Thunderbird Metro

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Status

Thunderbird Metro
Stage	Draft
Status	`
Release target	Thunderbird 16
Health	OK
Status note	`

Team

Product manager	`
Directly Responsible Individual	`
Lead engineer	`
Security lead	`
Privacy lead	`
Localization lead	`
Accessibility lead	`
QA lead	`
UX lead	`
Product marketing lead	`
Operations lead	`
Additional members	Nate Watson

Open issues/risks

1. Microsoft will be the only provider of Metro apps. Getting it through is going to be a problem.

2. Running an E-mail client with the suspend system is going to cause some annoyances to the users and developers.

3. How is a calendar going to be included? The calendar team will need to be brought in on this.

Stage 1: Definition

1. Feature overview

Windows 8 will have 2 application environments: classic and metro. Thunderbird only has a classic version. Comments about metro aside, Thunderbird will need a metro version in order to compete with Microsoft's proprietary clients, and to work on WOA. The goal of this feature is to port Thunderbird to the Metro environment, while continuing to use Mozilla's technologies.

2. Users & use cases

The target users in this case are Windows 8 users who would prefer a Metro version of Thunderbird, and WOA users who have no alternative.

3. Dependencies

This feature may require some or all of the Gecko, Necko, scripting engines, etc. to be somewhat modified. These should be reusable from Firefox metro.

4. Requirements

Hard to define. Ideally, as many features from mainline Thunderbird as possible. However, if required, the following features can be skipped: search features, chat, big files.

All of the windowed components for Thunderbird will need to be moved to the tab infrastructure for Metro, but should remain as preferred in classic. We will also need to figure out how to work with the suspend system. While support for Add-ons should be included by default, inter-compatibility with Thunderbird Classic add-ons may not be viable. Naturally, we will need a version of lightning or an equivalent for this.

Non-goals

Due to the system framework, having synchronization between classic and metro Thunderbird.

Inter-compatibility with Thunderbird Classic add-ons.

Stage 2: Design

5. Functional specification

This feature will provide a Thunderbird interface that is designed to run on Metro. Large amounts of configuration will need to be introduced, due to the support for both touch screens and kb/m/m interfaces. Due to Thunderbird's shortage of developers, in the early versions, Thunderbird Metro's interface will probably need to be as close as possible to Thunderbird main as possible.

For Metro, we should include 2 tabs systems: standard, like the one in Firefox; and visual, like the one in Firefox for tablets in horizontal mode. We may want to introduce some adaptations and/or port this over to Thunderbird for Classic. Introducing visual tabs may even necessitate its own feature due to the release cycles.

Due to the lack of a windowing system, many things that are currently windows will probably have to be moved to tabs in Thunderbird Metro, such as the message editor, contact manager, reminder system, and a bunch of other pages. As a result, Thunderbird Metro will use the tab infrastructure a lot more. This may require porting over "tab groups" from Firefox. It would also require certain "On hold" features to be completed.

Thunderbird Metro will need to be just as customizable as classic; but this will need to have various components released over different cycles.

6. User experience design

visual tabs prototype

Stage 3: Planning

7. Implementation plan

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8. Reviews

Security review

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Privacy review

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Localization review

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Accessibility

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Quality Assurance review

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Operations review

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Stage 4: Development

9. Implementation

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Stage 5: Release

10. Landing criteria

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Feature details

Priority	Unprioritized
Rank	999
Theme / Goal	Experience
Roadmap	`
Secondary roadmap	`
Feature list	`
Project	`
Engineering team	`

Team status notes

	status	notes
Products	`	`
Engineering	`	`
Security	sec-review-needed	Full Query ID Summary Priority Status 761815 SecReview: Thunderbird Metro -- RESOLVED 1 Total; 0 Open (0%); 1 Resolved (100%); 0 Verified (0%);
Privacy	`	`
Localization	`	`
Accessibility	`	`
Quality assurance	`	`
User experience	`	`
Product marketing	`	`
Operations	`	`