Whats new?

• added a new option to dynamically switch on/off an email signature if using a virtual identity. To use this option you have to install the Switch Signature Extension. Thanks to Alex for the idea and thanks to Achim Seufert for the nice extension which I could use for this feature.
• added a feature called ‘Smart Timestamp’ which simply changes the address of any new email you are going to compose by adding a epoch-timestamp in the name. This way you can use a unique address for any message you send and check where your mail-addresses go. Thanks to JensMartin for the idea.
• added an option to warn you if the mail should be sended with any stored (unchanged) identity. Valdaran had the idea to blank the From: field, which is not really an option, to many other things are relying on this. But maybe a warning will do nearly the same nice job? Thanks to Valdaran for the idea.
  
• removed some old bugs, added some fresh ones Thanks to all who reported their problems.

The new version is now available for testing. Feel free to use it and report bugs and problems or help to translate the extension.

after being quiet for a while I just went through all bug-reports and finished a new version of virtual identity.

bugfixes:

• If Smart-Reply found (for instance) an existing identity, sending works ok and was not tampered by the extension. But Thunderbird doesn’t remove the window, it ‘recycles’ the window. Next time you compose a message, this one shows the same old identity but uses a different one behind the scenes. So I changed Virtual Identity to remove Window completely if message was sended, Window-Recycling is this way disabled (thanks to Charles, john and Henrik for the report).
• repaired Dialog to choose which Virtual Identity to choose, was completely broken (thanks to Mark for the report).
• Connected (and this way limited) usage of newsgroup Identities to the switch which enables Virtual Identity for newsgroups (thanks to Dave for the report).

You can download the new version at http://absorb.it/hacked/thunderbird/virtual_identity-0.4.2-tb+sm.xpi
and soon from addons.mozilla.org.

• you can now sort the header any way you like, also exclude ‘to’ or ‘cc’ as you like it, but you have to tell Virtual Identity that it has to use those headers. So change your settings and add ‘to’ and ‘cc’ to the list of headers. A header name now refers to all headers of that name, not like before only the outmost one of you mail. To select a specific header, just use the number of it’s occurrence, so for instance “:3″ and add it to the headername. And if you wish to use only the email address and not the name, then simply add “:@”.
• reading the headers was in version 0.4.0 dependent on installed mnenhy or enigmail. Now it’s independent on other extensions, so you are free to use whatever you like (but to protect the freedom of having secrets the same way as the freedom of choice or the freedom of speach, you might choose to install enigmail anyway)
• added a nice debug-window, which helps you understanding what Virtual Identity really does. using complex filter rules you might get very creative, and this is the place to look if it doesn’t work as expected. This debug information is also helpful for me to understand how and when problems occur if you are sending a bug report.

Ok, here you can find the recent release 0.4.1, and, tadaa, there will be a documentation soon (have a look at the work in progress)

So, repaired this one and the now released pre-version 0.4.1pre3 should solve the problem. Thanks Keith (and all the others) for testing and reporting.

But much better, they gave me the hint about how to retrieve all mail headers in Thunderbird, so I was able to implement a much nicer solution than the one Virtual Identity used before. And (if you are running at least Thunderbird 2.0.0.0rc1 or Seamonkey) it’s now completely independent from any other extensions like mnenhy or enigmail. Additionally I cleaned the option to select a specific header out of headers with the same name (now a mentioned header will match all headers with that name, for selecting the first one just add ‘:1′). Ok, the new version is pre-released now, download Virtual Identity 0.4.1pre2, try it and report any problems.

• new (SmartReply): Header-Filter must now contain ‘To’ and ‘Cc’ if they should be used. This gives you an easy option to sort the headers the way you like, or to ignore ‘To’ and ‘Cc’ also (thanks to Christian Höltje for the idea).
• new (SmartReply): added Option to use a default name for any found email, if no name was found (thanks to Michael Schaap for the idea).
• new (SmartReply): added Option to use only the email and ignore the name, just add ‘:@’ to the header.
• new: added Option to show debug-information. Makes it easier to know what Virtual Identity is doing and what might be left after filtering the retrieved email-header.
• bugfix:0.4.0 crashed if you liked to open any saved email. Crash initiation found and removed, but Smart-Reply feature is still not working on saved emails (thanks to yetanotherid for the report).
• bugfix: access-key for the ‘From:’ field did not worked in 0.4.0 (thanks to kms for the report).
• bugfix: switching between different (pre-stored) Identitys didn’t caused enigmail to load appropriate preferences (thanks to tylerl for the report).
• bugfix: Interface of Thunderbird was broken if started with ‘thunderbird.exe -compose’ or similar (thanks to Peter Monnerjahn for the report).
• bugfix: selecting headers only worked if they were lowercase, now fixed.
• bugfix: switching back from some ‘Virtual Identities’ to a stored one sometimes ended in the attempt to use an non-existent account.

But, the extension wasn’t compatible with the upcoming Thunderbird 2.0. And as much as I like the program, I missed the often requested feature to scan headers for reply addresses. So I had to change it. And what a long way, at the end I decided to write the whole thing once again. Viola, there it is, the preview is ready and can be downloaded virtual_identity-0.4.0pre-mz+tb.xpi

Features of the new Version:

• smoother integration in the Thunderbird Interface
• use specified mail-headers for Smart Reply feature (needs installed enigmail or mnenhy extension)
• allow saving of Drafts/Templates keeping Virtual Identity stored (requires Thunderbird 2.0)
• compatible with Thunderbird 2.0

sounds good? Ok, than try it, and please report any bugs or problems. And feel free to contact me if you like to translate the extension in your language…