214400 - 4.x Profile Migration

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[Scott MacGregor]

We already have code in mozilla which knows how to migrate a 4.x
profile.Currently thunderbird and firebird turn the migration code off with an
ifdef because most of our users aren't coming from 4.x and they were upset that
installing these apps for the first time was causing migration of ancient 4.x
profiles.

I need a way to dynamically change this at run time so some set of customers can
automatically migrate a Netscape 4.x profile.

Note: profile migration does NOT include the address book due to a proprietary
format of the Netscape 4.x address book.

It does include: mail settings, mail folders and mail filters.

Comment 1

[Scott MacGregor]

Attachment: the fix

This adds a pref to all.js for thunderbird, firebird and seamonkey called:

profile.allow_automigration

Thunderbird and Firebird set this to false because by default they do not want
to support 4.x profile migration.

Today, seamonkey DOES support auto 4.x profile migration so we set this pref to
TRUE by default for seamonkey.

If someone is deploying Thunderbird or Firebird and they want to support auto
migration of 4.x profiles, they can now just change:

profile.allow_automigration to true in all.js

This patch also removes a MOZ_XUL_APP ifdef in nsProfile since we now use a
pref instead of an ifdef to determine whether to go down the auto migratin path
or not.

Comment 2

[Scott MacGregor]

Note: I don't have Netscape 4.x so I have not had the opportunity to test this
out yet. =)

Comment 3

[Ronald Killmer]

I and a few others in the secnews.netscape.com/netscape.test.multimedia group
could test this as we all currently have NC 4.7x or 4.8 installed.  Interesting
what one can find out while browseing the TB bugs list.

I have posted to NTMM a request for volunteers to test this preference.

Comment 4

[Scott MacGregor]

That would be great Killjay.

Here's what they need to do:

1) Take the 0.2 candidate build and uninstall it
2) before launching you need to edit the all.js file in <install
directory>\defaults\pref and change: 
pref("profile.allow_automigration", false);
to
pref("profile.allow_automigration", true);

3) Launch thunderbird and if we detect your 4.x profiles you should be prompted
for 4.x profile migration unless I messed something up.

4) NOTE: If you already ahve a thunderbid profile you probably have to 'hide'
mozreg.dat from your windows directory so we temporarily won't see your existing
thunderbird profile. Profile migration only happens when a user first launches
thunderbird with out any profiles.

Comment 5

[Gus Richter]

There is no mozreg.dat - probably meant registry.dat
In any case, hid the existing tbird profile by renaming the folder.

My ISP account and all mail folders and content were migrated from 4.8.
BUT not my Newsgroups - not sure if it should?

Otherwise it worked OK. Posting with it here 20030826.

--
Gus (NTMM)

Comment 6

[Gus Richter]

Regarding the Newsgroups, the folders for the different servers are there in the
profile under News, but they contain no msf files.

--
Gus

Comment 7

[Gus Richter]

RE: Comment #5 where I mention that I'm posting with Thunderbird. Sorry it was
part of a message to NTMM, not for here. I used Firebird to post this here.

Should the msf files have been migrated as well?

BTW, have tbird 20030829 installed and images are go for me.

Comment 8

[Ronald Killmer]

How does this differ from the Tools menus Import... | Mail | Communicator 4.x
selection?  This is the tool that I used 4 weeks ago to bring over all my saved
mail folders I used with NC 4.8.  By difference I mean the results, not auto
versis manual. 

As Gus pointed out in comment #5 the method outlined in these comments worked to
auto-migrate the mail files.  Two other NTMM posters also tested with same
results, so your code passes the acid test.

Comment 9

[Scott MacGregor]

Ron, thanks a lot for helping to organize testing on this work. I *really*
appreciate it. Please pass on my thanks and appreciation to the
netscape.test.multimedia for helping me out with this.

Comment 10

[Ronald Killmer]

This commnet accidently got posted to the bug on palm pilot sync.  Didn't notice
that bugzilla advanced to next bug after posting connent #8.

Been tossing around how to document this feature.

My best idea is to add a comment to the zip file allong these lines.
SEE README FILE FOR ENTERPRISE ROLLOUT CONFIGURATION OPTIONS.

The in the ReadMe.txt place the instructions presented here for setting up  the
all.js, etc.

The other options I considered were a popup like the profile manager or a popup
dialog on first run.    

Comment 11

[Gus Richter]

Clarification of my comment #6
The directory contains the server folders.
The Folders pane in the Mail/News Client does not show the servers/groups.

--
Gus

Comment 12

[Gus Richter]

Just another note about the directory server entries:

For example, the normal one may be  news.mozilla.org  whereas the ones entered 
via this migration process, provide  host-news.mozilla.org  which seems to be 
totally useless.

Subscribing thereafter to  news.mozilla.org  results in two directory folders.

--
Gus

Comment 13

[Scott MacGregor]

Some issues came out of this which I'm going to spin off into more generic bug
fixes for 4.x profile migration. But here they are:

1) Even though a new profile is imported via the "profile converter" utility,
thunderbird prompts you to add a new email account/news account after it
launches. We should not do this as the auto import should bring in all the
settings from communicator 4.8 which includes, mail server settings, new server
settings (if any) and Address Book Settings (LDAP). So after the profile
converter utility imports the profile, thunderbird should just launch and not
try to prompt the user for adding another account.

Comment 14

[Scott MacGregor]

fixed in thunderbird 0.3

Comment 15

[Scott MacGregor]

checked into the trunk.