Add Group Policy Files for thunderbird v68+
Categories
(Thunderbird :: OS Integration, enhancement)
Tracking
(Not tracked)
People
(Reporter: andrewsolway, Unassigned)
References
(Blocks 1 open bug)
Details
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:69.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/69.0
Steps to reproduce:
Following the release of thunderbird version 68, and the newly added policy engine that allows customized Thunderbird deployments in enterprise environments, using Windows Group Policy or a cross-platform JSON file.
no admx files have been provided for this feature
Actual results:
cannot use policy engine to customize Thunderbird deployments in enterprise environments. no policy files provided.
Expected results:
Create admx/adml/JSON policy templates for customization of Thunderbird deployments in enterprise environments. On all support OS.
Policy templates need to control thunderbird options, and also email account(s) preferences.
It maybe be possible to adapt firefox templates located here:
https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates
Updated•5 years ago
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Updated•5 years ago
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Updated•5 years ago
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mkaply's comments taken for reference
https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates/issues/434
quote:
This should be a very straightforward thing to do based on looking at the policy code that is in Thunderbird. They should be able to take the Firefox policy files and make a couple changes and that's it.
You can see what policies were implemented for Thunderbird here:
https://searchfox.org/comm-central/source/mail/components/enterprisepolicies/schemas/policies-schema.json
Right now they only have copied over some Firefox policies. There is nothing unique for thunderbird.
The policies themselves are created by adding the schema to that file and then implementing the policy code in:
https://searchfox.org/comm-central/source/mail/components/enterprisepolicies/Policies.jsm
From an enterprise point of view. i was so excited to finally see Group Policy Support added to TB 68.
Hunting for any information on the admx files or documentation...failed. Only to find out the engine was only ported over from FF and no actual polices added or any unique to TB management. :(
I think it is vital for this feature, if you wish for TB to gain ground in the commerical environment, configuration from a central place is needed.
autoconfig can handle the setup of email settings (xml, Mozilla ISPDB etc), but doesnt do any more than connection settings.
MCD? is this deprecated?? documentation/scripts seems very old.
the new GPO policy templates need to handle the "options settings" and also "email account settings"
for example, i have 2 imap accounts.
-For account 1 i wish to only sync emails <30days old.
-For account 2 i want to completely disable sync. and only on demand viewing of emails.
Can this be done via Group Policy?
when you got 100+ PCs manually setting this is a pain.
Does a github repository need setting up for the development of Thunderbird policy files?
or add a repository to thundernest??? https://github.com/thundernest
or keep Thunderbird's policy files with FF??? https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates
Comment 4•5 years ago
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We'd put them under thundernest. Just a moment. Will set that up.
Comment 5•5 years ago
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Added https://github.com/thundernest/policy-templates/ - do send PRs, it's just a fork from Firefox atm.
Comment 6•5 years ago
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So yeah, we only do (the applicable parts of) Firefox policies yet. Open to adding more, but we didn't have time, and not sure what would be desired either, so input welcome.
Configuring per-account sounds hard to specify as a policy. And for autoconfig, I'm not sure it's not easier to just deploy that through other means
Comment 7•5 years ago
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https://github.com/drlellinger/thunderbird-policies This is Work in Progress - i will make a Pull request as soon the Windows policies are finished. Do not copy them and use them as your work please.
think you mean this?
https://github.com/drlellinger/policy-templates
Comment 9•5 years ago
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No, i meant https://github.com/drlellinger/thunderbird-policies
I set them to private because of existing bugs which i will get rid off in the upcoming days. Also there is this bug i discovered while testing https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1579019
Comment 10•5 years ago
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The repository you were refering to is targeted to the Firefox.
Comment 11•5 years ago
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Reopened, Policies are working
Reporter | ||
Comment 12•5 years ago
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Is there a list of thunderbird options? so we are pick the most useful one for the policy?
@magnus, how else can you deploy thunderbird in the enterprise? all i can see is:
autoconfig for account connection settings. and this policy templates?
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Thunderbird/Autoconfiguration
theres the Mission Control Desktop, but that looks very old.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Archive/Misc_top_level/MCD,_Mission_Control_Desktop_AKA_AutoConfig
how else can you configure options and account settings for deployment?
Comment 13•5 years ago
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(In reply to Solway from comment #12)
Is there a list of thunderbird options? so we are pick the most useful one for the policy?
You can look around in the config editor... but. I'd look at it more from your needs, instead of what's available.
@magnus, how else can you deploy thunderbird in the enterprise? all i can see is:
autoconfig for account connection settings. and this policy templates?
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Thunderbird/Autoconfigurationtheres the Mission Control Desktop, but that looks very old.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Archive/Misc_top_level/MCD,_Mission_Control_Desktop_AKA_AutoConfighow else can you configure options and account settings for deployment?
Would be great to get this documentation updated and put onto developer.thunderbird.net. I think while old, both those pages are still correct and working.
Updated•5 years ago
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Comment 14•5 years ago
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(In reply to Magnus Melin [:mkmelin] from comment #13)
theres the Mission Control Desktop, but that looks very old.
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Archive/Misc_top_level/MCD,_Mission_Control_Desktop_AKA_AutoConfighow else can you configure options and account settings for deployment?
Would be great to get this documentation updated and put onto developer.thunderbird.net. I think while old, both those pages are still correct and working.
Some of the MCD method seems to have gone awry in Thunderbird 68 vs. 60.0.8, specifically involving processLDAPValues. I do not know if this is related to the addition of the policy template features, or some other difference between the two versions. I could not find any documentation citing a change, but as you have mentioned that documentation is ancient.
Comment 15•4 years ago
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The official policy templates available at
https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates/releases
still do not contain policy templates for Thunderbird.
In the fork at https://github.com/thundernest/policy-templates/
the readme.md was changed 11 months ago to speak about Thunderbird but the actual templates in the fork are still only for Firefox.
When will policy templates for Thunderbird be available?
Comment 16•4 years ago
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As mentioned above I have created a policy set for Thunderbird here:
https://github.com/drlellinger/thunderbird-policies
Comment 17•4 years ago
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(In reply to drlellinger from comment #16)
As mentioned above I have created a policy set for Thunderbird here:
https://github.com/drlellinger/thunderbird-policies
Thank you very much for your effort, but I still would like to know
when official policy templates for Thunderbird will be available that support all the configurable options
mentioned in the policies-schema.json ?
Comment 18•4 years ago
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Is there any work on this? The current policy templates from drlellinger do not work anymore for deploying extension.
Comment 19•3 years ago
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I made working Thunderbird policy templates by taking the official Firefox templates from
https://github.com/mozilla/policy-templates/
and renamed every occurrence of "Firefox" in "Thunderbird" and every "FF" in "TB".
This worked for the settings I needed but I didn't test all of them of course.
You can find my modified templates here:
https://github.com/int-red/thunderbird-policy-templates
Comment 20•3 years ago
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As requested in Bug 1718603 I made a pull request to https://github.com/thundernest/policy-templates/
to bring this Thunderbird-fork up up-to date.
Comment 21•3 years ago
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I am not 100% sure if I should have commented in this bug or if a new bug is better. But nevertheless, I created bug 1732258. I have thought about different methods on how to tackle this issue, but would appreciate feedback.
Updated•3 years ago
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Comment 22•3 years ago
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I updated our official policy repository with the new templates:
https://github.com/thundernest/policy-templates
I would like to divert discussions to our enterprise email list:
https://thunderbird.topicbox.com/groups/enterprise/Ta0c6873075f11ec4/thunderbird-enterprise-policy-templates
Description
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