed.

Thunderbird 113 Beta

action APIs

  • Removed the user input requirement from openPopup([options]), openPopup([options]) and openPopup([options]). Also added support for the windowId property, to open the popup of a specific window. Furthermore, openPopup() now returns a boolean value, indicating whether opening of the popup has failed, because the action button or the entire toolbar has been removed by the user.

  • Fixed the annoying issue on MacOS, where the popup was opened empty after the second time it was opened. A big shout out to Arnd Issler for helping to track this down.

  • Added allowed_spaces manifest entry, to let extensions define in which space the action button should be allowed in.

compose API

protocol_handler API

  • Add support for WebExtension defined protocols to be accepted as command line arguments. More details can be found in the bug.

Thunderbird 115.0 ESR

WebExtensions usually are not reviewed when submitted but instead are made available instantly. The WebExtension permission system should guard against malicious actors. However, the data available to extensions is very sensitive and if a user granted access to messages and contacts he mostly assumes the data is only used locally. Extensions however, can unknowingly send this data to remote servers. We therefore started to enforce review of all extensions, which request sensitive permissions like messagesRead or addressBooks. We also introduce an additional sensitiveDataUpload permission, which allows to by-pass this human review, but prompts the user for the following permission: Transfer sensitive user data (if access has been granted) to a remote server for further processing.

If an extension is not requesting that permission, but a reviewer concludes that it is indeed sending data to a remote server not under the control of the user, the reviewer may request the permission to be added.

action API

  • Deprecate the default_area manifest entry in favour of the recently added allowed_spaces manifest entry.

  • Add support for the type manifest entry to define a menu button, whose menu entries can be controlled through the menus API and a new browser_action_menu context.

addressBooks API

  • The function openUI() now returns a Promise for the Tab of the opened tab.

commands API

  • Add the onChanged event to be notified when a command shortcut has been changed.

compose API

  • Add support for the type manifest entry to define a menu button, whose menu entries can be controlled through the menus API and a new compose_action_menu context.

messages API

  • The queryInfo parameter for query([queryInfo]) is now optional.

  • Added openAttachment(messageId, partName, tabId) to open message attachments with the registered application. A big thank you to Mark Banner.

  • Add support for the type manifest entry to define a menu button, whose menu entries can be controlled through the menus API and a new message_display_action_menu context.

messageDisplay API

spaces API & spacesToolbar API

  • The button-centric spacesToolbar API was removed for Manifest v3 and has been replaced by the spaces-centric spaces API.

sessions API

  • Add a first simple version of the sessions API to allow extensions to store tab related session data, which is restored on app restart.

tabs API

  • The queryInfo parameter for query([queryInfo]) is now optional.

  • Add a spaceId member to the Tab type.

  • Add a cookieStoreId member to the Tab type. A big thank you to Neil Rashbrook.

  • Add support for the previousTabId parameter to the onActivated event.

  • Changed handling of URLs in update([tabId], updateProperties): If the URL points to a content page (a web page, an extension page or a registered WebExtension protocol handler page), the tab will navigate to the requested page. All other URLs will be opened externally without changing the tab. Note: The function will throw an error, if a content page is loaded into a non-content tab (its type must be either content or mail).

Thunderbird 115.3.2 ESR

messages API