Contributing to Thunderbird
Planning
Add-on Development
Supported UI Elements
Descriptions and examples of MailExtension APIs to interact with Thunderbird's user interface.
Browser Action
A browser action adds a button to Thunderbird's main toolbar:
It is controlled by the
browser_action manifest key in the extension's manifest.json file:1
"browser_action": {
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"default_title": "Restart",
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"default_icon" : "restart.png",
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"default_popup": "browser_popup.html"
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},
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If a
default_popup is defined, a popup will be opened and the defined html page will be loaded, when the button is clicked. Additionally, you can use the browserAction API in your background script to interact with the button to modify badge text, icon, title or its enabled state.Compose Action
A compose action adds a button to the toolbar of the composer window:
It is controlled by
compose_action manifest key in the extension's manifest.json file:1
"compose_action": {
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"default_title": "Expand lists",
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"default_icon" : "lists.png",
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"default_popup": "compose_popup.html"
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},
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If a
default_popup is defined, a popup will be opened and the defined html page will be loaded, when the button is clicked. Additionally, you can use the composeAction API in your background script to interact with the button to modify badge text, icon, title or its enabled state.Message Display Action
A message display action adds a button to the toolbar of the message view window:
It is controlled by the
message_display_action manifest key in the extension's manifest.json file:1
"message_display_action": {
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"default_title": "Copy Patch",
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"default_icon" : "patch.png",
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"default_popup": "message_popup.html"
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},
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If a
default_popup is defined, a popup will be opened and the defined html page will be loaded, when the button is clicked. Additionally, you can use the messageDisplayAction API in your background script to interact with the button to modify badge text, icon, title or its enabled state.CloudFile Provider Configuration
Thunderbird supports cloud providers to upload large attachments to a server, instead of attaching them directly to the email. Extensions can register such cloud providers using the
CloudFile API. These providers can be managed in Thunderbird's Composition options:
Menu Items
The
menus API allows modifying Thunderbird's menus by adding or overriding menu items. The menu items can be added to different menus based on the provided context type. The following values are currently supported:Context
Description
Example
tabContext menu of tab ribbons.
​
​
message_listContext menu of the message list area of a mail tab. Not limited to a message list entry.
​
​
folder_paneContext menu of the folder pane of mail tabs. Not limited to a folder entry.
​
​
linkContext menu of links in WebExtension windows, in web tabs or in message display tabs.
Limited to content areas.
​
​
selectionContext menu in WebExtension windows, web tabs or message display tabs, if any text has been selected.
Limited to content areas.
​
​
editable,
passwordContext menu of text/password input fields in WebExtension windows, web tabs or message display tabs.
Limited to content areas.
​
​
image,
audio,
videoContext menu of embedded images, audio or video players in WebExtension windows, web tabs or message display tabs.
Limited to content areas.
​
​
page,
frameContext menu of WebExtension windows, web tabs or message display tabs, if none of the other content contexts apply (link, selection, image, audio, video, editable, password).
If the page is loaded inside a frame, the
frame context applies, otherwise the page context. Limited to content areas.​
​
allAll allowed contexts, excluding
tab.​
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Last modified 1yr ago
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