ReminderFox support nearing an end (ThunderBird 65)

[Tom Mutdosch]

Hi loyal users of ReminderFox,

Starting with ThunderBird v65 next month, the handling of UI based add-ons like ReminderFox has changed, where such UI-heavy legacy add-ons will no longer work. After investigation, it does not appear that there's an easy solution to get ReminderFox to work with the Thunderbird changes without a massive rewrite. The support and maintenance of ReminderFox on the Thunderbird side (which has allowed RF to live on after no longer supported in Firefox) has largely been possible due to the tireless efforts of Guenter. At this time, a rewrite is not possible based on current time/resources.

Options:

To keep using RF on ThunderBird in the short-term once version 65 is released, the best bet is to use the Extended Support Release - this is the version which attempts to remain stable for one additional year: https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/organizations/

Based on the ThunderBird roadmap, it looks like that will continue to operate until towards the end of the year.

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Release_Management/Calendar#Future_branch_dates

Once that Extended Support has ended, and ThunderBird versions 65+ are the only available options, we will be unable to support ReminderFox further.  

Other Calendar options:

Note that it may be possible to use other Mozilla-based browsers such as Waterfox that work with older add-ons, but they are untested with ReminderFox and we can not offer specific support.

In the longer term, to ensure your reminders and calendars are supported, it is probably best to migrate them to another calendar.

You can export reminders from ReminderFox as detailed here:

http://www.reminderfox.org/documentation-user-guide-sharing-reminders/#r1

The calendar file can then be imported to most any other calendar file. 

One such option is the ThunderBird Lightning calendar app:

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/calendar/

We are saddened about this unfortunate news, but we have done our best to keep ReminderFox running long after initial support was removed for similar add-ons (again thanks to Guenter for his hard work!). This project has been a joy to be involved with, and the community has been great. The effort you all have put into continuing to be able to use ReminderFox has been truly inspiring!

Thank you,
The ReminderFox team,

Tom, Dan, Guenter

[Colin Law]

That really is very sad. Nothing I have found so far fits my needs as
well as Reminderfox.
Many thanks to the team for making my life easier over a good number
of years. How many is it?

Best wishes

Colin

PS Even worse I have just realised the full significance of this. I
have an elderly relative who relies on it for so much, I am going to
have to get him up to speed with something else. I feel despair
setting in.

> --
> ReminderFox - the simple Reminder application for Firefox and Thunderbird
> http://www.reminderfox.org
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ReminderFox" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to reminderfox...@googlegroups.com.
> To post to this group, send email to remin...@googlegroups.com.
> Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/reminderfox.

[laufer...@googlemail.com]

That are very sad and terrible news. Because no other calendar can list and structure like rf. Is their any way to freeze this last version in a container like docker or anything else we can do? How many time and budget you guys need for recode it for 65+?

Best regards Manuel

[jeremy...@gmail.com]

ReminderFox seems to work with Pale Moon. While Pale Moon isn't ideal to use as a browser, it's a very good XUL platform. I use Firefox for ordinary web browsing and Pale Moon for XUL extensions that can't be adequately replaced by WebExtensions.

There's a good chance that in the future, they'll support Pale Moon as a platform for XUL applications rather than primarily as a browser. Something interesting was done with the old ChatZilla code, they've turned it into a standalone IRC client called Ambassador IRC Client. The Mail & News component of SeaMonkey also got turned into Interlink Mail & News by some individual.

http://thereisonlyxul.org/

Firefox itself only has 8% marketshare anyway, so chasing Firefox because it's more popular is really not that good an idea, in my view. Maintaining ReminderFox as a Pale Moon extension or as a standalone XUL application doesn't seem like a terrible idea to me.

[Guenter]

Hello,

thanks for that info, interesting.

Looking at those different pages it's unclear for me how our Reminderfox
XPI could get value out of that. If PaleMoon or the other apps support
FX/TB extensions it should be possible to install RmFX on it.

Another question would be if their fork offers an XULrunner equivalent,
that could act as a host for a standalone  RmFX. Maybe that's the most
interesting point, but totally unclear how ...

... and there are further points like security issues / updates of the
platform.

Günter

[laufer...@googlemail.com]

Did I understand correct way: this is a way to get rf as a stand alone software? Would be so great!

[Guenter]

Hi Manuel,

it sounds like a good idea to have a piece like XULrunner, but with a closer look, the answer is, it's not.

First it would be a very "private" solution with the potential missing security updates, that's because there isn't anyone to take care of it.
Also it would need to have a very dedicated test environment for WIN, OSX and Linux.

The other way after TB65 -- discussed at various places -- use a suported browser based on the legacy stuff, like Palemoon or Waterfox.

And of course port your ICS data to another calendar supporting the import of our reminderfox.ics data.

Greetings
Günter

[nasu...@gmail.com]

SO glad I checked here before updating TB this morning!

Just to be clear, this is the TB upgrade to 60.5.0, not actually 65?

Currently using it for work right now, as well as personal stuff. Guess I'll have to run Palemoon, just for RF, while running FF and TB at the same time!

What a mess.

[gNeandr]

Hi there,

yes Reminderfox on TB60.5 should be OK. Versions greater 60.X will NOT
run with RmFX.

And you wrote "What a mess"   ... please don't blame us -- the
Reminderfox Team -- for the version situation. ;-)

Thanks

Guenter


Am 01.02.19 um 13:02 schrieb nasu...@gmail.com:

[nasu...@gmail.com]

Then I don't get it? I'm on TB 60.4.0 right now. Newest update is 60.5.0.

The first post in this topic, in January, said as of next month TB65 won't support RF.

The difference between 60.5.0 and 65.0 I imagine to be quite a few months, years even?

Above you say 60.X, so will TB61 break RF? If so, where does TB65 fit in?

I have to say I've been struggling to get the stupid calendar in TB to work with my RF stuff this morning. Nightmare. My bacon is saved for a few more months then.

[gNeandr]

Trying to be more precise about the situation with Thunderbird:

RmFX  version 2.1.6.6  will only work with the TB version series up to 60.x

(any numbering great 60 will NOT work! No 61, no 62, no .... no 65, etc ...)

:-)O:-)

Am 02.02.19 um 13:06 schrieb nasu...@gmail.com:

[nasu...@gmail.com]

On Saturday, 2 February 2019 14:57:32 UTC, gNeandr wrote:
> Trying to be more precise about the situation with Thunderbird:
>
>
>
> RmFX  version 2.1.6.6  will only work with the TB version
> series up to 60.x
>
> (any numbering great 60 will NOT work! No 61, no 62, no ....
> no 65, etc ...)
>
> :-)O:-)
>

Sorry to be a pain. Is this correct then?

Current RmFx 2.1.6.6 works up to 60.9

NO version of RmFx will work with TB65+



Will you be updating RmFx to work with TB61 to TB64? Is that still possible?

Thank you for all the work you put in, both on RmFx and the time responding to desperate forum users like me!

[Paul Swain]

Hi!

I think that the problem here is understanding the Thunderbird numbering
system for its versions.  The major versions, e.g. the v60 bit, don't go
in steps of 1 as this list will show:
https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/releases/  As you can see,
we had v45, then v52 and then v60.

So, as I understand it, the next version of Thunderbird is going to be
v65.0 as shown by the release notes for the current beta version:
https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/65.0beta/releasenotes/
This means that ReminderFox won't work when the next update is released,
which I understand is going to be sometime in February. Therefore, you
will need to make some changes as discussed in
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/reminderfox/MlYIeFOtpMs/0RiFOQbuAwAJ


Paul

[Paul Swain]

Hi!

I think that the problem here is understanding the Thunderbird numbering
system for its versions.  The major versions, e.g. the v60 bit, don't go
in steps of 1 as this list will show:
https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/releases/  As you can see,
we had v45, then v52 and then v60.

So, as I understand it, the next version of Thunderbird is going to be
v65.0 as shown by the release notes for the current beta version:
https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/65.0beta/releasenotes/
This means that ReminderFox won't work when the next update is released,
which I understand is going to be sometime in February. Therefore, you
will need to make some changes as discussed in
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/reminderfox/MlYIeFOtpMs/0RiFOQbuAwAJ


Paul


nasu...@gmail.com wrote on 3/02/2019 3:04 am:

[nasu...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, 3 February 2019 05:07:33 UTC, Paul Swain wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I think that the problem here is understanding the Thunderbird numbering
> system for its versions.  The major versions, e.g. the v60 bit, don't go
> in steps of 1 as this list will show:
> https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/releases/  As you can see,
> we had v45, then v52 and then v60.
>

Thank you Paul that explains it! I have tried to get everything into Lightning, but there is a bug I looked up ('all future events' doesn't show a repeat event if it's happened twice already)that is 14 years old! Found other bugs too, reported but not fixed. It just doesn't work like RmFx does. Maybe they should employ the talents of Guenter and GNeandr!

I will look into the ESR release, although I don't really know what I'm doing. However this is not a TB forum, so I'll guess I'll just have to dig for it.

Many thanks to the developers. I've donated before and would happily give £100 if they could keep RmFx alive...

[Summer Maddie]

I am staying on Firefox version 56.0 so I can continue to use reminderfox. My problem is I gitva new computer and there seemscto be no more add-ons of reminderfox. I do still have the reminderfox files in my user files. Is there a way to get it up and running from just those files?

[Colin Law]

On Sun, 24 Feb 2019 at 00:25, Summer Maddie <shar...@wi.rr.com> wrote:
>
> I am staying on Firefox version 56.0 so I can continue to use reminderfox. My problem is I gitva new computer and there seemscto be no more add-ons of reminderfox. I do still have the reminderfox files in my user files. Is there a way to get it up and running from just those files?

You might like to try Waterfox, which is fork of Firefox that retains
compatibility with ReminderFox and does get security updates.
Sticking with an old version of Firefox could expose you to security
risks.

Colin

[law...@gmail.com]

I love this little fox app. Please keep it. I customized the notification sounds to all of Clint Eastwoods voices. It is so cool. What do you need to keep this app up and running?

[law...@gmail.com]

On Sunday, January 20, 2019 at 4:31:29 PM UTC-5, Tom Mutdosch wrote:

[gNeandr]

Sorry to say, please don't expect Reminderfox will do it for Firefox
again and also with Thunderbird there will be only support for TB60.x

As already posted have a look at Waterfox or Palemoon


Am 23.02.19 um 18:12 schrieb law...@gmail.com:

[jeanf...@gmail.com]

Could it be possible to run Reminderfox as a stanalone app using XULRunner ?

[Peter Meyers]

Thank you!

Been a GREAT ride so thanks to the entire development team.  Have been a long time user and hate to see it end.

Thanks!

ram5thwheel

On Sunday, January 20, 2019 at 4:31:29 PM UTC-5, Tom Mutdosch wrote:

[Summer Maddie]

Hi Team,  Longtime user of ReminderFox here.  What reminder program to replace ReminderFox are you using? I can't find anything that is remotely as good as Reminderfox. Thanks Sharon

[Paul Ruiz]

I have tried numerous potential replacements for ReminderFox and have decided on the Calendar program in Yahoo Mail. I have been running it concurrent with RF for about six months, and I think it is a worthy replacement. It will give multiple notifications and will send notifications via email as an option. It also fully coordinates with and is available in the iOS Calendar program on my iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. I hate to see RF go, but Yahoo has worked fine, so far. It also has some features not available in RF.

[dduls...@gmail.com]

Hi Loyal Users of ReminderFox, very sad day, no longer have RemiderFox. Can someone please explain how to print out my ReminderFox back up? Novice user instructions please and thank you, Debra

On Sunday, January 20, 2019 at 4:31:29 PM UTC-5, Tom Mutdosch wrote:

[Colin Law]

It still works fine in Waterfox Classic

Colin

> --
> ReminderFox - the simple Reminder application for Firefox and Thunderbird
> http://www.reminderfox.org
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ReminderFox" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to reminderfox...@googlegroups.com.

> To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/reminderfox/e461e212-272b-4a60-83dd-db33724212e8%40googlegroups.com.

[Paul Swain]

dduls...@gmail.com wrote on 3/11/2019 6:23 am:

Hi Loyal Users of ReminderFox, very sad day, no longer have RemiderFox. Can someone please explain how to print out my ReminderFox back up? Novice user instructions please and thank you,

Hi Debra!

No need to print out the ReminderFox backup, just switch over to the Lightning Calendar that is part of Thunderbird.

There's information on the Lightning Calendar at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/products/thunderbird/calendar  Probably the bit that you will find most useful is how to view the calendar which is covered in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/lightning-user-interface

I'm pretty sure that the calendar is ready to go (so hopefully you don't need to do anything to set it up), and you can import your ReminderFox .ics file as follows

Paul

[nzguy]

Hi

Being reluctant to update Thunderbird to version 68 untilI I have heard about any bugs being resolved, I am still using Thunderbird 60.9.1 with Reminderfox 2.1.6.9.

Today when I tried to open Reminderfox, I got a message saying Reminderfox has been discontinued. I find that Reminderfox is in fact still working but has had the main list view section, displaying reminders,removed. There is now only a virtually blank Reminderfox screen - other than the calendar which has moved to the left of the screen. Reminders now appear to only be displayed when a mouse is hovered over the date in the calendar.

Is there any way to restore the old display? What I have now is hopeless.

Thanks