keebird icon indicating copy to clipboard operation
keebird copied to clipboard

Integration for Thunderbird 78

Open Stainzl opened this issue 4 years ago • 17 comments

Is support for Thunderbird 78 planned?

Stainzl avatar Jul 27 '20 09:07 Stainzl

These are the changes that need to be made: https://developer.thunderbird.net/add-ons/updating/tb78

dlech avatar Jul 27 '20 15:07 dlech

@dlech: I "borrowed" some code from keebird for keepassxc-mail which runs in TB78. Either you can "borrow" it back or help me to get keepassxc-mail working with KeePassRPC.

But apparently you can get keepass to work with keepassxc-mail with the help of keepassnatmsg...

kkapsner avatar Sep 01 '20 12:09 kkapsner

My Thunderbird just auto-updated from 68 to 78 When will a compatible version be available?

snodo avatar Sep 15 '20 06:09 snodo

When will a compatible version be available?

Whenever someone has the time and motivation to do the work to make the required changes.

dlech avatar Sep 15 '20 15:09 dlech

Would it make more sense to base a new add-on on the current Kee browser addon, which uses web extensions?

Sardtok avatar Sep 16 '20 08:09 Sardtok

I think it would make more sense to look at https://github.com/kee-org/keebird/issues/30#issuecomment-684811116. Kee has diverged quite a bit from Keebird.

dlech avatar Sep 16 '20 14:09 dlech

I agree that basing an updated Thunderbird extension on the latest Kee source code would most likely be overkill. There's not a huge amount of essential logic in there which needs to be in place for a successful MailExtension. However, pulling out just a few selected files (such as the ones that deal with the WebSocket connection and KeePassRPC messaging) and putting them into a new WebExtension should get most of the groundwork in place.

A wildcard option might be if someone could help out with implementing a native messaging connection for KeePassRPC - this is something that could then benefit the Kee browser extension too and thus reduce the number of plugins that need to be installed into KeePass. See https://github.com/kee-org/browser-addon/issues/23 for more details - obviously I'll be happy to help out anyone implementing that improvement to KeePassRPC but as I say in my latest comment there, it's the interaction between the browser (or Mail) extension, native messaging API, helper application and then KeePass/KeePassRPC that is most unknown to me so I think we would all be on a bit of a learning curve.

I've not followed Thunderbird development so perhaps anyone that knows the capabilities and practicalities of writing a MailExtension will tell me these are all crazy suggestions.

luckyrat avatar Sep 16 '20 15:09 luckyrat

However, pulling out just a few selected files (such as the ones that deal with the WebSocket connection and KeePassRPC messaging) and putting them into a new WebExtension should get most of the groundwork in place.

That was basically my starting point for keepassxc-mail. I pulled the scripts that communicate with KeePassXC from keepassxc-browser and then added the Thunderbird integration. But the later part is not as simple as you think. There is no API for "normal" MailExtensions to provide passwords (I opened https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1611700 for that reason) so I had to create an "experiment" that does that. This is the part where I took inspiration form keebird. The "problem" with that is that you cannot submit a MailExtension with an experiment to addons.thunderbird.net (https://github.com/kkapsner/keepassxc-mail/issues/2) so it has to be side loaded.

If someone takes the RPC communication from Kee and the experiment from keepassxc-mail it might work. But to be honest I think it would be better to have one MailExtension which then can be used with KeePass and with KeePassXC. I have not looked into the details of RPC vs the Native Messaging approach of KeePassXC and do not know if one is superior.

kkapsner avatar Sep 17 '20 14:09 kkapsner

So, what's the status of this issue ? Is support for Thunderbird 78 planned ?

NicoPy avatar Oct 18 '20 13:10 NicoPy

Auto update to Thunderbird 78 has started. I think you have to make a decision soon.

kkapsner avatar Nov 06 '20 12:11 kkapsner

Meanwhile, you could disable thunderbird updates systemwide, as other extensions are affected as well: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1269626 or downgrade the profile after accidental updates: https://support.cdn.mozilla.net/en-US/questions/1304550

simonmarwitz avatar Nov 06 '20 14:11 simonmarwitz

Are there any plans on integrate TB 78 or is there a roadmap on what is to do? If not we have to think about an alternative extension.

Q-Storm avatar Dec 29 '20 08:12 Q-Storm

These questions have already been answered:

Plans: https://github.com/kee-org/keebird/issues/30#issuecomment-692794285

What needs to be done: https://github.com/kee-org/keebird/issues/30#issuecomment-664452739

dlech avatar Dec 29 '20 16:12 dlech

If not we have to think about an alternative extension.

I didn't find any alternative yet, in order to have keepass working with Thunderbird 78. Is there any ?

dusscloud avatar Jan 03 '21 17:01 dusscloud

I didn't find any alternative yet, in order to have keepass working with Thunderbird 78. Is there any ?

https://github.com/kee-org/keebird/issues/30#issuecomment-684811116

kkapsner avatar Jan 03 '21 20:01 kkapsner

Hi @dlech , Just wanted to say thanks for all the plug-ins development work you do: I personally rely completely on your work on a daily basis. I feel I should apologise for the tone of some of the comments here from other users; I wonder if any of these people realise how difficult it is to write any software, let alone security software and for free. Some politeness, gratitude and courtesy is surely a minimum requirement here. I am a developer and would like to help - I am totally new to this kind of development though. Stephen

sparry0407 avatar Feb 26 '21 13:02 sparry0407

Tried to test the pull request, but it does not install on 78 -- does not support TB 78 How to fix that ?

wohauser avatar Jul 23 '21 08:07 wohauser