I was trying to set up Thunderbird and Firefox running under Linux so 
that if I click a URL in TB it opens up in Firefox, and if I click a 
mailto: link in FF, it opens up a TB mail compose window. After a little 
hunting, I came up with (what I think is) the definitive answer. I 
thought I'd post it here for future reference.

Make sure neither program is running. Find the prefs.js file for each 
program. The FF one is usually in ~/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default 
and the TB one is at ~/.thunderbird/xxxxxxxx.default where the 
'xxxxxxxx' are different for each user profile (so if you use more than 
one profile, you might want to set this up for each one).

At the end of FF's prefs.js, add this line:

user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.mailto", 
"/usr/local/bin/thunderbird");

Watch for line wrap, and change the path to the TB executable if you 
keep it in a different location.

Add these lines to the end of TB's prefs.js:

user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.ftp", "/usr/local/bin/firefox");
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http", "/usr/local/bin/firefox");
user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.https", "/usr/local/bin/firefox");

Again, watch for line wrap: each line starts with 'user_pref' and ends 
with ';'. And again, change the location as necessary. Note also that 
this method should work with other programs (e.g. FF->KMail, 
TB->Konqueror, although I haven't tried them (maybe someone might care 
to do so and report back).


While I was trying to find out how to do all of this, before I knew 
about the prefs.js solution, I was hunting around in KDE and Gnome, and 
in the preferences/options dialogs of both programs. Something strange 
occurred: I'd installed TB version 0.9 and FF 1.0 and found buttons in 
the Options/Preferences dialogs to check that TB is the default mail and 
news client and FF is the default browser, and those worked for me. I'd 
installed the exact same versions of both programs on my friend's 
computer, but her versions didn't have those buttons. I deleted 0.9 and 
installed rc1 and discovered that that, also, doesn't have those buttons.

It seems, however, that they're useful buttons to have, even if only to 
stop us users from having to find a solution that works for all systems. 
Maybe the developers will consider reinstating them...

-- 
Garry Knight
garryknight@gmx.net
ICQ 126351135

On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 02:07:25 +0000, Garry Knight wrote:

> I was trying to set up Thunderbird and Firefox running under Linux so 
> that if I click a URL in TB it opens up in Firefox, and if I click a 
> mailto: link in FF, it opens up a TB mail compose window. After a little 
> hunting, I came up with (what I think is) the definitive answer. I 
> thought I'd post it here for future reference.
> 

Garry-

Many, many thanks for this.  I've spent a deal of time each time working
on shell scripts, searching the forums, and this way works without having
gnome or kde installed which is a blessing at least to me :)

Before, I had to go hunting for a mozex which would work for the mailto
links.  Its nice having a solution which does not require the extension
any longer. 

I'm gonna save your article, because it always comes up as I do fresh
debian installs.


-- 
Michael Perry | do or do not. There is no try. -Master Yoda
mperry@lnxpowered.org | http://www.lnxpowered.org

Michael Perry wrote:

> Garry-
> 
> Many, many thanks for this.

You're welcome. I hope your knowing how to do it can benefit someone 
else at some time in the future.

-- 
Garry Knight
garryknight@gmx.net
ICQ 126351135

Garry Knight venit, vidit, dixit 12/04/04 03:07:
> I was trying to set up Thunderbird and Firefox running under Linux so 
> that if I click a URL in TB it opens up in Firefox, and if I click a 
> mailto: link in FF, it opens up a TB mail compose window. After a little 
> hunting, I came up with (what I think is) the definitive answer. I 
> thought I'd post it here for future reference.
> 

The thing is that the start scripts of FF and TB now work they way they 
were always supposed to. Most of the info you find by googling is about 
circumventing the shortcomings of earlier versions.

> Make sure neither program is running. Find the prefs.js file for each 
> program. The FF one is usually in ~/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default 
> and the TB one is at ~/.thunderbird/xxxxxxxx.default where the 
> 'xxxxxxxx' are different for each user profile (so if you use more than 
> one profile, you might want to set this up for each one).
> 
> At the end of FF's prefs.js, add this line:
> 
> user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.mailto", 
> "/usr/local/bin/thunderbird");
> 
> Watch for line wrap, and change the path to the TB executable if you 
> keep it in a different location.

If thunderbird and firefox are on your PATH, you can simply put 
"thunderbird" in this preference.

> 
> Add these lines to the end of TB's prefs.js:
> 
> user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.ftp", "/usr/local/bin/firefox");
> user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http", "/usr/local/bin/firefox");
> user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.https", "/usr/local/bin/firefox");
> 
> Again, watch for line wrap: each line starts with 'user_pref' and ends 
> with ';'. And again, change the location as necessary. Note also that 
> this method should work with other programs (e.g. FF->KMail, 
> TB->Konqueror, although I haven't tried them (maybe someone might care 
> to do so and report back).
> 
> 
> While I was trying to find out how to do all of this, before I knew 
> about the prefs.js solution, I was hunting around in KDE and Gnome, and 
> in the preferences/options dialogs of both programs. Something strange 
> occurred: I'd installed TB version 0.9 and FF 1.0 and found buttons in 
> the Options/Preferences dialogs to check that TB is the default mail and 
> news client and FF is the default browser, and those worked for me. I'd 

Yes, that's the easiest way of doing it. It requires that you have a 
recent KDE/gtk.

> installed the exact same versions of both programs on my friend's 
> computer, but her versions didn't have those buttons. I deleted 0.9 and 
> installed rc1 and discovered that that, also, doesn't have those buttons.
> 
> It seems, however, that they're useful buttons to have, even if only to 
> stop us users from having to find a solution that works for all systems. 
> Maybe the developers will consider reinstating them...
> 

Whether the buttons appear there is not a matter of FF/TB. FF/TB use the 
gtk toolkit and tell gtk that they are possible default applications fpr 
http and mail.
If you use a pure KDE installation without gtk, or if your gtk/gnome is 
to old then this mechanism doesn't work.

Michael
-- 
switch the part to the left and right of the at sign to get my address

On Mon, 06 Dec 2004 13:11:15 +0100, Michael J Gruber wrote:

> Garry Knight venit, vidit, dixit 12/04/04 03:07:
>> I was trying to set up Thunderbird and Firefox running under Linux so 
>> that if I click a URL in TB it opens up in Firefox, and if I click a 
>> mailto: link in FF, it opens up a TB mail compose window. After a little 
>> hunting, I came up with (what I think is) the definitive answer. I 
>> thought I'd post it here for future reference.
>> 
> 
> The thing is that the start scripts of FF and TB now work they way they 
> were always supposed to. Most of the info you find by googling is about 
> circumventing the shortcomings of earlier versions.
> 
>> Make sure neither program is running. Find the prefs.js file for each 
>> program. The FF one is usually in ~/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default 
>> and the TB one is at ~/.thunderbird/xxxxxxxx.default where the 
>> 'xxxxxxxx' are different for each user profile (so if you use more than 
>> one profile, you might want to set this up for each one).
>> 
>> At the end of FF's prefs.js, add this line:
>> 
>> user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.mailto", 
>> "/usr/local/bin/thunderbird");
>> 
>> Watch for line wrap, and change the path to the TB executable if you 
>> keep it in a different location.
> 
> If thunderbird and firefox are on your PATH, you can simply put 
> "thunderbird" in this preference.
> 
>> 
>> Add these lines to the end of TB's prefs.js:
>> 
>> user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.ftp", "/usr/local/bin/firefox");
>> user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http", "/usr/local/bin/firefox");
>> user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.https", "/usr/local/bin/firefox");
>> 
>> Again, watch for line wrap: each line starts with 'user_pref' and ends 
>> with ';'. And again, change the location as necessary. Note also that 
>> this method should work with other programs (e.g. FF->KMail, 
>> TB->Konqueror, although I haven't tried them (maybe someone might care 
>> to do so and report back).
>> 
>> 
>> While I was trying to find out how to do all of this, before I knew 
>> about the prefs.js solution, I was hunting around in KDE and Gnome, and 
>> in the preferences/options dialogs of both programs. Something strange 
>> occurred: I'd installed TB version 0.9 and FF 1.0 and found buttons in 
>> the Options/Preferences dialogs to check that TB is the default mail and 
>> news client and FF is the default browser, and those worked for me. I'd 
> 
> Yes, that's the easiest way of doing it. It requires that you have a 
> recent KDE/gtk.
> 
>> installed the exact same versions of both programs on my friend's 
>> computer, but her versions didn't have those buttons. I deleted 0.9 and 
>> installed rc1 and discovered that that, also, doesn't have those buttons.
>> 
>> It seems, however, that they're useful buttons to have, even if only to 
>> stop us users from having to find a solution that works for all systems. 
>> Maybe the developers will consider reinstating them...
>> 
> 
> Whether the buttons appear there is not a matter of FF/TB. FF/TB use the 
> gtk toolkit and tell gtk that they are possible default applications fpr 
> http and mail.
> If you use a pure KDE installation without gtk, or if your gtk/gnome is 
> to old then this mechanism doesn't work.
> 
> Michael

I think there still needs to be a mechanism to launch other mail
applications such as mutt.  Last time I upgraded Firefox and Thunderbird,
I had a more interesting time locating a mozex that would work.  Granted,
I do not use KDE or Gnome and there are no default applications in
WindowMaker that I can see :).

I think a better way is to have some sort of basic GUI which allows Linux
users to set the preference and whether it runs in a terminal or not. 
Since I use thunderbird for mail, the editing of the prefs.js works very
well now for me.

It'd be nice to have a level of flexibility if you choose other mail
applications and not use KDE or Gnome.  On my XP laptop, there is the mail
icon on the toolbar which will call up the default mail program.  Does
this icon actually work for those using Gnome or KDE?  I'm just curious if
setting the default in either of those environments allows one to call up
the email program by using the icon on the toolbar.


-- 
Michael Perry | do or do not. There is no try. -Master Yoda
mperry@lnxpowered.org | http://www.lnxpowered.org

Michael J Gruber wrote:

[Default mail/new/browser buttons]
> Whether the buttons appear there is not a matter of FF/TB. FF/TB use the 
> gtk toolkit and tell gtk that they are possible default applications fpr 
> http and mail.
> If you use a pure KDE installation without gtk, or if your gtk/gnome is 
> to old then this mechanism doesn't work.

How new do they have to be? I'm running Mandrake 10.1 Official with KDE 
3.2.3 and whichever Gnome comes with Mandrake 10.1 (2.7, I think). It 
was when my friend and I were both running Mandrake 10.0 that I had the 
buttons and she didn't, despite the fact that we both had the same 
versions of KDE and Gnome installed.

Personally I prefer the prefs.js way as I can choose which client each 
of the programs calls without having to change the desktop's idea of the 
'default'. People who are new to Linux (and especially Windows refugees 
- or should that be MS refugees?) would, I imagine, prefer the buttons.

-- 
Garry Knight
garryknight@gmx.net
ICQ 126351135

Michael Perry wrote:
> On Mon, 06 Dec 2004 13:11:15 +0100, Michael J Gruber wrote:
> 
> 
>>Garry Knight venit, vidit, dixit 12/04/04 03:07:
>>
>>>I was trying to set up Thunderbird and Firefox running under Linux so 
>>>that if I click a URL in TB it opens up in Firefox, and if I click a 
>>>mailto: link in FF, it opens up a TB mail compose window. After a little 
>>>hunting, I came up with (what I think is) the definitive answer. I 
>>>thought I'd post it here for future reference.
>>>
>>
>>The thing is that the start scripts of FF and TB now work they way they 
>>were always supposed to. Most of the info you find by googling is about 
>>circumventing the shortcomings of earlier versions.
>>
>>
>>>Make sure neither program is running. Find the prefs.js file for each 
>>>program. The FF one is usually in ~/.mozilla/firefox/xxxxxxxx.default 
>>>and the TB one is at ~/.thunderbird/xxxxxxxx.default where the 
>>>'xxxxxxxx' are different for each user profile (so if you use more than 
>>>one profile, you might want to set this up for each one).
>>>
>>>At the end of FF's prefs.js, add this line:
>>>
>>>user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.mailto", 
>>>"/usr/local/bin/thunderbird");
>>>
>>>Watch for line wrap, and change the path to the TB executable if you 
>>>keep it in a different location.
>>
>>If thunderbird and firefox are on your PATH, you can simply put 
>>"thunderbird" in this preference.
>>
>>
>>>Add these lines to the end of TB's prefs.js:
>>>
>>>user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.ftp", "/usr/local/bin/firefox");
>>>user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.http", "/usr/local/bin/firefox");
>>>user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.https", "/usr/local/bin/firefox");
>>>
>>>Again, watch for line wrap: each line starts with 'user_pref' and ends 
>>>with ';'. And again, change the location as necessary. Note also that 
>>>this method should work with other programs (e.g. FF->KMail, 
>>>TB->Konqueror, although I haven't tried them (maybe someone might care 
>>>to do so and report back).
>>>
>>>
>>>While I was trying to find out how to do all of this, before I knew 
>>>about the prefs.js solution, I was hunting around in KDE and Gnome, and 
>>>in the preferences/options dialogs of both programs. Something strange 
>>>occurred: I'd installed TB version 0.9 and FF 1.0 and found buttons in 
>>>the Options/Preferences dialogs to check that TB is the default mail and 
>>>news client and FF is the default browser, and those worked for me. I'd 
>>
>>Yes, that's the easiest way of doing it. It requires that you have a 
>>recent KDE/gtk.
>>
>>
>>>installed the exact same versions of both programs on my friend's 
>>>computer, but her versions didn't have those buttons. I deleted 0.9 and 
>>>installed rc1 and discovered that that, also, doesn't have those buttons.
>>>
>>>It seems, however, that they're useful buttons to have, even if only to 
>>>stop us users from having to find a solution that works for all systems. 
>>>Maybe the developers will consider reinstating them...
>>>
>>
>>Whether the buttons appear there is not a matter of FF/TB. FF/TB use the 
>>gtk toolkit and tell gtk that they are possible default applications fpr 
>>http and mail.
>>If you use a pure KDE installation without gtk, or if your gtk/gnome is 
>>to old then this mechanism doesn't work.
>>
>>Michael
> 
> 
> I think there still needs to be a mechanism to launch other mail
> applications such as mutt.  Last time I upgraded Firefox and Thunderbird,
> I had a more interesting time locating a mozex that would work.  Granted,
> I do not use KDE or Gnome and there are no default applications in
> WindowMaker that I can see :).
> 
> I think a better way is to have some sort of basic GUI which allows Linux
> users to set the preference and whether it runs in a terminal or not. 
> Since I use thunderbird for mail, the editing of the prefs.js works very
> well now for me.
> 
> It'd be nice to have a level of flexibility if you choose other mail
> applications and not use KDE or Gnome.  On my XP laptop, there is the mail
> icon on the toolbar which will call up the default mail program.  Does
> this icon actually work for those using Gnome or KDE?  I'm just curious if
> setting the default in either of those environments allows one to call up
> the email program by using the icon on the toolbar.

Any mail icon on the KDE toolbar will relate to a particular program 
(Kontact: a PIM which includes mail, is the default in recent KDE 
versions) rather than to any idea of a 'default mail client'. I believe 
the same is true of Gnome.

Of course, it's possible to have an icon on the toolbar point to 
symbolic links (in /etc/alternatives) called, say, 'mta-kde' and 
'mta-gnome', and have these point to whichever mail client(s) you want 
to have as the default. And it wouldn't take too much effort to use 
something like the Xdialog program to put together a GUI interface that 
would allow you to select the defaults and which would re-direct the 
symlinks behind the scenes. I imagine that something like this would be 
possible in Windows since it also features this kind of linkage 
mechanism, I understand. And you wouldn't even need to use the symbolic 
links; re-writing the .desktop files would suffice, although this method 
falls down if the format of those files changes.

-- 
Garry Knight
garryknight@gmx.net
ICQ 126351135

On Mon, 06 Dec 2004 19:19:23 +0000, Garry Knight wrote:
>
> Any mail icon on the KDE toolbar will relate to a particular program 
> (Kontact: a PIM which includes mail, is the default in recent KDE 
> versions) rather than to any idea of a 'default mail client'. I believe 
> the same is true of Gnome.
>
> Of course, it's possible to have an icon on the toolbar point to 
> symbolic links (in /etc/alternatives) called, say, 'mta-kde' and 
> 'mta-gnome', and have these point to whichever mail client(s) you want 
> to have as the default. And it wouldn't take too much effort to use 
> something like the Xdialog program to put together a GUI interface that 
> would allow you to select the defaults and which would re-direct the 
> symlinks behind the scenes. I imagine that something like this would be 
> possible in Windows since it also features this kind of linkage 
> mechanism, I understand. And you wouldn't even need to use the symbolic 
> links; re-writing the .desktop files would suffice, although this method 
> falls down if the format of those files changes.
>

Here is an interesting factoid about using the editing of the pref.js and
mozex.  If you edit the prefs.js to include thunderbird as an external
mail application and you have mozex installed, it seems like mozex will
take priority IF you have the intercept mailto links set in the
extension.  If not, thunderbird will respond with compose windows.

Since I don't use KDE or Gnome at all, I like solutions which don't
require them.  Editing the prefs.js file really is nice since it moves
beyond either desktop environment.

Launching the web browser from a link in thunderbird requires the editing
of the prefs.js file still for thunderbird.  For mutt, one just needs
urlview.


-- 
Michael Perry | do or do not. There is no try. -Master Yoda
mperry@lnxpowered.org | http://www.lnxpowered.org

Garry Knight venit, vidit, dixit 12/06/04 20:00:
> Michael J Gruber wrote:
> 
> [Default mail/new/browser buttons]
> 
>> Whether the buttons appear there is not a matter of FF/TB. FF/TB use 
>> the gtk toolkit and tell gtk that they are possible default 
>> applications fpr http and mail.
>> If you use a pure KDE installation without gtk, or if your gtk/gnome 
>> is to old then this mechanism doesn't work.
> 
> 
> How new do they have to be? I'm running Mandrake 10.1 Official with KDE 
> 3.2.3 and whichever Gnome comes with Mandrake 10.1 (2.7, I think). It 
> was when my friend and I were both running Mandrake 10.0 that I had the 
> buttons and she didn't, despite the fact that we both had the same 
> versions of KDE and Gnome installed.

Hm, with the same Mandrake, KDE, Gnome, TB, FF everything should be the 
same, of course!
KDE 3.2 and Gnome 2.7 should suffice.

> 
> Personally I prefer the prefs.js way as I can choose which client each 
> of the programs calls without having to change the desktop's idea of the 
> 'default'. People who are new to Linux (and especially Windows refugees 
> - or should that be MS refugees?) would, I imagine, prefer the buttons.
> 

I prefer prefs.js, as well. The button thingy should work, though, if we 
want to attract a wider user base. "wide user base" also meant that 
Linux functionality wasn't always a top priority for Mozilla, unfortunately.

Michael

-- 
switch the part to the left and right of the at sign to get my address

Michael Perry wrote:

> Since I don't use KDE or Gnome at all, I like solutions which don't
> require them.  Editing the prefs.js file really is nice since it moves
> beyond either desktop environment.

That's what I meant in the original post when I said I thought I'd found 
the definitive solution: FF & TB talking independent of the environment 
in which they're running.

-- 
Garry Knight
garryknight@gmx.net
ICQ 126351135