Per from-address, rather than account

[GrahamCobb]

Hi,

I really like this add-on except that it doesn't quite work the way I need :-)

I (effectively) have only one Thunderbird account and one identity. The default identity within that account is, say, [email protected]. However, I only use the [email protected] address with my close friends. For any other emails (commercial, mailing lists, etc) I make use of catchAll delivery and use addresses like [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], etc. None of these are set up as actual thunderbird "identities". Instead, I use the "Reply from this identity when delivery headers match" feature (also known as the catchAllIdentity feature). [Note: I used to be a very heavy user of the Virtual Identity plugin].

This is fine for replying. However, when I create a new email, it defaults to sending from the default address: [email protected]. As I said, that is fine if I am sending email to my friends, but if I am sending it somewhere else I want to have a reminder that I need to manually change the From address.

BorderColors-D almost does exactly what I want. But I need it to choose the colour based on the From address instead of the thunderbird identity. Is that something you might consider adding?

I realise that it would be hard to manually add every address to the preferences list. In my use case that doesn't matter - I only need the warning colouring for when I use my default identity address [email protected].

Thanks for all your work on this great plugin! Any feedback on this suggestion would be great.

[dreadnaut]

Hello Graham, I had never noticed the "Reply from this identity when delivery headers match" option, interesting!

As far as I can see, there are no extension events that I can tap, to know when the user edits the From: address. Without that, the add-on it's only aware of the last selected identity.

[GrahamCobb]

Thanks for your reply. In my use case, I wouldn't really need the color to change when I edit the From address - I just need the reminder to do so! Would the hooks allow the extension to check the From address when the form first opens and use that to control which color to select?

[dreadnaut]

I had a look at that, and the call that I could use returns all the compose fields except... the From: address.

Just to verify: when you reply to one of these "catch all" email, does Thunderbird set your From: address to the recipient of that email? So the identity [email protected] catches all *@example.com, so when you receive [email protected] and reply to it, the sender is set to companyA instead of me?

[GrahamCobb]

Thanks for checking. Yes, that is how the catch all feature works (it is a bit more complex: TB looks through the incoming email for various headers to choose one to use for the From address but it is essentially trying to find the address the outside world thinks the email was being sent to - things like mailing lists make it hard). It is a hack, of course, but those of us who were heavy users of the Virtual Identity plugin are very grateful for it.

As a user, the incoming address appears in the From: field of the reply form, exactly as it would look if I had changed that field to another Identity. But I have no idea whether, internally, it is creating temporary identities (with their own identityId?) or just somehow hacking the From: address while leaving the identity untouched.

[dreadnaut]

But I have no idea whether, internally, it is creating temporary identities (with their own identityId?) or just somehow hacking the From: address while leaving the identity untouched.

Bad news, it seems to be the latter. Good news, they is an open bug to add access to the value of the From: field. I'll keep an eye on it, and mention this issue in a comment.

[dreadnaut]

Hello Graham, I can't believe it's been half a year 😅 but with Thunderbird 91 I can finally work on this issue, and I'd welcome your input.

When a compose window opens, I can now look at the From: address and compare it with the default sender for the identity in question. My thinking was to show the "undefined" grey border when the two don't match. With that in place:

• when you compose a new email, you would see your configured colour;
• when you reply to a catch-all email, e.g., from [email protected], you would see the undefined border.

Would this cover your use case to begin with?