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Fill server, connection type (SSL, STARTTLS...) and port automatically at Thunderbird startup

  • 4 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
  • 6 views
  • Last reply by mperches3

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Hello! I've been researching for the past week about how to make a .js file to autoconfigure all accounts on the Thunderbird client to a specific server adress, port and security type (SSL/TLS, STARTTLS...) for our medium sized company. It has been a real pain trying to figure out this by myself so I'm reaching out for you guys to get a little help getting this sorted out.

I would like to explain our situation better before asking about the problem itself, so you get my point and motivation to do this.

We have more than 200 computers to maintain in our company. Every time our mail provider changes a setting, we need to go on each individual machine and fiddle with the configuration settings inside the client to adjust whathever changed in the backend. We would like to be a lot smarter and efficient in this process, so I'm trying to figure out how to do this autoconfiguration. We already figured out how to put the XML file in the domain server to use the autodiscovery feature in Thunderbird, but it didn't really solve our problem. I want Thunderbird to check for the items listed above in the title at each bootup of the application.

So, let's begin.

When Thunderbird starts, I need it to reach to a server and download the IMAP and SMTP server adresses, ports and security settings. I know there is a couple of commands to point the file location, whose are:

pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0);

and

pref("general.config.filename", "Thunderbird.cfg");

These are going to be inserted into the "channel-pref" file in the Mozilla Thunderbird/defaults directory. The "Thunderbird.cfg" file will be created in the "Mozilla Thunderbird" directory, wich will have this following command:

pref("autoadmin.global_config_url","yourdomain.com");

and

user_pref("autoadmin.append_emailaddr",true);

The problem starts with the actual commands inside the file hosted in the like provided in the "autoadmin.global_config_url" command. I can't figure out wich commands should I use to configure those items mentioned earlier, making it so all mail accounts wich are configured in the Thunderbird client have those preferences pre-filled, locked and set by the configuration file. Is it possible? I want the passwords to be saved locally, aswell as the certificates and all of the rest. I just want specifically the server settings to be autoconfigured and locked by our file hosted in the domain server.

Hello! I've been researching for the past week about how to make a .js file to autoconfigure all accounts on the Thunderbird client to a specific server adress, port and security type (SSL/TLS, STARTTLS...) for our medium sized company. It has been a real pain trying to figure out this by myself so I'm reaching out for you guys to get a little help getting this sorted out. I would like to explain our situation better before asking about the problem itself, so you get my point and motivation to do this. We have more than 200 computers to maintain in our company. Every time our mail provider changes a setting, we need to go on each individual machine and fiddle with the configuration settings inside the client to adjust whathever changed in the backend. We would like to be a lot smarter and efficient in this process, so I'm trying to figure out how to do this autoconfiguration. We already figured out how to put the XML file in the domain server to use the autodiscovery feature in Thunderbird, but it didn't really solve our problem. I want Thunderbird to check for the items listed above in the title at each bootup of the application. So, let's begin. When Thunderbird starts, I need it to reach to a server and download the IMAP and SMTP server adresses, ports and security settings. I know there is a couple of commands to point the file location, whose are: pref("general.config.obscure_value", 0); and pref("general.config.filename", "Thunderbird.cfg"); These are going to be inserted into the "channel-pref" file in the Mozilla Thunderbird/defaults directory. The "Thunderbird.cfg" file will be created in the "Mozilla Thunderbird" directory, wich will have this following command: pref("autoadmin.global_config_url","yourdomain.com"); and user_pref("autoadmin.append_emailaddr",true); The problem starts with the actual commands inside the file hosted in the like provided in the "autoadmin.global_config_url" command. I can't figure out wich commands should I use to configure those items mentioned earlier, making it so all mail accounts wich are configured in the Thunderbird client have those preferences pre-filled, locked and set by the configuration file. Is it possible? I want the passwords to be saved locally, aswell as the certificates and all of the rest. I just want specifically the server settings to be autoconfigured and locked by our file hosted in the domain server.

All Replies (4)

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I think you will find all that stuff has gone to the gods with Thunderbird 68.

All I can do is point you to the following resources. The bug where I was reading this stuff yesterday and the enterprise mailing list where you might get some help from others in your shoes.

Bug https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1584358 Mailing list. https://mail.mozilla.org/listinfo/tb-enterprise

You might also want to look at using preference locking http://kb.mozillazine.org/Locking_preferences

A little kludgy, but you can drop your own lock file using a batch file in the shortcut. So it will not check, but it will lock them how you set them.

You might also want to look at using group policies for some of the things. https://github.com/thundernest/policy-templates

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Hello! thank you so much for replying. Is it possible to set a default server adress in the lockfile?

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mperches3 said

Hello! thank you so much for replying. Is it possible to set a default server adress in the lockfile?

Can't see why not. my understanding is any preference can be locked in that manner.

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The commands require a server number to be specified. Like, for server3, use "this" server. For server4, use "that" server. I can't seem to find a command that will overwrite every mail server registered on Thunderbird.