User:Njpl

Adjusting Mozilla Seamonkey Thunderbird Addressbook

Contacts search query

How to adjust the contacts search query in Thunderbird and Mozilla Addressbook?

The search field searches by default only in primaryemail, displayed Name, First Name and last name. But hey! Who had the phone number ending with 6789 and called me last night? Or who lives in Germany? Or who was born in July?

If You open the advanced settings editor: Thunderbird Menu->Tools->Options->Advanced->General(tab)->Settings Editor(button) and type in the search field the phrase "search", you will get all the options, which have to do with searching. We will need the field named mail.addr_book.quicksearchquery.format for the adjustment of search area.

This is the default search query:

?(or(PrimaryEmail,c,@V)(DisplayName,c,@V)(FirstName,c,@V)(LastName,c,@V))

where: c=contains (other are begins and is, but haven't tried it)
@V = search phrase

It is possible to search in all fields - you can edit the search query in the advanced settings editor. Here how to do it:

• Description of how to set up the search query in Mozilla Suite, SeaMonkey and Thunderbird Adderssbook
• List of all Addressbook fields (some are not displayed in the User Interface, though). This way, you can search in those fields, you really want.

Medium example query: ?(or(PrimaryEmail,c,@V)(DisplayName,c,@V)(FirstName,c,@V)(LastName,c,@V)
(SecondEmail,c,@V)(HomePhone,c,@V)(CellularNumber,c,@V)(Notes,c,@V))

Maximum query - search in all addressbook fields used by Thunderbird: (must be one line, of course) ?(or(FirstName,c,@V)(LastName,c,@V)(PhoneticFirstName,c,@V)(PhoneticLastName,c,@V)
(_PhoneticName,c,@V)(DisplayName,c,@V)(NickName,c,@V)
(PrimaryEmail,c,@V)(SecondEmail,c,@V)
(WorkPhone,c,@V)(HomePhone,c,@V)(FaxNumber,c,@V)
(PagerNumber,c,@V)(CellularNumber,c,@V)
(HomeAddress,c,@V)(HomeAddress2,c,@V)(HomeCity,c,@V)
(HomeState,c,@V)(HomeZipCode,c,@V)(HomeCountry,c,@V)
(WorkAddress,c,@V)(WorkAddress2,c,@V)(WorkCity,c,@V)
(WorkState,c,@V)(WorkZipCode,c,@V)(WorkCountry,c,@V)
(JobTitle,c,@V)(Department,c,@V)(Company,c,@V)
(_AimScreenName,c,@V)(WebPage1,c,@V)(WebPage2,c,@V)
(Custom1,c,@V)(Custom2,c,@V)(Custom3,c,@V)(Custom4,c,@V)(Notes,c,@V))

Microformats

Microformats are tiny standards to make passing crrtain types of information more structured and interoperable. The RSS revolution is an ideal example of unification for common progress. Now, it is time for unifying the standards for passing calendar information (events, appointments and their proposals), online calendars published by event organizers, online timetables of proffessors and teachers - either with busy/free info only, or with full read access, or even with full RW access for the participants of common projects.

Here are some links concerning the microformats:

• microformats homepage
• vCard (vCard on wikipedia)
• iCalendar (iCalendar on wikipedia)
• Microformats - best practices

The World according to Mozilla: 2.0

Your finger is on the button! Tell everybody, what you want the 2.0 version of each software to look like! Push that button!

Mozilla Firefox

• Firefox3 Firefox 3 Project
• Talk:Firefox3 - Discuss
• [http://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Feature_Brainstorming Firefox Feature
• Firefox Roadmap
• Release Notes

Brainstorming page]

Mozilla Thunderbird

• Thunderbird Thunderbird 3 Project
• Talk:Thunderbird - Discuss
• Product Planning - Thunderbird
• Thunderbird Roadmap

Mozilla Addressbook

Addressbook - not yet seen as a standalone program, is still carried by the Thunderbird application. I think however, that is should get either more integration with Firefox/Calendar, or be more externalised, to make thunderbird almost equal with other apps in the way it accesses the addressbook. I should be able to add a contact by right-clicking a mailto link in firefox, or by doing so with a hCard microformat visit card placed on a webpage.

1. Standardization - support for microformats, like vCard (vCard)
2. Externalization - should be available for access through standardised interfaces/formats for other programs allowed by the user, mainly by: Thunderbird, Firefox, Calendar, but also by other software, which may be used by the except for/instead of mentioned applications.
3. Support for a IM type / protocol identifier and a possibility to assign an application to that protocol, no unchangeable assigning of one "most often used" instant messenger!
4. Interoperability - More automation in addressbook import from standards like Windows addressbook (.wab) format, Outlook Express book, Outlook book - the assigning of the fields should be based on the (english) field names comparison - they are standardised.

Mozilla Calendar

Calendar Wiki

1. Standardization - iCalendar (iCalendar)
2. Namesday support - in some countries, the calendar has a scheme of a couple of names assigned to each day of year and apart from birthdays, people party on namesdays too. Some names appear more than once a year, some only once.
3. If supported in Firefox AND Thunderbird, it would be possible to get appointment proposals or event notifications by email or get them from websites directly to the calendar(s).

About

Background

An old Mozilla Suite user, who then turned to Opera due to small resource budget (processor, memory usage needed to be low). Amazed by the idea of Microformats, and the possibility to sync the offline and online calendar, addressbook and bookmarks. After the compromitation connected with release of unstable version of Opera 9 and 90.1 (sic!) - I am trying to get myself Opensource through Mozilla Thunderbird and Firefox.

Aims

I would also like to have my tiny influence on the direction of evolution of our upcoming leaders of the information exachnge, Thunderbird, Sunbird/Calendar, and Firefox.