TAGS in Thunderbird versions 2 & 3 - how are they stored?
Paul C. Easton
categorize messages.
The alpha version of TBv2 and the nightly build of TBv3 support multiple
tags and allow you to create tags on the fly, which appear in the labels
column the message list view.
Are these TAGs only viewable in Thunderbird? They do not seem to be
saved in the message itself, either as a header or in the message body.
This would make them similar to Outlook categories.
The problem with this is that they are unusable in other applications,
such as Web mail interfaces. This limits the use of tags in IMAP accounts.
With TB Header Tools Extension, the tags/categories are save as an X
header (e.g. "X-Tags") and therefore you can run a full-text search and
pull up your tagged messages in any application that support a full text
search of header information.
In outlook, their is a great add-on call TAGOLOCITY that provides
DEL.ICIO.US type tagging and tag-cloud organization of e-mail. It is
currently in BETA. One nice feature of Tagolocity is that you can
configure it to add the tags to the bottom of the body of the e-mail.
This has some benefits over using headers in that some desktop search
software (such as X1, if not most such programs) ignore most header
information, other than author, recipient, date, and subject headers.
If TAGOLICITY makes a version for Thunderbird, or if a third-party makes
a Thunderbird extension/add-on that would be wonderful. The TAGGING in
Thunderbird looks like it will be sub-par. It is not where near as
feature rich as MS Outlook's categories (Outlook 2007 has nice GUI
improvements, although it has stability problems even given the
allowances I make for it being in BETA). The main problem that I have
with Outlook's categories are that they are only available in Outlook.
Not the message itself. Also, if you use an IMAP account with Outlook,
you lose your categories moving a message from one folder to another.
Also if you e-mail the file the categories do not travel with the
e-mail. Thunderbird's development seems to be taking the short-sighted
approach to tagging/categorization as Microsoft Outlook.
BTW, could someone point me to any forum specifically for testing beta
versions and nightly builds of Thunderbird? In particular any that the
developers participate in. If there is a forum or discussion
specifically about tagging e-mails, I would be very interested.
Regards,
Paul
Colin Grant
> The alpha version of TBv2 and the nightly build of TBv3 support multiple
> tags and allow you to create tags on the fly, which appear in the labels
> column the message list view.
Does the above render Header Tools redundant in TB version 2 alpha and
how do you create these multiple tags on the fly (or in any other way)?
I think I might be missing a trick here.
Thanks
Colin
Paul C. Easton
doesn't have the same features.
You can right click on a message, select "Tags" and then "New Tag", but
you have to do this multiple times for multiple tags.
HB Header Tools is not much more user friendly. You either have to type
in all your tags each time, or you have to create the tags in the
extensions options dialog using its system of delineators. If you use a
lot of tags, it can be cumbersome.
HB Header Tools is not obsolete in that it allows you to edit and add
header information, which will continue to be useful for other purposes.
For me, I will continue using HB Header Tools for tagging as well
since it saves the TAG text in the e-mail itself. This allows me to
search for tags by doing a full text search in Squirrel Mail, which I
use for Web mail.
--Paul
Colin Grant
> Actually, I am using the latest nightly build. Perhaps the alpha of v2
> doesn't have the same features.
By latest nightly do you mean of T'bird 3, Paul?. I'm using version 2
alpha as updated on 10th June.
Paul C. Easton
--Paul
NM Public
>
> Are these TAGs only viewable in Thunderbird? They do not seem
> to be saved in the message itself, either as a header or in the
> message body. This would make them similar to Outlook
> categories.
>
> The problem with this is that they are unusable in other
> applications, such as Web mail interfaces. This limits the use
> of tags in IMAP accounts.
I'm also interested in learning how this is implemented. To be
usable with IMAP accounts, it probably makes the most sense to
use IMAP metadata, e.g., IMAP keywords or IMAP annotations. I
wrote about this in my blog here:
Server-Side Message Labels
<http://deflexion.com/2006/05/server-side-message-labels>
This includes details that are specific to Thunderbird and
SeaMonkey Suite, so it should be useful to anyone who use TB or
SS as an IMAP client.
HTH,
Nancy
--
Nancy McGough
Infinite Ink: <http://www.ii.com/>
Bookmarks & Blog: <http://deflexion.com/>
Chris Ilias
> Are these TAGs only viewable in Thunderbird? They do not seem to be
> saved in the message itself, either as a header or in the message body.
> This would make them similar to Outlook categories.
From what I've seen, tags are added via the header 'X-Mozilla-Keys';
but I've only seen that on new messages.
For more info, see: <http://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird2:Tags>.
> BTW, could someone point me to any forum specifically for testing beta
> versions and nightly builds of Thunderbird? In particular any that the
> developers participate in. If there is a forum or discussion
> specifically about tagging e-mails, I would be very interested.
Newsgroup: mozilla.dev.apps.thunderbird
Web Forum: <http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewforum.php?f=29>
--
Chris Ilias
mozilla.test.multimedia moderator
Mozilla links <http://ilias.ca>
(Please do not email me tech support questions)
Paul C. Easton
>
> From what I've seen, tags are added via the header 'X-Mozilla-Keys';
> but I've only seen that on new messages.
> For more info, see: <http://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird2:Tags>.
Thanks for the link, that clarifies things for me. For the convenience
of others the relevant portion of the linked page is:
<QUOTE>
Implementation
Tags are stored in preferences of the form
"mailnews.tags.<key>.tag", "unicode string"
"mailnews.tags.<key>.color, "color string"
The key is an imap mod-utf7 version of the tag, suitable for use in a
pref name, an imap keyword, and part of an x-mozilla-keys header. So, as
you might guess, we actually store the key persistently, and translate
it to the tag for display purposes. This also allows us to rename a tag
by changing the pref without changing all the messages that have that
tag. We can also remove a tag by removing the pref, and the key stored
in the messages will then be ignored.
</QUOTE>
I am glad to know that the tags will be stored persistently in an
X-header. As long as that is the case, I can use any program that will
search all text in an e-mail, including the metadata.
While it is good to know that tagging will be implemented, I am hoping
that TAGOLOCITY will design a version for Thunderbird. I love their
implementation on MS Outlook.