SeaMonkey 2.0 Goes Gold

After years of development, the SeaMonkey Project is finally about to release another major stable version, SeaMonkey 2.0, early next week. Great efforts have been made by a team of volunteers to take the successor of the Mozilla Suite to the next level. Since SeaMonkey 2.0 is building upon the same platform as Firefox 3.5 and Thunderbird 3.0, it now shares many back-ends with them, including browsing (Gecko), messaging (MailNews) and other central technologies like XUL, Toolkit, the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine and more. Naturally their developers deserve our great appreciation and respect, too.

This post is not meant to anticipate the official announcement; after all this is not the official SeaMonkey blog. Hence I will just refer you to that. The Release Notes that will undoubtedly be linked from the announcement will also contain a list of major changes since the previous stable version, SeaMonkey 1.1. For further details, have a look at the archives of this blog.

One thing worth noting, though, is the availability of extensions (add-ons). While a few of them are obsoleted by SeaMonkey 2.0 itself (e.g. Undo Close Tab, Crash Recovery and Forumzilla) and some others work if you disable the extension compatibility check, the majority probably needs some adjustments. Extension authors should know that SeaMonkey 2 now supports the same extension installation interface like Firefox and also many of the internal interfaces. For example it was quite easy to make the current version of the Download Statusbar extension fully support SeaMonkey 2.0 now that the suite uses the same download management back-end (but different front-end!) as Firefox—an extension that dropped support for the Mozilla Suite in 2003 due to the lack of support for exactly that new back-end! I think we can expect some updated/modified versions of popular add-ons at AMO and/or the xSidebar hub shortly after the release. Still I would like to encourage all add-on developers, irrespective of whether they created extensions or themes for Firefox, Thunderbird or SeaMonkey, to revisit their products and check if supporting SeaMonkey 2 is feasible.

Meanwhile development goes on. The new stable branch repository, comm-1.9.1, has been set up. This is where minor updates for SeaMonkey 2.0 will be released from. At the same time comm-central has switched back to pulling in the Mozilla trunk (mozilla-central) and has reopened for trunk development. The SeaMonkey Trunk Tracker, as the name suggests, will monitor the trunk from now on but also continue to feature branch updates from time to time.

Finally, here is a list of notable changes between Beta 2 and 2.0 final (including RCs):

MailNews

• make sure typing file extension sets correct file output type (Bug 508597)
• make suppression of junk whitelisting (of own identities) work for deferred-to servers like POP3 to Local Folders (Bug 512416)
• hide tab bar when single tab remains after choosing Close from tab context menu (Bug 514177)
• prevent going into infinite UI loop if SSL security certificate expires (Bug 493980)
• select first filter in Message Filters window (Bug 511989)
• add support for mouse Back and Forward buttons and Reload, Stop, Search, Bookmarks and Home keys on media keyboards (Bug 512169)
• implement Body filter for IMAP messages downloaded for offline use (Bug 127250)
• enable filter criteria "doesn't contain" and "isn't" for user-defined IMAP header fields (Bug 242550)
• remove filter_news_for_junk pref in favor of inherited folder property (Bug 510659)
• enable junk UI elements when RSS or news junk is enabled (Bug 496015)
• actually search online when unchecking "Search local system" in Advanced Search (Bug 511131)
• make sure Identity Settings dialog opens centered with reasonable width (Bug 486955)
• modernize askSendFormat (removes the three mail.asksendformat.* prefs) (Bug 507682)
• prevent shutdown hangs by trying to clean up connections on quit-application-granted and not running IMAP URLs once shutdown has been requested (Bug 497059), also fixes: do not shut down IMAP connections when closing MailNews window while others still open (Bug 490170)
• do not repeatedly send wrong password if login fails (prevent possible server account locking due to multiple failed login attempts) (Bug 508381)
• make sure small icons in MailNews toolbar do not become large when customizing (Bug 513446)
• improve XLIST/LSUB interaction for servers like GMail IMAP (re-enable unsubscribing) (Bug 493455)
• add IMAP autosync date constraints prefs to Account Settings/Synchronization & Storage (Bug 510707)
• make sure icons appear on Message Filters dialog menulist (Bug 515256)
• make sure File button in MailNews Search Messages window has normal height on Windows with default theme (Bug 512702)
• make sure READ and NEW flags are set correctly after filter message move (fixes automatic junk detection/move on messages moved by a filter from IMAP) (Bug 389098)
• make sure mail compose window closes itself after Account Wizard Cancel/Exit (Bug 405172)
• make sure compose window context menu displays correctly after resizing address toolbar (Bug 514416)
• do not hang when interrupting viewing search folder (Bug 516388)
• do not override user-selected name when creating new message filter and handle Attachment and Junk Status rules correctly (Bug 510703)
• make SMTP server dropdown accept choosing Use Default Server (Bug 373573)
• show message determined to be junk as Simple HTML and do not load remote images (adds support for TB's mail.spam.display.sanitize pref); reload mail if junk status changes (Bug 179568)
• make sure navigating from standalone message window marks message as read again (fix Tabmail regression) (Bug 514876), also fixes: Reply/Forward/Tag (1-5) operate on initial message in standalone message window (Bug 517663)
• make sure to remove folder from view when deleting IMAP subfolder (Bug 513012)
• implement minimal APIs needed for Enigmail (Bug 517238)
• implement customizable toolbars for message compose window (Bug 509209)
• make double click/Enter and Del trigger Edit and Delete in Customize Message Views window (Bug 513456)
• make sure message opened from non-all view is shown in new tab (Bug 517554)
• make sure newsgroup unread counts reflect filter actions like Delete Message; add newsgroup name to downloading/getting news headers status messages (Bug 311774)
• stop re-downloading messages from GMail IMAP (allow 1-byte fuzz per line when validating offline IMAP state) (Bug 517466)
• make Mark As Not Junk clear deleted flag from message with IMAP mark as deleted model (Bug 515927)
• show scrollbar on header pane for long address lists (or View/Headers/All mode) (Bug 517924)
• fix Tools/Delete Mail Marked as Junk in Folder (Bug 517996)
• create Junk folder on Local Folders as needed (Bug 505949)
• do not crash while playing back offline IMAP operations (Bug 480090)
• do not crash while reading msgFilterRules.dat containing BOM (Bug 518565)
• add Get Messages for Account to news server context menu (Bug 87107)
• do not disable spell checking when indenting text in HTML composition (Bug 492751)
• add Help icon to Message Filter dialog Help button (Bug 515227)
• make search bar search by Subject and Address (From, To, CC, and BCC, was: From) (Bug 518846)
• do not show No Feed Summary warning for RSS entries with no summaries (Bug 506726)
• improve presentation of IMAP autosync policies in Account Settings/Synchronization & Storage to avoid mixup with retention settings (Bug 515842)
• implement new keyboard shortcut for Paste As Quotation (Ctrl+Shift+O, Ctrl+Shift+V is Paste Without Formatting now) (Bug 461117)
• do not crash trying to convert message to Unicode (Bug 518686)
• prevent continuous repeated synchronization and indexing of messages from Exchange IMAP server (Bug 518702)
• default Age In Days in Advanced Search window to "is less than" (Bug 187741)
• add extra line break at top of message if "Include signature for replies" is disabled while signature position is "below my reply" (Bug 518403)
• prevent high memory usage and consuming 100% CPU when dealing with high UIDs (Bug 518918)
• speed up move/delete of large number of offline IMAP messages (Bug 519979)
• fix migration of mail folders (directory-rel prefs issue) (Bug 452465)
• determine Forward button drop-down menu default based on preferences (Bug 520108)
• disable actions for multi selection of folders in folderpane (note: bug kept open for implementing multi-selection support post-2.0) (Bug 50767)
• make sure compacting IMAP offline store does not try to fetch messages (go online) (Bug 519801)
• reset Dock icon when getting to zero unread messages (Bug 520977)
• prevent shutdown from failing with 100% CPU load when autocomplete over LDAP is used (Bug 420744)
• make sure changing "Use my account settings" of one folder does not alter retention policy settings of other folders (Bug 515316)
• make sure compacting IMAP offline store takes relaxed IMAP autosync constraints (changed prefs) into account (Bug 521134)
• allow to set Movemail account as default (Bug 480942)
• do not show Close Tab context menu when right-clicking anywhere beside tabs (Bug 518203)
• make sure address list in Select Addresses dialog opened from compose window is filled initially (Bug 460550)
• make sure closing tab that has never been viewed does not trigger blank thread pane (Bug 515249)
• do not close standalone message window when other message is marked as junk (Bug 519128)
• do not hang on shutdown trying to append message to IMAP folder via filter (Bug 497598)
• do not crash while using doing quick search multiple times in folder in Grouped By Sort mode (Bug 520006)
• fix some causes of shutdown hangs and high CPU load without open IMAP connections (Bug 494014)
• make sure IMAP autosync does not stop working (start downloading messages immediately unless folder is excluded) (Bug 517256)
• speed up changes to messages in virtual folders by batching notifications (Bug 508978)
• do not crash while trying to create offline operations table (Bug 440236)
• fix code run on closing compose window (Bug 522365)
• also fixes: fix saving draft emails (Bug 521199)

Address Book

• fix saving of cards with custom photo (Bug 513471)
• remove Photo tab from personal vCard editing (Bug 520432)

Download Manager

• mark Open as default double click action in Download Manager context menu (Bug 513490)
• play a sound (again) when downloads complete (Bug 490467)
• optimize sorting on entry updates in new Download Manager (Bug 474626)

Bookmarks

• make sure bookmarking pages using drag&drop works (Bug 514630)
• do not hang on restart if bookmark seperator contains double quote characters (Bug 452056)
• make sure new bookmark folders show no "(Empty)" items after drag&drop (Bug 513275)
• allow to drop on "(Empty)" (Bookmarks menu / Personal Toolbar) (Bug 518060)
• fix copying bookmarks (Bug 520987)
• make sure Bookmarks Manager toolbar items are not disabled after entering search with active selection (Bug 519049)

Session Restore

• show quit dialog when multiple windows are open (Bug 514388)
• let Session Restore cope with empty history entries (Bug 509315)
• make sessionStorage object conform the WHATWG spec (Bug 511635)
• prevent Session Restore from opening multiple about:blank tabs after crash while loading multiple tabs (Bug 517139)
• make Session Restore save state when closing last browser window (Bug 515006)
• make sure Save Tabs on Quit dialog saves preference (Bug 516330)
• do not trigger browser.windows.loadOnNewWindow or browser.startup.page when restoring window (Bug 517998)

Preferences

• add new satchel prefs (browser.formfill.*) to Preferences (including Help changes) (Bug 390158)
• add option to warn on closing window with multiple tabs (browser.tabs.warnOnClose) to Preferences (including Help changes) (Bug 385141)
• drop support for obsolete signon.expireMasterPassword pref (Bug 517478)
• add Download retention settings to Preferences (pref: browser.download.manager.retention) (Bug 487675)
• remove obsolete javascript.allow.mailnews pref (including UI) (Bug 248280)
• add Connection Timeout to MailNews Preferences (includes Help changes; pref: mailnews.tcptimeout) (Bug 287806)
• rename Junk Mail Preferences panel to Junk & Suspect Mail and add new anti-virus and scam preferences for MailNews (Bug 463249)

Composer

• improve Composer's handling of XHTML documents (Bug 431184)

Help

• document new "Get Messages" and "Get All New Messages" shortcuts (Ctrl+[Shift+]D) (Bug 514890)
• document Focus Search Field shortcuts (Ctrl+F/Ctrl+K) (Bug 509338)
• update Help for Find in This Page (Bug 432700)
• define MailNews terms relating to security (Bug 221259)
• remove Roaming Profiles from Help (Bug 518294)
• document Session Restore (Bug 509404)
• remove reference to toggle JavaScript on/off in MailNews (Bug 514969)
• document new anti virus and scam preferences in MailNews Preferences (Bug 519228)
• update Help for new time-policy IMAP autosync settings (Bug 515523)
• update Help for new download manager preferences (Bug 519332)
• update Website Certificates documentation for switch from dialogs to error pages (Bug 506724)
• document Add-ons Manager (Bug 373457)
• remove links to "Netscape My Webpage" from Help (Bug 522175)

Locales

• add en-GB (British English) to source locales (Bug 503900)
• add it (Italian) to source locales (Bug 520980)
• switch from %LOCALE%.add-ons.mozilla.org to %LOCALE%.add-ons.mozilla.com (former has broken certs) (Bug 517596)

Venkman

• add shortcut (Ctrl+G) for Find Again (Bug 518580)
• initialize Add Watch Expression dialog with current source selection (Bug 519131)

Lightning Integration

• set minVersion to 2.0b2 (Bug 516407)
• implement minimal APIs needed for Lightning (Bug 516453)
• add Lightning preferences integration (Bug 516398)
• make sure Lightning does not disable the throbber (Bug 516681)
• make sure Lightning Categories preferences pane is showing categories (Bug 517700)
• add missing css/icons (folderview-cycler/spin-buttons) for Lightning Tasks and/or Events sidebar (Bug 517683)
• make sure Lightning icons (calendar, tasks) show up on MailNews tabs (Bug 521415)
• make sure List all tabs dropdown is not empty with Lightning installed (Bug 522125)

Linux/GTK

• provide Copy Image Location context menu item until Copy Image copies location again (Bug 469481)
• fix height of "Automatic proxy configuration URL" field/button in Preferences (Bug 484622)

Mac

• respect system-wide SOCKS proxy settings on Mac OS X (Bug 457377)
• use "pressed" look for toolbarbuttons when their menu is open (Bug 512548)
• fix loading PKCS#11 module (security device) on Mac (Bug 496013)
• show alignment-icon instead of checkmark in Composer image alignment menulist (Bug 384340)
• use better progress bar background colors in Download Manager and add padding to progress dialogs on Mac (Bug 517788)

Compiling

• allow to build with system Hunspell (Bug 518334)

General

• make grippy mouseover effect consistent (Bug 385252)
• add styles for horizontal scrollboxes (needed for Tabmail) to Modern theme (Bug 477710)
• support biarch system plugin location (/usr/lib64/mozilla/plugins) (Bug 496708)
• use different accesskeys for Restart and Preferences in Add-on Manager (Bug 507451)
• respect browser.chrome.favicons setting when opening Edit/Preferences/Applications (Bug 514671)
• fix some issues (missing icons, truncated labels) with Default theme menulists (Bug 514854)
• add option to Clear Private Data for Location Bar History (Bug 436942)
• delete closed tabs when clearing browser history (Bug 479448)
• update Modern theme for notifications (Bug 515622)
• do not focus browser when opening tabs in background (e.g. from from middle clicks) (Bug 517307)
• make sure link in frame selected with Type Ahead Find is the one followed (Bug 485213)
• migrate old wallet.captureForms pref to new browser.formfill.enable pref (Bug 491673)
• change font-size:smaller/larger to 83.3333%/120% for Modern theme (Bug 516708)
• support South Korean SEED crypto cipher suites (Bug 478839)
• display correct (NLS) name of (DBCS) font on OS/2 (Bug 511361)
• make Save Page save result of POST action instead of origin form (Bug 188253)
• do not use bold font with groupbox custom caption content (example: font preferences) (Bug 514883)
• show "installation complete" message in Add-on Manager after add-on install and application restart (Bug 442167)
• change Apply Theme dialog from OK to Restart Now/Later (Bug 492263)
• use new icon set for SeaMonkey Default Theme (task icons) (Bug 348720)
• show placeholder for missing/disabled plugins (Bug 465771)
• fix saving in Page Info (media) and View Source (page) (Bug 520447)
• make sure SeaMonkey 2.0 is not detected as old stable version by Start page (Bug 521341)
• add about:rights and a "Know Your Rights" infobar (Bug 508039)
• update Modern theme (global changes) (Bug 465924)
• update Modern theme for SeaMonkey 2.0 (Bug 456757)
• show Release Notes as first-run page (Bug 521314)
• show Larry icon in Modern theme's about:certerror like in Page Info Security tab (Bug 514383)
• update video controls for Modern theme (Bug 490277)
• use MailNews icon for SeaMonkey Mail start menu icon provided by Windows installer (Bug 521616)
• make sure https webpage with data: images does not trigger "Page contains unencrypted information" mixed content warning (Bug 477118)
• show single Master Password prompt at startup if Master Password set (prevents multiple Master Password prompts; pref: signon.startup.prompt) (Bug 381269)