Thunderbird Plugin For Chandler
January 18th, 2008 at 4:28 pm (3 months, 4 weeks ago) by bkirsch under Chandler Desktop Development, Chandler Server Development, Product DesignMimi and Katie talked in ealier posts about expanding the Chandler Universe by developing a Plug-in for Thunderbird.
The plug-in would allow Thunderbird users to interface directly with the Chandler Hub.
Some of the current ideas on what actions the Thunderbird Plug-In would perform are:
- Sync messages in IMAP Drafts/Sent folders with Chandler Drafts/Sent messages.
- Stamp a message and add it to a list of collection(s)
- Assign Triage status to message items
- Map individual IMAP folders to collections
- Receive notifications from Hub Service when: a. New / Edited items in a collection b. Items tickled to NOW
What features would others like to see?
Is the idea of a plug-in to Thunderbird useful to the Chandler User base? Will a plug-in help attract new users?
If you have any suggestions for features that you would like to see implemented in a Thunderbird plug-in now is the perfect time to share them.
January 19th, 2008 at 1:12 am
This plugin is an excellent idea. Perhaps the it could enable Chandler to use the Thunderbird address book?
How will the plugin interact with Lightning/Sunbird? Will Chandler supersede both of those products?
January 19th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Why not add the Chandler code to the Lightning plug in? I’d hate to have to use two
plugins in Thunderbird. They’ve done a lot of work and not using it would appear
to be a waste of energy and effort.
January 21st, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Hi all,
I have been following Chandler for a while and giving a look from its earlier unstable versions and the progress is very impressive now. I think that the Chandler idea is very valuable, because is a bridge that respects the diversity, instead of being the one size solution for everybody that tries to replace/embed everything else. In a different field but in the same spirit is the project Sage, that gives a unified experience to a lot of different Computer Algebra Systems, so this Thunderbird plugin is a good step in the idea of a bridge in the diversity. I think that the logic step is to convert a mail TB in a task in Chandler… more things to come in a while… I have to fly.
Cheers,
Offray
January 21st, 2008 at 9:35 pm
I don’t use Thunderbird but some interaction with Chandler server could be useful to me as many of the people in my company use Thunderbird.
January 22nd, 2008 at 2:06 pm
Great idea to integrate with Thunderbird. Less to have to open to manage work. I think this would increase the number of people/companies using Chandler, and may even get some people to try Thunderbird if it was made a better tool for collaboration.
January 23rd, 2008 at 1:48 pm
As I was saying the idea of a bridge in the diversity instead of the gigantic monster to replace all must be the vision for Chandler, and, if Chandler picks up where your Inbox leaves off, then a mail generating a task is the logical step. That’s why I was proposing Sagemath[1] or even Leo[2] as inspirational projects in the same guise. One is a bridge for different computer algebra systems that gives a user a unified experience, and the other can take information from different source code files and reorganize it in different views and even inject back the modified sources produced in the new views.
[1] http://www.sagemath.org/
[2] http://webpages.charter.net/edreamleo/front.html
Would be nice to have a portable PIM/hub, in the sense that I can be running and taking Chandler with me, lets say in a USB, so I can generate tasks from my mail sources and then generate calendar events and take them with me and use them On/Off line. This is valuable for travellers and people with low connectivity and in the same way that small workgroups have been underestimated by oversized software solutions, portability is another issue with no good solution at all (we have Thunderbird, Firefox and a lot of portable apps[3], but not portable hubs/pims)
[3] http://www.portableapps.com
Well, just a few more ideas,
Cheers and keep listening and doing.
Cheers,
Offray
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:09 pm
> This plugin is an excellent idea. Perhaps the it could enable Chandler to use the Thunderbird address book?
Yes that would be cool as Chandler really needs to augment its address book functionality.
> How will the plugin interact with Lightning/Sunbird? Will Chandler supersede both of those products?
I don’t anticipate any integration with the Lighting Extension in phase one. The intent will be for
users to generate Tasks / Events / Workflow in Chandler via Thunderbird.
Regarding Sunbird, there is already inter-op support with Chandler via CalDAV.
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:21 pm
Hi Offray,
Interesting suggestion about portable apps. This is certainly something for
Chandler to consider going forward.
-Brian
January 23rd, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Andi did a portable version of Chandler a while back.
http://blog.chandlerproject.org/2007/11/14/chandler-desktop-072-released
February 27th, 2008 at 4:13 am
I have been looking at this project for some time, and nothing would make it easier for me to fully embrace it than a TB extension and a portable chandler.
Keeping your data available online, your workgroup connected and be able to sync it on your USB from any computer connected to the internet? Slick!
The hub and the portability would set chandler ahead of any other solution… a solution I keep looking for!
March 2nd, 2008 at 5:01 pm
I can attest that portable Chandler is alive and well…needs a bit of CPU horsepower to be usable, but it works fine. Be sure to read Andi’s instructions on how to tell Chandler where to store your repository (either via the command line or prefs). I place my repository(ies) within my Chandler folder, so that refreshing the “install” on my USB drive is a simple copy of the entire Chandler folder.