Please support Thunderbird 78

[venthur]

TB 78 is just around the corner and betas are available for download. It would be nice if this extension remains to be supported.

[nortexoid]

Yes, please, especially because certain two-factor authentication only seems to work with Thunderbird 78, so using earlier versions is not an option for some.

[SilverGreen93]

I installed the lastest version from here in Thunderbird 78.1.1, it installed successfully, but I cannot find the gContactsSync menu so I cannot add an account. Is it still unsupported in Thunderbird 78? Or am I doing something wrong.
Thanks!

[zanonmark]

I think this extension should move to the MailExtension standard: https://developer.thunderbird.net/add-ons/about-add-ons

MZ

[BillH99999]

Yes please. This extension is indispensable for me (and many others I'm guessing). Would really love to have it available for TB 78.
Thanks!
Bill

[zanonmark]

It is for me, too.

However, I don't have any clue about where to start the conversion from, which looks like a rather complicated process: https://developer.thunderbird.net/add-ons/updating/tb78.
Basically, it seems that every part of the extension working with the TB interface has to be rewritten from scratch!

Luckily there seems to be a temporary workaround, to get the extension working again using most of the old code: https://github.com/thundernest/addon-developer-support/wiki. This is a first-step to make a complete migration to the new MailExtension API, but at least it should get the code run again with little work...

Any idea? Any help?

Thanks,
MZ

[wsmwk]

TB 78 is just around the corner and betas are available for download.

Automatic updates for version 68 users will tested today.

[jobisoft]

After I developed the migration guide mentioned in the comment above, I tried to reach out to Josh to inform him about that option and offered help during the migration. I think Josh is very busy at the moment with other things, as I have not received feedback.

I still offer my help, if someone wants to work on an update. However, we will need Joshs help, to land the update here as part of a PullRequest and also on ATN. A hard fork (at least on ATN) should only be the last option.

@jdgeenen : If you could find the time to open up this repo and/or the ATN add-on for an intermediate maintainer, this could allow the community to keep your work going and make a lot of users happy.

We already have seen a few add-ons migrated using the mentioned strategy. Example:
https://github.com/jobisoft/quicktext/tree/TB78-WL-Update-Step1

As Thunderbirds add-on coordinator and add-on support engineer, I cannot work on this on my own, but I can give you any assistance you might need.

[yorlik-too]

I hope the update will work with latest beta 81 also?

[jobisoft]

If Firefox is not ripping out some stuff we need, then yes.

[lionslair]

Happy to help or test. I am a web application developer but happy to give this a go in contributing some updates.
Let me know what I need to setup some sort of environment

[peci1]

You don't need any special kind of environment. Just a text editor and ZIP archive compressing utility. Do your changes, zip the whole extension folder, rename the archive to XPI and install.

[jobisoft]

To test development builds, you do not even need to zip. Just select "debug add-ons" from the gear icon in the add-on manager and then select "install temporary add-on" and select the manifest.json file of your add-on source directory. After you have made changes to the source, just hit "reload add-on".

No need to pack a zip file, no need to restart TB78.

[peci1]

I was also working with "debug addons". But it seems to me that you have to have a correct unloading/uninstall procedure first for it to be usable. If my addon can't undo all the changes it did (i.e. when I'm developing the unload procedure), then the reloading did not work for me...

[jobisoft]

That is true indeed. But then you would need to restart Thunderbird anyhow. You can still skip the zip step using the debug option. But once you have that unloading going, the development process is a lot faster.

[jobisoft]

Just to point that out: The WL API introduced in this thread, takes care of 99% of the unloading stuff.

[peci1]

Not my 1% though :-D Anyways, it is a great help :)

[jobisoft]

I am paid by TB to help. So use me :-) john-at-thunderbird.net

[jaymzh]

@lionslair (and anyone else who ends up contributing to getting this working in TB78), I'll happily buy you a case of your favorite beer (or something similar)! As an opensource developer myself (who is way too behind on too many projects), I'm aware it can be a thankless job. I don't have the time to do the work myself here but I'm happy to test builds and buy some thank-you beers/coffees/whiskey/whatever. :)

[lionslair]

As a temporary work around the other night I tried this. I use Pop OS which is Ubuntu.
I tried adding my google account to the system. Then using the system address book. That all worked.
Thought then I could access the system address book from Thunderbird but no option for that either. Was surprised. The address book appear to be all within thunderbird only.

Will have a read of some of the links above.

[jpcasta]

It seems gcontactsync is the only module available to synchronise TB contacts with Google contacts and it is a main function we need in a mobility world.

@jobisoft, is there a reason why Thunderbird manages contacts and does not provide any way to synchronise them with Google contacts or any other available third party contacts?

It is the only thing I need to update TB to V78.x
Thanks

[BillH99999]

It seems gcontactsync is the only module available to synchronise TB contacts with Google contacts

There are two other add-ons (at least) that will do this. They are TBSync and CardBook. They sync contacts just fine. They do not sync mailing lists which is why I hope gContactSync does get updated at some point.

[jpcasta]

Thanks! I did not find them and I did not see them in the different comments.
I will look at how it works.

[BillH99999]

@jpcasta

You are welcome. I've been using TBSync as a (hopefully) temporary replacement for gContractSync. It uses the standard TB address book and is a bit easier to use (in my opinion). You can create categories (which are kind of like mailing lists), but they don't sync to gMail. Cardbook is more powerful. It creates its own address book. It also has categories, but if you sync to gMail those categories seem to get corrupted... either entries are removed from the category or the entire category is removed. I still hope gContactSync is updated as it does sync mailing lists. I've used it for years and really like it.

[vpapanik]

CardBook syncs mailing lists between Thunderbirds, if you change KIND to GROUP in card options. However, lists appear as blank entries in google contacts. On the other side, gContactSync syncs lists using standard TB AddressBook and transforms them in labels in google contacts.

[yorlik-too]

Had hopes for CardBook while gContactsync gets updated, but it only works on older versions of TB; if you want beta it won't work (ver 83)

[vpapanik]

Ι use 78.4

[jaymzh]

Thanks for the suggestions! tbsync does what I need, but I didn't find it when I was looking for alternatives to gcontactsync.

[jpcasta]

TBsync does the job for me as well
Thanks

[zanonmark]

Will this plugin have an option to set the Google side to "read-only", that is, permit only Google-to-Thunderbird updating and prevent any modification of the Google side?

Yes, it's in my TODO list - but only after the migration to the new TbSync-WebExtension release, because I will have to rewrite part of the code I already wrote.
(To put a date: late April?)

Synchronization is a very tricky thing, and this will have a lot of new, untested code. The last thing I want is for a mistake in a line of code to delete all my Google contacts, or accidentally shuffle the telephone numbers, or corrupt the contact notes because the developer forgot to specify the charset correctly, etc.

I agree with You.
Additionally, Google has a far richer addressbook structure than Thunderbird and some fields / information simply cannot be properly synchronized.

That's why I'm only modifying the contacts on Google and then importing them in Thundebird, even with gContactSync.

Thanks,
MZ

[zanonmark]

Sorry to be a complete nuub, but I'm unable to find the xpi file for Google-4-TbSync.
I'm happy to accept the risk of using it...but where do I get it?

There's no official release now, and no XPI file.

All You have to do is download the main.zip file, extract it wherever You want and then do a temporary import from Thunderbird: Tools > Add-ons > cog icon > Debug add-ons > Load temporary add-on.

After the migration to the new platform (late April?) I will obviously release in ATN.

Thanks,
MZ

[garretwilson]

Additionally, Google has a far richer addressbook structure than Thunderbird and some fields / information simply cannot be properly synchronized.
That's why I'm only modifying the contacts on Google and then importing them in Thundebird, even with gContactSync.

Wait, what? You are modifying contacts on the Google side even for an initial from-scratch import into Thunderbird!?? Please tell me I misunderstood what you are saying.

[jobisoft]

No, he said he only makes changes to the contacts on the google side (using the browser or his google phone or any other native google client) and not in TB. He only syncs from Google to TB but does not back.

[zanonmark]

@garretwilson No, I meant what @jobisoft kindly reported :)
Apologies if I wasn't clear.

I will support a bi-directional synchronization as far as possible, but the two addressbooks are quite different, so my final advice will be to edit your contacts (manually, via browser and/or smartphone) on the Google side and then do a read-only synchronization to Thunderbird.
This is what I'm currently doing with gContactSync and I never had problems.

Thanks,
MZ

[zanonmark]

@garretwilson No, I meant what @jobisoft kindly reported :)
Apologies if I wasn't clear.

I will support a bi-directional synchronization as far as possible, but the two addressbooks are quite different, so my final advice will be to edit your contacts (manually, via browser and/or smartphone) on the Google side and then do a read-only synchronization to Thunderbird.
This is what I'm currently doing with gContactSync and I never had problems.

Thanks,
MZ

[saleslogistix]

Sorry to be a complete nuub, but I'm unable to find the xpi file for Google-4-TbSync.
I'm happy to accept the risk of using it...but where do I get it?

There's no official release now, and no XPI file.

All You have to do is download the main.zip file, extract it wherever You want and then do a temporary import from Thunderbird: Tools > Add-ons > cog icon > Debug add-ons > Load temporary add-on.

After the migration to the new platform (late April?) I will obviously release in ATN.

Thanks,
MZ

Thank YOU for your fine work here!

But again...being a nuub...once I go to add-temporary-add-on...which file do I actually load? I'm going to wildly assume manifest.json, and it does appear to load. But I see no new menu items or ways to actually interact with the sync function.

[zanonmark]

@saleslogistix Yes, manifest.json may be ok.

You then open Tools > TbSync (You must have TbSync installed obviously) and then add a new Google account.
The credentials must be generated following the notes here.

Thanks,
MZ

[saleslogistix]

@saleslogistix Yes, manifest.json may be ok.

You then open Tools > TbSync (You must have TbSync installed obviously) and then add a new Google account.
The credentials must be generated following the notes here.

Thanks,
MZ

The Tools menu doesn't have a TbSync menu item when I debug-install the plugin. Am I missing a step??
Running TB 78.8.1 on Win10

[zanonmark]

The Tools menu doesn't have a TbSync menu item when I debug-install the plugin. Am I missing a step??
Running TB 78.8.1 on Win10

It's in Tools > Synchronization Settings (TbSync).
Did you install and enable TbSync first?

MZ

[garretwilson]

That's why I'm only modifying the contacts on Google …

Oh, you mean you personally manually modify contacts on Google before syncing. I thought you meant that the new syncing code you wrote modified the contacts on Google just to get them into a format that Thunderbird would recognize. Whew! Thanks @jobisoft and @zanonmark for clarifying.

[saleslogistix]

The Tools menu doesn't have a TbSync menu item when I debug-install the plugin. Am I missing a step??
Running TB 78.8.1 on Win10

It's in Tools > Synchronization Settings (TbSync).
Did you install and enable TbSync first?

MZ

Oh, no. Hadn't done that. Did that now and it works!

One question, though: It looks like the plugin creates a new addressbook in Tbird for each "account" to be synched -- which is fine. In the gcontactsync days, you could synchronize the Personal Address Book. Is this architecturally possible now, or is "only new addressbooks can be synched" the strategy for the future?

Thanks in advance for your response.

[jobisoft]

That is a design decision and TbSync will not change that. It connects remote address books to Thunderbird, so you can use remote addressbooks (like google) also in TB. It will not push arbitrary local address books to remote servers. You may move/copy local contacts into the google address book to have those available on all other devices as well. However, I strongly suggest to use the import function of google web UI itself and then sync those imported contacts back down to Thunderbird.

[yorlik-too]

Any chance it can work with beta's? I am on 87.0B2

and trying to install manifest.json nets me:

There was an error during the temporary add-on installation.
Error details

Add-on google-4-tbsync@marcozanon.com is not compatible with application version. add-on minVersion: 78.0. add-on maxVersion: 78.*.

[yorlik-too]

Sorry, I would delete my comment above but it wont delete or edit. I edited manifest to allow it to install.

[zanonmark]

At the moment the add-on is only working on TB78.
When the new TbSync is ready, I will port the code too and, at that time, more recent versions will probably be supported too.

Thanks,
MZ

[yorlik-too]

Is there any reason this would not work with beta version 82.0B2? Don't they both use the new google address book method? By changing to:

"strict_min_version": "78.0",
"strict_max_version": "89.*"

It loaded without faults. Now I am trying to figure out how to find a similar .zip package to modify manifest.json on the TBSync so I can install it! I only have the old non working gSync on my programs.

[zanonmark]

I don't know precisely, I just decided to stick with the TbSync defaults because I use a lot of API calls from it.

Happy to hear everything is working anyway.

Rest assured the final version will work with the latest Thunderbird too...

Thanks,
MZ

[zanonmark]

Just to let you know that I just extended Google-4-TbSync to implement the 'Use fake email addresses' feature (to assign a fake email to email-less contacts, so they can still be added to mailing lists) and the 'Read-only mode' one (Google-to-Thunderbird synchronization only).

MZ

[saleslogistix]

HI Marco,
I've successfully used the current version of TB-sync to work with three separate google email accounts going into three separate addressbooks in TBird. Cool. People appear to have populated and updated just fine. In two of the accounts, the sync also properly populated the "mailing lists" (in TB) from the "labels" (in Google. Great.
However, in the third account, it populated only the first three "mailing lists" -- the other 11 did not. Is there some sort of limit on the number of "mailing lists" that can be populated from Labels? The labels have the same first 6 characters (e..g "PLMWC LPalo" and "PLMWC UPalo") -- might that be confusing the sync mechanism somehow?
Let me know if there is any experimentation I can do to help troubleshoot this.

[zanonmark]

Hi,

will You please open a specific ticket on https://github.com/zanonmark/Google-4-TbSync, so that I can handle it better.

Thanks,
MZ

[zanonmark]

Just to let everybody know that I released an official .xpi package, currently at version 0.1.2: it will be available shortly on addons.thunderbird.net or via the classic Addons menu item in Thunderbird.

I think this will be my last message here. Any further discussion, bug reports, etc. on https://github.com/zanonmark/Google-4-TbSync please.

Thanks,
MZ

[Dirksche]

The latest Thunderbird version 91.3 has support for CardDAV, which can be used to synchronise your Google Address-book.

Just add a new CardDAV Adress-book and enter as server address:
https://www.googleapis.com/.well-known/carddav

[BillH99999]

@Dirksche

While that is true, my understanding is that TB 91.3 by itself can not sync address book mailing lists.

[venthur]

I'm closing this bug as Thunderbird itself now supports synchronizing google contacts.

[BillH99999]

Yes, but as I said above... TB does not support syncing address book groups (mailing lists). gContactSync did sync them. So native TB is not really doing the complete job.

[jobisoft]

Does

https://addons.thunderbird.net/addon/google-4-tbsync/

help?

[BillH99999]

I think eventually. As of now it doesn't support Thunderbird-to-Google creation / update / deletion of contact group members. It sounds like he is waiting for a rewrite of TBSync. At this time I am using Cardbook which will sync groups (mailing lists).

Bill