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ThunderLink

ThunderLink lets you link to email messages in Thunderbird.

You can place ThunderLinks on the Desktop (in batch scripts), in OpenOffice/LibreOffice documents or in a personal wiki (such as "TiddlyWiki").

Or maybe you have a Wiki running at your company and you want to link to emails sent to a mailing list so that your colleagues can quickly access them without having to search their inboxes first?

Use a ThunderLink!

With version 1.0.0, It's now also easy to integrate ThunderLink with todo lists and task managers such as RememberTheMilk, MyLifeOrganized, Evernote, OneNote, Nirvana, Taskwarrior, etc. You can completely customize ThunderLinks to fit your application's needs. And you can tag the emails you created a link to for advanced workflows and more productivity!

ThunderLinks are based on the unique message ID generated when an email is sent. This enables the Thunderbird email client to quickly and reliably find and select an email - as long as you actually received it.

With the companion extension ThunderLinkSpotter for the Firefox webbrowser you can make Firefox "ThunderLink-aware", so that it will automatically turn ThunderLinks into hyperlinks. One click and you can read the email you were looking for.

ThunderLinks are also recognized and turned into hyperlinks by Thunderbird itself, so you can use them in emails, too.

Installation

  1. install ThunderLink in Thunderbird (use "all versions" link below for Thunderbird versions older than 5.0)
  2. install ThunderLinkSpotter in Firefox
  3. register the 'thunderlink' protocol in your OS following the instructions below:

on Linux (ubuntu):

pre-Natty: follow these instructions: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Register_protocol Make sure you use the -thunderlink command line option when invoking Thunderbird, e.g. for Linux: /gconftool-2 -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/thunderlink/command '/usr/bin/thunderbird -thunderlink %s' --type String

Natty and newer:

  1. You'll need to update your ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list: under [Added Associations], add the line x-scheme-handler/thunderlink=thunderbird-tl.desktop;
  2. then, make a copy of your ~/.local/share/applications/thunderbird.desktop and name it thunderbird-tl.desktop
  3. Change the line that starts with Exec=thunderbird %u... to Exec=thunderbird -thunderlink %u...
  4. and the line that starts with MimeType=... to MimeType=x-scheme-handler/thunderlink; this entry for Thunderbird will thus serve only for handling ThunderLinks.
  5. in Thunderbird, you might have to explicitly select the new handler: Go to edit->preferences->attachments. In the "incoming" tab, you will have to select as the action for thunderlink whatever name you chose for the handler in the thunderbird-tl.desktop file

Oneiric and newer:

Like Natty but you might have to

  1. edit /usr/share/applications/defaults.list instead of ~/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list
  2. Also, the thunderbird.desktop file has to be copied from /usr/share/applications/, either to your ~/.local/share/applications or /usr/share/applications, depending on your preference.
Otherwise, the instructions are the same.

on Windows 7 (32 bit) and XP (and possibly other Windows versions, too):

there is a .reg script for registering the thunderlink protocol:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\thunderlink] @="URL:thunderlink Protocol" "URL Protocol"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\thunderlink\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\thunderlink\shell\open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\thunderlink\shell\open\command] @=""C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -thunderlink "%1""

on Windows 7 64 bit:

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\thunderlink] @="URL:thunderlink Protocol" "URL Protocol"=""

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\thunderlink\shell]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\thunderlink\shell\open]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\thunderlink\shell\open\command] @=""C:\Program Files (x86)\Mozilla Thunderbird\thunderbird.exe" -thunderlink "%1""

Copy the stuff between the dashes into a file with .reg extension, changing the path to the thunderbird.exe if necessary, double-click on the file, confirm execution, done.

The easiest way to find out the install location is to right-click on the shortcut to Thunderbird in your Start menu and select Properties, and then check the "Target" or "Start in" fields for the path data. (thx Sean!)

... and that's it, you're good to go!

Usage

Right-click on an email and select 'Copy ThunderLink to clipboard'. You now have the ThunderLink to your email in your clipboard. You can paste it into your personal wiki, or your project teams wiki, for instance.

Use ThunderLinkSpotter to turn that link into a hyperlink, making it "clickable". If you registered the thunderbird protocol correctly, a click on the ThunderLink will take you to Thunderbird and select your email immediately. If Thunderbird wasn't running yet, the email will show in a stand-alone window.

Having trouble?

Please note that protocol registration changed in Ubuntu Natty! If you had to use the "natty and newer" installation instructions, you might have to tell thunderbird to use the new handler (see instructions above)

I tested this extension with several TB installations and two other beta testers, under Linux and Windows (7 and XP). However..... in the unlikely event of a bug, please don't leave a question or "doesn't work" type message as a comment. I'm keen on constructive feedback, so just describe your setup and the issue you're having and send it to: "firstname underscore lastname, provider is gmx dot de" and I'll try my best to sort you out. You can still flame me afterwards should I fail ;)

Care to contribute? https://github.com/poohsen/thunderlink

For devs cloning the repo:

  • use make 'makeXpi.sh ' to create distributables for Thunderbird