Thunderbird:Autoconfiguration:ConfigFileFormat

This page describes the content of the config file that the Mozilla webservice, ISP config service etc. return.

It should be XML, with a clearly defined format, to be stable and usable by other mail clients, too.

The old/current RDF file format seems good in structure, but needs to be cleaned up to remove the RDF bits, Mozilla specifics etc.. It would be processed as normal XML, e.g. using E4X in Thunderbird.

XML

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<clientConfig version="1.1">
    <emailProvider id="example.com">
      <domain>example.com</domain>
      <domain>example.net</domain>

      <displayName>Google Mail</displayName>
      <displayShortName>GMail</displayShortName>

      <incomingServer type="pop3">
         <hostname>pop.example.com</hostname>
         <port>995</port>
         <socketType>SSL</socketType>
           <!-- "plain": no encryption
                "SSL": SSL 3 or TLS 1 on SSL-specific port
                "STARTTLS": on normal plain port and mandatory upgrade to TLS via STARTTLS
                -->
         <username>%EMAILLOCALPART%</username>
            <!-- "password-cleartext",
                 "plain" (deprecated):
                          Send password in the clear
                          (dangerous, if SSL isn't used either).
                          AUTH PLAIN, LOGIN or protocol-native login.
                 "password-encrypted",
                 "secure" (deprecated):
                           A secure encrypted password mechanism.
                           Can be CRAM-MD5 or DIGEST-MD5. Not NTLM.
                 "NTLM":
                           Use NTLM (or NTLMv2 or successors),
                           the Windows login mechanism.
                 "GSSAPI":
                           Use Kerberos / GSSAPI,
                           a single-signon mechanism used for big sites.
                 "client-ip-based":
                           The server recognizes this user based on the IP address.
                           No authentication needed, the server will require no username nor password.
                 "none":
                           No authentication
                  Compatibility note: Thunderbird 3.0 accepts only "plain" and "secure". It will ignore the whole XML file, if other values are given.
         <authentication>password-cleartext</authentication>
         <pop3>
            <!-- remove the following and leave to client/user? -->
            <leaveMessagesOnServer>true</leaveMessagesOnServer>
            <downloadOnBiff>true</downloadOnBiff>
            <daysToLeaveMessagesOnServer>14</daysToLeaveMessagesOnServer>
            <!-- only for servers which don't allow checks more often -->
            <checkInterval minutes="15"/><!-- not yet supported -->
         </pop3>
      </incomingServer>

      <outgoingServer type="smtp">
         <hostname>smtp.googlemail.com</hostname>
         <port>587</port>
         <socketType>STARTTLS</socketType> <!-- see above -->
         <username>%EMAILLOCALPART%</username> <!-- if smtp-auth -->
            <!-- smtp-auth (RFC 2554, 4954) or other auth mechanism.
                 For values, see incoming.
                 Additional options here:
                 "smtp-after-pop":
                     authenticate to incoming mail server first
                     before contacting the smtp server.
                  Compatibility note: Thunderbird 3.0 accepts only "plain",
                  "secure", "none", and "smtp-after-pop".
                  It will ignore the whole XML file, if other values are given.
            -->
         <authentication>password-cleartext</authentication>
            <!-- If the server makes some additional requirements beyond
                 <authentication>.
                 "client-IP-address": The server is only reachable or works,
                     if the user is in a certain IP network, e.g.
                     the dialed into the ISP's network (DSL, cable, modem) or
                     connected to a company network.
                     Note: <authentication>client-IP-address</>
                     means that you may use the server without any auth.
                     <authentication>password-cleartext</> *and*
                     <restriction>client-IP-address</> means that you need to
                     be in the correct IP network *and* (should) authenticate.
                     Servers which do that are highly discouraged and
                     should be avoided, see {{bug|556267}}.
                Not yet implemented. Spec (element name?) up to change.
            -->
         <restriction>client-IP-address</restriction>
         <!-- remove the following and leave to client/user? -->
         <addThisServer>true</addThisServer>
         <useGlobalPreferredServer>true</useGlobalPreferredServer>
      </outgoingServer>

      <identity>
         <!-- needed? -->
         <!-- We don't want Verizon setting "Organization: Verizon"
              for its customers -->
      </identity>

      <!-- see description. Not yet supported. -->
      <inputField key="USERNAME" label="Screen name"></inputField>
      <inputField key="GRANDMA" label="Grandma">Elise Bauer</inputField>

      <!-- Add this only when users (who already have an account) have to
           do something before the account can work with IMAP/POP or SSL.
           Note: Per XML, & (ampersand) needs to be escaped to & a m p ;
           (without spaces).
           Not yet implemented. -->
      <enableURL
           url="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&shva=1#settings/fwdandpop"
           instruction="Check 'Enable IMAP and POP' on the Google page" />

      <!-- A page where the ISP describes the configuration.
           This is purely informational and currently mainly for
           maintenance of the files and not used by the client at all.
           Note that we do not necessarily use exactly the config suggested
           by the ISP, e.g. when they don't recommend SSL, but it's available,
           we will configure SSL.
           The text content contains a description in the native language
           of the ISP (customers), and the descr-en attribute contains a
           short English description, mostly for us.
      -->
      <instructionsURL url="http://www.example.com/help/mail/thunderbird"
         descr-en="Configure Thunderbird 2.0 for IMAP">
         Thunderbird 2.0 mit IMAP konfigurieren</instructionsURL>

    </emailProvider>

    <clientConfigUpdate url="https://www.example.com/config/mozilla.xml" />

</clientConfig>

Placeholders

The email address (before @ or with domain) that the user entered can be used as placeholder in the config file, so the file is the same for all users (i.e. static).

Placeholders:

• %EMAILADDRESS% (full email address of the user, usually entered by the user)
• %EMAILLOCALPART% (email address, part before @)
• %EMAILDOMAIN% (email address, part after @)
• %REALNAME% (needed?)
• The key (surrounded by %) in <inputfield key=""> (see below)

These placeholders can be used as value or value part in most settings which take a string.

User input fields

(not yet implemented)

For some ISPs, the IMPA/POP/SMTP username (and maybe other fields) has no relation to the email address and has to be entered separately. E.g. Email address is ben.bucksch@wong.com (chosen by user), but username is G675476 (provided by ISP).

In this case, an <inputfield> can be added for the username. It will let the client show a textfield to the user. The user-visible label is the one provided in the <inputfield label=""> attribute, to allow the ISP to use custom terminology for "username". The label is not localizable, that would be too complicated and most ISPs are local anyways - if really important, the ISP config server can look at the HTTP headers during the fetch.

The text that the user entered is written into a placeholder %KEY%, where KEY is the content of the <inputfield key="KEY"> attribute and must be only upper case letters. The placeholder can then be used in other settings, see #Placeholders above.

For example, a config file entry

        <userinput label="Username" key="%USERNAME%">D123456</userinput>

would result in a UI like:

  Username:     [             ] example: D123456

and cound be used elsewhere in the config file like:

        <username>%USERNAME%</username>

and if the user enters "D32198", it would be automatically filled in like:

        <username>D32198</username>

i.e. using D32198 as username for IMAP, POP or SMTP.

The system is generic, so that it can in theory be used for other values as well. No other such purpose is currently known, apart from a separate POP and SMTP username maybe. It should not be used to let the user supply hostnames, as that would defeat the purpose of the autoconfig and be worse than the manual config UI provided by the client.

TODO

• IMAP
• All settings and enum values