This document tries to cover all the internal changes that may by needed to make add-ons compatible with Thunderbird 78. If you find stuff that is no longer working but is not yet on this list, ask for help and advice in of our communication channels.

The changes are grouped by category and are listed in the order we became aware of them.

Removed XUL elements

let toolbar = document.createXULElement(
    "toolbar", 
    { is : "customizable-toolbar" }
);
toolbar.setAttribute("is", "customizable-toolbar");

<textbox>

Removed completely in TB71. Use

<html:input>

All former values of the type parameter of the textbox element are supported by html:input as well. For proper styling include the following css file: chrome://messenger/skin/input-fields.css

The flex parameter is no longer supported and should be removed. Attach the input-container class to a surrounding hbox to force the input field to behave like a former flex="1" textbox.

If the input fields context menu is not working, you need to include two JavaScript files by adding:

<script src="chrome://global/content/globalOverlay.js"/>
<script src="chrome://global/content/editMenuOverlay.js.js"/>

<toolbar customizable="true">

In TB78 the XUL element toolbar with attribute customizable has been re-implemented as a custom element. It needs an additional is attribute. The following example is taken from the source of the Thunderbird calender:

<!-- Note the additional "is" attribute: -->
<toolbar is="customizable-toolbar"
   id="event-toolbar"
	 customizable="true"   
	 toolboxid="event-toolbox"
	 class="chromeclass-toolbar"
	 labelalign="end"
	 defaultlabelalign="end"
	 context="event-dialog-toolbar-context-menu"
	 defaultset="button-url,button-delete"/>

Changed API

document.createElement()

With TB69, the default namespace for createElement has switched from XUL to XHTML. So you can no longer create XUL elements with document.createElement() (but XHTML elements). To create XUL elements, use:

document.createXULElement();

nsISocketTransportService

Bug 1558726 introduced a breaking change to the nsISocketTransportService interface:

The first parameter used to be an array and the second one its length. This length parameter has been dropped, causing all subsequent arguments to shift by one. Furthermore, to create a default socket, you now have to pass an empty array as first parameter, instead of null.

To stay backward compatible, check the argument count of "createTransport". In case it is 4 is is the new interface, in case it is 5 you got the old interface. Alternatively, you may also check if the version of Thunderbird is 69 or later.

   if (transportService.createTransport.length === 4)
      return transportService.createTransport(((secure) ? ["starttls"] : []), host, port, proxyInfo);
​
    if (transportService.createTransport.length === 5) {
      if (secure)
        return transportService.createTransport(["starttls"], 1, host, port, proxyInfo);
​
      return transportService.createTransport(null, 0, host, port, proxyInfo);
   }
​
   throw new Error("Unknown Create Transport signature");

nsICookie2

Merged into nsICookie.

window.QueryInterface()

With TB70, window objects don't need to be and cannot be QI'ed to nsIDOMChromeWindow, nsIDOMWindow and nsIInterfaceRequestor. You can just remove its usage, this is backwards compatible to TB 68. See the fix applied to enigmail.

Equally, TreeColumns and TreeContentView don't need to be and cannot be QI'ed to nsITreeView.

Services.scriptSecurityManager.createCodebasePrincipal()

Renamed. Use

Services.scriptSecurityManager.createContentPrincipal()

nsIStringBundle.formatStringFromName()

The 3rd parameter has been droped, which was the length of the array passed in as the 2nd parameter. See the patch applied to Thunderbird itself.

IOUtils.js

Module file extension changed in TB78 from js to jsm, now available via

const { IOUtils } = ChromeUtils.import("resource:///modules/IOUtils.jsm");

AddRecipient()

In TB78 the function AddRecipient() in the contact sidebar has been renamed to awAddRecipientsArray().

MailServices.headerParser.parseHeadersWithArray()

In TB71 MailServices.headerParser.parseHeadersWithArray() has been removed. Instead use:

let addresses = MailServices.headerParser.parseEncodedHeader(address);
for (let addr of addresses) {
  let email = addr.email
  let name = addr.name
  let fullname = addr.toString();
}

Changes to the Address Book

Searching a nsIAbDirectory

In TB68 a nsIAbDirectory could be searched by simply attaching a search query to the URI of the directory when calling getDirectory():

let cards = MailServices.ab.getDirectory(URI + "?" + searchQuery).childCards;
while (cards.hasMoreElements()) {
  let card = cards.getNext().QueryInterface(Components.interfaces.nsIAbCard);
  ...
}

In TB78 getDirectory() no longer accepts search queries and throws an error. Instead, use the search() method, which uses an nsIAbDirSearchListener. A simple promisified implementation could look like so:

searchDirectory: function (uri, search) {
  return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
    let listener = {
      cards : [],
      onSearchFinished(aResult, aErrorMsg) {
        resolve(this.cards);
      },
      onSearchFoundCard(aCard) {
        this.cards.push(aCard.QueryInterface(Components.interfaces.nsIAbCard));
      }
    }
    MailServices.ab.getDirectory(uri).search(search, listener);
  });
}
​
let cards = await searchDirectory(URI, searchQuery);
for (let card of cards) {
  ...
}

Changes to the Preference System

Removal of onsyncfrompreference and onsynctopreference Attributes

With TB70, these two attributes have been removed from XUL elements like textbox, radio, checkbox and friends. This is no longer supported:

<textbox
    id="my-textbox"
    preference="some.preference.name"
    onsynctopreference="return onToPref();"
    onsyncfrompreference="return onFromPref();"/>

Most of the XUL based preferences system has been long removed and had to be replaced by either using the preferencesBindings.js wrapper or by manually reimplementing that functionality using thensIPrefService.

The second approach is not affected by this change, as it has full control over the load and save process for all its preferences. ThepreferencesBindings.js wrapper has been updated and now supports:

Preferences.addSyncFromPrefListener(
     document.getElementById("my-textbox"),
     function() { return onFromPref() });
​
Preferences.addSyncToPrefListener(
     document.getElementById("my-textbox"),
     function() { return onToPref() });