Configuration utilities for administrators

From MozillaZine Knowledge Base
Revision as of 19:34, 4 May 2011 by Tanstaafl (talk | contribs) (local config file for autoconfiguration)
Jump to navigationJump to search
This article was written for Thunderbird but also applies to Mozilla Suite / SeaMonkey (though some menu sequences may differ).

Many of the tools used by system administrators to automate configuring and deploying Netscape for multiple users don't work with Thunderbird. This bug report talks about how A Brief Guide to Mozilla Preferences doesn't seem to work anymore. Some tools to consider:

Working

  • Mozilla AutoConfig (aka Mission Control) is a centralized auto-configuration of Mozilla Suite, Firefox, Thunderbird, and Netscape 4.X. It uses general.config.filename and general.config.vendor preferences in the all.js file in the greprefs subdirectory of the program directory. The <vendor>.cfg file can either contain the customized javascript to autoconfigure the application or it can direct the client to query a web server and download the preferences. Current versions of Thunderbird (1.5.0.8 as of this writing) and Firefox appear to fully support autoconfig. Autoconfig is extremely powerful and flexible since the javascript configure files can read environmental variables and make LDAP queries to retrieve user specific information for configuration. Through the lockPref and defaultPref functionality, administrators can also lock down configurations as needed.
  • Mozptch is a Mozilla project for configuring Mozilla Suite, Firefox and Thunderbird. It runs under Windows and Linux, can be run interactively or non-interactively and uses a ini-style configuration file. The project still exists but its been replaced by opsi (open pc server integration). It is not Mozilla specific, also supports inventories and license management, and supposedly has a easier to use it script system.
  • Zettaserve has free .MSI packages for Thunderbird and Firefox. FrontMotion has ones for both Firefox and a Firefox Community Edition that has the ability to lockdown settings through Active Directory using Administrative Templates. They don't have the latest versions, but seem to upgrade often enough that its not obsolete. The Open Source MSI repository sounds promising but it only has obsolete versions.
  • Thunderbird 3.1 supports Autoconfiguration (not the same as "autoconfig" above) in the account setup wizard. It tries to automate the creation of the mail account based on just the realname, email address and password. The data can come from a central database maintained by Mozilla for big mail providers or a configuration file that it "discovers" in your domain, so you can set it up yourself. This doesn't let you configure global settings or install add-ons like the other tools, its just a way to make it easier to add a pre-configured mail account. Thunderbird:autoconfiguration explains exactly how it decides which mechanism to use to get configuration information. It seems to have the only documentation on where to put a local configuration file.

Not ready yet

  • Automatic Mozilla Configurator is a Mozilla project (in beta) to customize and deploy Mozilla Suite, Firefox and Thunderbird for users whose home directory is on a file share. One of its main goals is to be able to lock preferences using a mozilla.cfg file that contains encoded javascript commands. That feature is not available for Thunderbird.
  • The Client Customization Kit (CCK) project is being revived according to this article. However the wiki currently just has a empty placeholder for Thunderbird.

Misc. Information

You can disable the Import wizard in Thunderbird from starting when there is no profile by adding

[XRE]
EnableProfileMigrator=false

to a file called "override.ini" in the program directory (C:\Program Files\Mozilla Thunderbird). [1]

Thunderbird 3 has a auto-setup database for the account wizard. You can flag one you think is wrong or submit a new configuration for review at Mozilla's ISP database site.

tb-enterprise is a mailing list to discuss deploying and configuring Thunderbird in enterprise environments.

See also

External links

A series of blog postings on Mozilla AutoConfig: