Add-ons
blueboy56
About me
| Name | blueboy56 |
|---|---|
| User since | July 31, 2008 |
| Number of add-ons developed | 0 add-ons |
| Average rating of developer's add-ons | Not yet rated |
My Reviews
LookOut
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
Tbird 2.0.0.16. Installed this add-on. Went to Tools -> Add-Ons, selected this add-on, clicked the Options button. What did I get? A title bar (with no text) without a window pane under it. So if there are options, this add-on won't show them. If there are no options, why is the Options button not disabled? I configured Outlook 2002 to send in RTF format (and also had to configure the Internet option to use RTF when sending to Internet recipients to prevent converting to HTML). I used bold, italics, coloring, and font sizes in the test message. When received in Tbird (and with Lookout installed and enabled), bold and italics were there but no coloring or font size changes. The winmail.dat attachment was there (as can also be seen in source view for the "Content-Type: application/ms-tnef; name="winmail.dat" MIME part). I double-clicked on the winmail.dat attachment to open it figuring that maybe their helper requires it be opened to get at the formatting instructions inside (although obviously it should've already seen the MIME part holding the winmail.dat content). Nope, that just had me prompted for a helper app but none were shown. ALso shown as an attachment in the message view pane was an .rtf file. This file is NOT listed in the source view of the message; that is, there is no MIME part for this attachment. So I double-click on it and got prompted as to what to use to open it. Wordpad was shown (and so was Other for browsing to a program but then supposedly Outlook wouldn't be installed on a host where I needed to use this add-on). I used WordPad and could see the bold, italics, coloring, and font size changes - but then WordPad has always been able to render *some* (not all) formatting in RTF files. It is, after all, an RTF application. To check the WordPad selection was not part of Lookout's undocumented enhancement to Tbird, I uninstalled Lookout, restart Tbird, and re-selected the RTF formatted test e-mail. This time there was no .rtf virtual attachment shown in the message view pane, so Lookout adds that. What it adds is a test that there is a winmail.dat file and then presents an .rtf attachment in addition (that isn't in the e-mail itself) that you can use to load the e-mail into WordPad. Yet their web site says they wrote a TNEF decoder. No, they did not write WordPad. If they had written a decoder then why doesn't the e-mail display *inside* of Tbird rather than have me select to open it in WordPad? Their entire usage description is "When LookOut is working, you will see the names of the TNEF encapsulated file attachments next to the winmail.dat file. The user interaction is transparent i.e. There are no special dialogs or menu items, etc." Okay, so I see the .rtf file and have to guess that is what they mean by the encapsulated file. They don't mention that you have to open the attachment to see the message in its RTF format. They talk about a decoder which should present that formatting within the message view pane inside of Tbird but instead you have to use WordPad to view the formatting. So what does their decoder do? Extract the .rtf file out of the winmail.dat file so WordPad can read it? It does work (because it shows the .rtf content as a pseudo-attachment that you can open) but it is clumsy because the user has to read it outside of Tbird (to load it into WordPad). I guess it works, sort of.
This review is for a previous version of the add-on (1.2.3).Newsgroup Links
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
"Displays a link to the Google groups url of a newsgroup post, and an option to copy it." Oh really. And just WHERE does it "display" that link and option to copy? "Requires Mnenhy". Oh really? And just WHICH header am I supposed to configure in Mnenhy to show your special header? I look at all the link-type headers and nothing popped as one that your add-on added to the list. Context menu on header didn't show any entries related to this add-on. Context menu on any of the displayed headers didn't show entries for this add-on. Context menu for the message view pane didn't show any entries for this add-on. Amazing how many developers never consider that they are exposing their wares to someone ELSE but don't give a clue on how to use their product. Yep, you guessed it: UNINSTALLED.
MessageID-Finder
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
I did the modify of the .rdf file so I could install this add-on in Tbird 2.0.0.16. "Find Message-ID" context menu entry is not shown when right-clicking on a message in the header list pane. Shows up only when right-clicking in the body of a message (message view) or the Message-ID header in the header pane of the message view pane. Okay, I get that, you have to get the message to then find out its Message-ID. However, "Find Message-ID" doesn't work when right-clicking in the message or source views of the message. You get the context menus for "Find Message-ID" but nothing happens when you use them. Right-click on a message header (after retrieving it) doesn't show the "Find Message-ID" entry in the context menu there. You have to right-click on the Message-ID header and then use "Find Message-ID". So I got it working under a specific usage. Then I went into its options. It lets you select a default search location (I want to use Google Groups to provide a URL that anyone can use to see the post). What's the point of configuring a default location when the context menu never lets you use one? You still have to select a location from the context menus. I'd also like a means of deleting some of the minimal selections, like Google DE.
Additional Folder Views
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
As others have mentioned, this panel doesn't update itself. After reading all the unread e-mails in its Unread view, the folders are still displayed - unless you toggle to a different one of its views and return or change focus to a folder in a different panel. There is no on-the-fly update of this add-on's panel. It requires forcing a manual repaint of this panel. Also, I don't see the point of this add-on. I have Tbird 2.0.0.16. There are already All, Unread, Recent, and Favorite view for this standard Folders panel.
Thunderled
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
Yes, I realize that the description says this is for the ASUS driver to flash a LED provided in that system. But it seem an obvious extension to have this add-on flash a LED that is on the keyboard, like making the ScrollLock LED flash. Then the user gets a flashing LED on *any* brand computer to notify them of a new e-mail, even if the screen saver has activated and maybe even if the host has gone into standby power mode. In fact, to make it even more noticable, the NumLock, CapsLock, and ScrollLock LEDs could all be flashed but in succession to make the effect ripple through them. Alternatively, just make the one LED (probably ScrollLock) flash a configurable number of times, like 3 times at 1-second intervals with a 30-second interval, so the user sees the pattern to know why the LED is flashing that way.
AttachmentExtractor
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
I just got this add-on so I cannot comment on its behavior or usability. What struck me as obviously missing when reviewing its configuration is the lack of inserting a file:// URL into the e-mail that had its attachment extracted and deleted. Once it gets deleted, how does the user know where it is? Yes, there is the common extract path but which file is it that came from that e-mail? Other attachment extractors add a URL to point at the extracted file. Then the user can simply click on the link to find the file or open it. Once extracted, and especially after deletion, there has to be something pointing from the e-mail to where the file got [initially] extracted. Otherwise, you end up with a bunch of e-mails that you don't know if they had an attachment or not and a folder full of files but you don't know from which e-mails they got extracted. The linking or association is lost. Even if the attachment is not deleted from the e-mail, I'd still like an indicator showing that the attachment was extracted and where it went. It just becomes even more important when the attachment has been deleted to see in the modified e-mail that the action was performed and where is the other part of the e-mail (i.e., the attachment). Also, there is inconsistency in the delete algorithm allowed. Apparently when you manually do the delete of the attachment using this add-on's config, you get to select the algorithm used by Tbird or this add-on's own algorithm. Yet when you go to configure the auto-extract settings, you only get to select this add-on's algorithm - which is identified as "experimental". There is no non-experimental methods available for deleting the attachment when using the auto-extract function.
This review is for a previous version of the add-on (1.1.1).Gmail IMAP Account Setup
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
The user can create a new e-mail account and select IMAP for type and then enter all the server parameters as they would when defining any POP or IMAP account. They just have to follow Gmail's instructions. This add-on gives a shortcut with its wizard (preset) values so the user doesn't have to read those instructions. However, there is one failing (and in Gmail's instructions, too): there is no option to specify the root folder for the IMAP store (and Gmail's instructions omits this info, too). If you don't want the online folders to appear under a "[Gmail]" subfolder under your Gmail account folder in the folder pane, go under the advanced properties for the server settings of your Gmail account and specify the root folder (aka "IMAP server directory") as "[Gmail]" (sans quotes). Then all the online folders get flattened under just the Gmail account's folder (no subfolders). Gmail omits this info. I learned it the hard way in Outlook and Outlook Express. A manual create of an IMAP account (for Gmail) before installing this add-on proved that I also had to specify the IMAP root folder. And using this add-on didn't help with that. I deducted 1 ratings star for lack of letting the user specify the root folder in the IMAP store (or adding it automatically), and another 1 star because this wizard really isn't needed if the user simply follows instructions and creates an IMAP account using the procedures already provided in Thunderbird.
This review is for a previous version of the add-on (1.4.50).Select Inbox
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
I already had the FolderPane Tools extension installed and used it. It also lets you select which will be the default folder on startup, plus it lets you alter the order for the display of the folders in the folders pane. To be fair, I haven't tried this extension but it only has 1 feature of FolderPane Tools so there was no need to try this one.
This review is for a previous version of the add-on (1.4).To create your own collections, you must have a Mozilla Add-ons account.
