User:Rolandtb

I've re-joined Mozilla as part of the Thunderbird team (MZLA) :-) yay!. My old userid on wikimo, rtanglao, doesn't work (references rtanglao@mozilla.com which i don't have access to). Previously

Thunderbird Support 2009-2012
I was part of the SUMO team at Mozilla Corporation (MoCo) and I worked on Firefox for Android and then iOS and then Desktop as well as Firefox for Enterprise and Firefox Rocket (remember that :-) ?!?) and a bit of VPN and insights reporting 2012-August 2020 hence the old userid rtanglao@mozilla.com which is no longer available for obvious reasons! (previous bugzilla id rtanglao@mozilla.com)
I worked at element.io on Matrix Support 2020-late 2022
Thunderbird Support Engineer working at MZLA since April 3, 2023
I am going to attempt to daily public "blog" here, see below! (DISCLAIMER: I don't speak for my colleagues and for engineering and I certainly shouldn't be quoted for dates of any kind or roadmap stuff!)

2023-11-29

SUMO requests are throttled and 429s returned if there are more than 100 requests per minute as per #sumo-team slack: "throttle policy (requests over the 100 rpm threshold start getting 429's) "
createUser:Rolandtb/Interesting bugs and ideas

2023-11-24

Approved: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-mode-thunderbird/revision/270923 from Wayne more edits needed though e.g. screenshots
Approved https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/upgrading-older-version-thunderbird/revision/264698, But more updates needed see github issue: Update "Upgrading from an older version of Thunderbird" for 115 #31

2023-11-22

regular expression report work in progress: https://github.com/thunderbird/github-action-thunderbird-aaq/blob/main/2023/reports/2023-11-01-thunderbird-daily-question-report.md

Sample Nov 1, 2023 regular expression work in progress

2023-11-21

2023-11-17

2023-11-16

2023-11-15

2023-11-14

Unicode characters will be allowed in the SUMO KB when the postgres migration is finished which should be the end of this month, November 2023. This will fix:
- github sumo issue: Contributor forum content gets cut when there's an emoji #435 which is the same as the following bug:
- bug 1723190: "New SUMO article which looks perfect in preview unexpectedly gets truncated after submit due to extended UTF8 character like 🞇, discards article source for good"

2023-11-09

2023-11-08

TIL about Wladimir Palant's (founder of ad block plus) hilarious takedowns of antivirus software on his blog: https://palant.info/categories/antivirus/

2023-11-07

Changed keyboards shortcut article to "not fully working on macOS" https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/keyboard-shortcuts-thunderbird/revision/269882

2023-11-06

SUMO KB updates:
- unable to install add-ons and themesarticle: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/unable-install-add-on-extension-theme-thunderbird
- open TB profile foldertemplate: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/templateopenProfileFolderTB/history#thunderbird:win10:tb115
Today I rediscovered the wiki page: Thunderbird/Support/GetSatisfaction/TaggingConventions that I last updated in 2014!!!! <-- Needs a rewrite for SUMO tagging of Thunderbird questions, any volunteers :-) ? I would love to help folks rewrite this.
TIL Firefox dev is switching to GITL:firefox-dev: Firefox Development Is Moving From Mercurial To Git but will still use bugzilla, moz-phab, Phabricator, and Lando. No PRs: " Although we'll be hosting the repository on GitHub, our contribution workflow will remain unchanged and we will not be accepting Pull Requests at this time" <-- I've never done any firefox work but someday it would be cool to use github PRs.

2023-11-03

2023-11-02

Wayne and other's wiki page of bugzilla queries: Thunderbird:Bug Queries

2023-11-01

Wayne's queries:
- my daily triage list is https://mzl.la/40hDh6t which excludes add-ons (john takes care of those), versions prior to 115 and other pure noise, enhancements and closed bugs.
- if you really want to learn more and see what's going on then you'd want to include closed bugs new1d new1w
- even broader is all activity in past week
- Wayne to Heather in Matrix: "Thinking about it more, if triaging bugs that most need attention is the objective, then I suggest skip the newest bugs and go where we need more hands are needed (newest bugs already tend to get attention, or should be getting triage attention from developers) - that would be the huge backlog of older bugs which have received little or no attention since X weeks ago. That would be a query like https://mzl.la/3QtngWC. Even that is just a fraction of the bugs created since supernova code landed"
a better version of heather's query with more components and 24 hours
~~heather's Bugzilla query: get Thunderbird bugs that are new or unconfirmed in the last 24 hours~~

2023-10-31

Brendan: "I wrote a script to change your Matrix display name locally to every room and DM in a Matrix space, feel free to use it" https://github.com/babolivier/scripts/blob/main/set_display_name_in_matrix_space.py
- sample usage: python set_display_name_in_matrix_space.py -u '@you:someserver.com' -t '[my Matrix access token]' -s '#thunderbird-community:mozilla.org' -n 'me fun status string like Roland PTO'

Per: Not being able to click on the column and then use the keyboard to move it is probably a bug., filed: bug 1862272: "macOS: Message List Columns can't be reordered with the keyboard after clicking on the column name in Keywords: table mode. Have to hit tab. Works fine on Windows and Linux." <-- component: Folder and Message Lists, keyword: access

2023-10-30

~~filed bug 1861898: "Version picker: Make Thunderbird 115 the default in the KB (it's currently 102)"~~ <-- fixed by the fab Lucas Siebert on November 1, 2023

2023-10-27

2023-10-26

2023-10-25

created gdoc: Public Document: SUMO KB: How to share TB console logs
created Thunderbird/Support/Get Help Flowchart

2023-10-24

TIL: Conversations is part of our roadmap for 2024. In order to achieve that we need to rebuild our global message database. No firm timeline on this. The existing Thunderbird add-on does work in 115.
Did another revison of the Config Editor article to make it clear it is unsupported

2023-10-23

need an icon from the Thunderbird or Firefox UI for a SUMO KB article?
- 1. find the SVG (In firefox right click "Inspect", in thunderbird it's more complicated :-))
- 2. you will find something like url("chrome://global/skin/icons/undo.svg"), open that url (in this case it's chrome://global/skin/icons/undo.svg, save that svg
- convert to png using inkscape: svgexport undo.svg undo.png 16:16 <-- convert to 16px by 16px png which is what is recommended for the SUMO KB

2023-10-20

Added a FAQ for too large/small fonts: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-115-supernova-faq#w_why-are-the-fonts-still-too-large-or-too-small-after-i-changed-the-density-and-font-size

2023-10-19

How to search for SVGs in Thunderbird code: https://searchfox.org/comm-central/search?q=.svg&path=&case=false&regexp=false <-- then use inkscape to convert to PNG, or preview
- or even better use figma! https://www.figma.com/file/tdHDFZcWpubxf2HymOzZPC/Project-Supernova?type=design&node-id=4-2&mode=design&t=j4nWAiZrkYjxUJqT-0

2023-10-18

Notion: Desktop Thunderbird Public Roadmap

2023-10-17

Today I re-learned the following about Matrix:
- Brendan: So there's 2 layers of verification. There's verification of your own devices, and verification of others. Verifying a user means you have compared master keys (or a high-level representation of them, e.g. emojis) with a user, and from then on when you see them in the member list of an encrypted room, the shield next to their avatar will be either green or red, depending on whether they have verified all of their own devices. Verifying your own devices let people who have verified your master key know that your new device is safe. It also acts as a way for your existing devices to know they can share decryption keys to the new one, so you can decrypt previous messages.
- Nheko, an alternative matrix client to Element.io, has "Send encrypted messages to verified users only" which by default is ON
- Brendan again: The setting in Element's matrix client, app.element.io, is "Never send encrypted messages to unverified sessions" <- you do not want to enable this setting if you still want to communicate with unverified sessions.
created github issue: done: Create SHA1 deprecation article (or insert text in appropriate existing article) #26

2023-10-16

TIL how to find out which bugs are in beta: https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/pushloghtml
TIL how to find out which bugs are in release: https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr115/pushloghtml
bug 1859181: "Subscriptions to notifications of updated articles cannot be modified" aka sumo github issue: Knowledge Base Dashboard subscriptions cannot be modified #1509

2023-10-13

TIL that Owl was broken in Thunderbird 115.3.2. Luckily the developer quickly released Owl 1.2.3 which fixed it!

2023-10-12

2023-10-11

Wayne in bug 1857694:"115 Supernova font / screen scaling size issues (eg oversized/huge)" and [1]: alex in comment 3: "layout.css.devPixelsPerPx is preference that comes from Firefox and we don't use nor support.Probably these users edited it in the past when Thunderbird UI wasn't really responsive nor scalable via built-in density or font size.I don't think we have any control over that pref, and we can't even ignore it." tb-support-crew and SUMO question 1424372:

Chatting with a developer, and consistent with Toad-Hall's instructions at https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1424372#answer-1606067, resetting layout.css.devPixelsPerPx to default value -1.0 should help with your size issue.

TIL from Alice on Matrix in #sumo that "Support questions are automatically archived 180 days from the creation date (bug 680924)"
- comment 24 from 12 (!) years ago

Looking at the things to verify aren't affected by auto-locking:

1. All questions are indexed regardless of whether they're locked or not. I'm not going to change that. If someone wants that changed, they should create a new bug.

2. Questions with no answers and are older than 30 days have a meta tag telling search engines not to show them. I'm not going to change that, either. If someone wants that changed, they should create a new bug.

2023-10-10

flic.kr/p/2p8pCas ← experimental percentage of sumo tb questions answered within 24 hours; even more experimental: metabase version() \<--- userid: rolandt@gmail.com password: mzla20231234 Metabase probably won't be up for more than 24 hours :-)
- metabase is used for the graphs: get-response-metrics.rb -> csv -> sqlite using csvs-to-sqlite) -> metabase ; metabase is in Java which is silly :-) but this is just a proof of concept, no java or ruby will be used in production :-)
- you can run metabase yourself, just download it (or on macOS: brew install metabase and then load in the sqlite database: https://github.com/rtanglao/github-action-thunderbird-aaq/blob/main/2023/2023-04-01-2023-10-05-thunderbird-metrics.db
- CSV version: https://github.com/rtanglao/github-action-thunderbird-aaq/blob/main/2023/2023-04-01-2023-10-05-thunderbird-metrics.csv for Google Sheets and Excel. If you don't like my graph you can make your own :-)

2023-10-06

Revised the TB115 Faq question about Linux Theming and Colors

2023-10-05

Alex requested a another draft of the Linux themes/colors thing so I made one with his words! https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-115-supernova-faq/revision/266739
I made a search for connect.mozilla.org in the url fields bugzilla query: https://mzl.la/45jiZdp <-- This query doesn't search in the SUMO components ! just the thunderbird code components

2023-10-04

github issue: Update Installing Thunderbird on Linux #20 is getting closer to being done. SUMO draft soon I believe!

2023-10-03

filed github issue: Change Profiling Thunderbird Performance to add PII info #25

2023-10-02

TIL: MOCKUPS only not a commitment :-) of course -> Thunderbird UX mailing list Message Context Menu updates

2023-09-28

closed 9 year old bug as won't fix: bug 1155250: "showfor in iOS"
Approved Elizabeth's edits and fixed some formatting in the Thunderbird Accessibility SUMO KB Article
TIL about sumo github issue: Cannot access the "Edit Article Metadata" form a translated article version #1405
Magnus in the tb-planning topic box mailing list: "In case you came across it, yes this is really us. Thunderbird is now available in the Microsoft Store: https://apps.microsoft.com/store/detail/mozilla-thunderbird-email/9PM5VM1S3VMQ Hoping this lets a lot more users find us. Congrats to Rob Lemley for the hard work getting it in there! Please help improve discoverability by adding five star ratings and great reviews :)"

2023-09-27

TBMore template added to TB 115 FAQ and to New in Thunderbird 115 Supernova SUMO KB articles
created google doc (gdoc): PUBLIC DOCUMENT: Unsupported CSS and userChrome customizations reddit and matrix

2023-09-26

Another draft of the TBMore template: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/templatetbmore/revision/266195
- See it in action at: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/new-thunderbird-115-supernova/review/266092
I got my emoji dashboard working, but it's a bit too wide and maybe I should make a text only version: http://rolandtanglao.com/2023/09/26/p1-thunderbird-bar-code-operating-system-antivirus-email-provider-userchrome/

2023-09-25

As always help wanted and gladly received: Filed:Create: SUMO KB Template for More? Support, Complaint/feature request, Contribute #22 <--- did one more revision of this.

2023-09-22

looked at changes for NVDA and accessibility stuff (see https://github.com/thundernest/knowledgebase-issues/issues/19 and Elizabeth's changes (thanks!) https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-accessibility-features/history )
template changes for more tb template: https://github.com/thundernest/knowledgebase-issues/issues/22

2023-09-21

As always help wanted and gladly received :-) -> filed Modernize: Advanced panel - System, network, updates, and other advanced settings in Thunderbird re: telemetry and other update pings #21
As always help wanted and gladly received: Filed:Create: SUMO KB Template for More? Support, Complaint/feature request, Contribute #22

2023-09-20

TIL about python code to get #of SUMO questions (I have coded this at least 3 times in Ruby :-) !), https://github.com/thundernest/stats/blob/master/tools/sumo.py , #of questions per day dashboard: https://stats.thunderbird.net/#support
TIL: Collapsible/foldout sections with plus signs work in SUMO KB, see SUMO github issue: Allow kb articles to have "foldout" sections #1383
- example code:

==Following subsections will have + signs to disclose==

[[UI:details_start]]

===subsection 1 specific content which will be collapsed until + is clicked===

blah blah about section 1

===subsection 2===

blah blah section 2

[[UI:details_end]]

From September 14th, 2023: SUMO question 1423746 top 10 contributor sfhowes was able to add a hotmail account with 115/Windows 11 with OAuth which reinforces the belief that 102->115 migration to OAuth for non enterprise has some issues which hopefully we are solving. sfhowes wrote:
- I just added a Hotmail account to a new profile in 115/W11, with OAuth2, and it worked without any problems, sending or receiving. This account does not have two-step verification. I can't explain why others have issues, but it's possible they employ external security apps or VPNs that interfere with the authentication process. Perhaps doing a test with Windows running in safe mode would produce different results.
Attended SUMO monthly meeting: Support/Weekly Meetings/Agenda 2023-09-20 and added update with Wayne's help: "We found some late breaking issues in Thunderbird 115 so automatic updates from 102 to TB 115 are currently off. (users already on 115 will continue to get automatic updates to newer 115s) Hoping to resolve this later this next week."
Looked at bug 1853961: "Since upgrading to 115.2 from 102.15, cannot see IMAP mail folders or mail". Not sure if the thrilling conclusion :-) is user error i.e. OP aka Brian Barrett messed something up or something else? --> see also SUMO Question 1423621

2023-09-19

Created github issue, Update Installing Thunderbird on Linux #20 for SUMO KB article updates to Installing Thunderbird on Linux #20 Installing Thunderbird on Linux
Updated SUMO KB Thunderbird 115 FAQ: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-115-supernova-faq/revision/265827
In case you forgot the undocumented-but-loved :-) SUMO Forum aka AAQ API (which still erroneously returns pacific time instead of UTC, see issue 3686 still fails) to get all questions for a day is: https://support.mozilla.org/api/2/question/?product=thunderbird&created__gt=<greater_than_time>&created__lt=<less_than_time>

e.g. https://support.mozilla.org/api/2/question/?product=thunderbird&created__gt=2023-09-18&created__lt=2023-09-19

2023-09-18

Blank Folders issue (see https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Support/TB115.0SupportIssues#Not_so_minor ): Thunderbird 115 blank folder issue browser console screendump; Workaround which allows Thunderbird to display folders but doesn't solve the problem for the offending folder: drag offending folder e.g. "safe harbour_" in the example below to the desktop out of the Thunderbird Folder using Windows Explorer or macOS Finder or whatever it's called in Linux :-) !) key things:
- 1. _addSubFolders error
- 2. gloda.index_msg: Problem entering folder, <folder name> (in this case folder name is "safe harbour_".)

You can see 1. and 2. in in this full screen screenshot, and here's a thumbnail:

2023-09-18: Thumbnail of 800px wide version of Thunderbird 115 browser console error message from blank folder issue

Maybe we'll get a fix for this 14 year old bug soon :-) (links to get satisfaction!): bug 522768: "Search Results: Add "Folder path" column / Missing full path tooltip in "Location" column (Faceted Search: Open as List, Open in Conversation, Saved Searches, Search Messages; Main 3-pane Window) [containing folder]"

2023-09-16

Attended Thunderbird Office Hours event at 10am pacific

2023-09-15

More looking into microsoft oauth issues. Non enterprise email from microsoft can still use password auth instead of oauth (all new accounts enterprise or not are oauth by default) but password auth was disabled on enterprise on schedule in oct 2022. If I interpret things correctly, we did migrate everybody, enterprise and non enterprise, to Oauth but there may have been issues in that migration.

2023-09-14

For hotmail, outlook.com, live.com and other email hosted on MS365 / Office 365, people in TB115 are seeing cannot send emails because: bug 1798875:migrate Office365 accounts to OAuth2 authentication (password only, Less secure apps will not work starting Oct 1, 2022): never migrated them successfully to OAuth2 before upgrade.
- Solution: Delete the scopes for sending and receiving emails as per Microsoft OAuth Authentication and Thunderbird in 2023 (use the config editor to filter for "oauth2", find the appropriate server(s), and delete the entries for "oauth2.issuer" and "auth2.scope") or wait for a Thunderbird 115 build with the fix to bug 1814823: Saved scopes or other login info breaks Microsoft OAuth
- Workaround: Switch to from OAuth back to "normal password" (as per reddit user momplaysbass:Cannot send email after upgrade to Thunderbird 115; smtp.office365.com;starttls on port 587;Authentication method: normal password) which still works in September 2023 even though it was supposed to stop working in October 2022: NB: normal passwords will eventually stop working so it's best to use OAuth2 as per the real Solution above.
Filed github issue: Create accessibility documentation for JAWS, NVDA and other screen readers and accessibility tools for TB115 #19

2023-09-13

Helped Wayne reproduce a problem with delayed SUMO emails and that led to Wayne filing bug 1853060: Support Forum emails are delayed two or more days
Filed Thunderbird SUMO KB article github issue: Create Thunderbird version of Install an older version of Firefox#18<-- would love to have some help on this and any other articles :-)
bug 1843023: Keyboard shortcut wrong on macOS when running TB in Dutch <-- Dutch Keyboard shortcut for macOS is broken! Should be Command Q but it is Command F erroneously. <-- Updated Support Report: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Support/TB115.0SupportIssues#Minor_issues

2023-09-12

More hacking of SUMO emoji dashboard
I went to the biweekly Support Release Scrum organized by the CX/SUMO team at Moco (video recording) and reported that manual updates are on since Wed September 13 (102.15 -> 115 manual updates turned on Wed Sep 6, 2023) and automatic updates will likely be turned on later this week. See Thunderbird/Support/TB115.0SupportIssues

2023-09-11

approved How to disable or change the Thunderbird start page which was a revision for removal of TB60 text
TIL that there's a meta bug for Libre Office and Thunderbird: Libre Office bug LibreOffice Bug 154755 (Thunderbird-Interoperability) - [META Thunderbird interoperability and integration]
TIL that the Canonical team devotes some effort to keeping the Thunderbird Snap up to date and that we currently have no plans for .deb until Firefox finishes their work on a Firefox .deb
1423319: Preview of new messages in inbox by hovering over inbox that was in 102 is gone in 115 <-- wayne: `The message snippets on hover is intentionally removed - it affects accessibility` <-- From the 115 Support Report

2023-09-08

refactored emoji code WIP emoji dashboard: https://github.com/rtanglao/rt-tb-noto-emoji-2023/blob/main/create-emoji-question-graphics.rb and in the process I learned that pango can't handle backslashes hence lines like str += "</span>#{content[:emoji]}"

2023-09-07

Added Step 1-4 screenshots to the 115 FAQ
Filed github issue: Document: How To: Choose Folders for Unified Folders #17
TIL that transparent fill (useful for putting red boxes around menu items or other UX affordances like buttons in SUMO KB) in macOS Preview.app is a "Fill Color" with the diagonal red slash (near the upper left corner) (from how to draw shapes in Preview with no fill)

2023-09-06

Approved Wayne's edit to the 115 FAQ
Added Why are my Thunderbird customizations broken in 115? to the 115 FAQ.

2023-09-05

Filed Incorporate Kai's How to setup email encryption in TB115 video content into relevant SUMO KB articles #16
Approved Kai's edits for and made an edit myself see the issue for links: Polish Thunderbird Matrix Chat FAQ #15

2023-08-31

SUMO KB can't handle emojis e.g. lightbulb emojis and other unicode characters: from SUMO devs "because mysql can't handle the full suite of unicode chars, because it uses only 3-bytes instead of the full 4-bytes required to support all unicode chars. this issue will go away once we move from mysql to postgres, which we're working on currently, and should happen in late 2023 or early 2024"