allow for generic extensions to the account manager patch (and info) coming.

to use this, you need to set a pref, and have two files. pref("mailnews.accountmanager.extension.foobar",1); chrome://messenger/content/am-foobar.xul chrome://messenger/locale/am-foobar.properties and in that bundle, a property for your panel title. it must be named prefPanel-foobar. you can define as many extensions as you want, as long as they are unique and start with "mailnews.accountmanager.extension." currently, any extension you add will show up in the account manager under any acccount that has identities. we don't support extensions for the smtp server, or for accounts with identities. one todo item, switch from using a pref to using categories. but that can come next.

some known limitiations with the current patch: 1) there's isn't a way to not show the panel (like you can with the offline panel) depending on a server attribute. that can come later. in am-foobar.xul, those who extend the account manager can use the existing hidefor="" attribute to hide certain ui elements for certain server types. 2) because the code looks in the messenger.jar and the region jar (en-US.jar), it means that to extend the account manager, you'd have to do it at build time. (you couldn't drop in an xpi, unless xpis are smart enough to add files to existing jars, which would solve this problem.) for now, I'm ok with that limitation for now. distribution providers can provide builds with extensions, they just can't provide .xpi files to allow existings users to download extensions.

other limitiations: 1) you can't extend account with out identities (like "Local Folders", or imported mail accounts.) 2) you can't extend the SMTP server. 3) you can't add new "top level" items. basically, you can only add new panels to accounts that have identities. but the good news is that's the common case.

for this to work properly, I'm extending AccountManager.js so that if an attribute has generic="true", we'll do the right thing. (call identity.get/set<preftype>(). I'll provide a sample "foobar" extension.

*** Bug 107003 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

it would be really useful, as putterman points out, if the panels would only show based on certain criteria. here's what I'm going to do: for the nsIMsgAccountManagerExtension interface, I'll do this: readonly string extensionName; bool showPanel(nsIMsgAccount account); then, the extension implementor can decide when it shows up. (based on # of identities, server type, what ever.) we can use this to add a movemail panel. or some advanced news panels.

ok, that last patch includes the changes to switch from using prefs to using the category manager. it also include the sample extension. here's the new inteface: interface nsIMsgAccountManagerExtension : nsISupports { readonly attribute string name; boolean showPanel(in nsIMsgIncomingServer server); }; you can get the identities from the server (using the account manager) so I'll leave it to the extension implementors to decide how to implement showPanel(). the sample only shows the "Sample" panel on nntp accounts. once this lands, we should use it to prevent code rot. I'm thinking of adding a "nntp" extension, so that I can put all the advanced nntp pref UI in a panel, like "abbreviate newsgroup name in folder pane", "use push auth".

Comment on attachment 55405 [details] [diff] [review] complete patch. no more prefs, using categories. sample extension include, only shows up for nntp accounts. sr=mscott I'll check this patch in with some other stuff

r=bhuvan. go for it.

this fix has landed. I'll create some docs for it (for mozilla.org) and a sample extension (for push auth), when I get some cycles.

What can I do to verify this bug?

nothing really. I'll do it. verified by code inspection.