Addressbook-Thunderbird

From Fedora Directory Server

Contents

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How to configure Thunderbird to perform Address Autocompletion reading from Fedora Directory Server

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Thunderbird 1.x

  • Go to Edit->Preferences or Tools->Options
  • Select Composition
  • In the Address Autocompletion section, click "Edit Directories...", then "Add".
  • On the General tab:
    • Name: type a name for this directory server
    • Hostname: set this to the fully-qualified domain name of the server e.g. "ldap.example.org" (without the quotes)
    • Base DN: specify the base DN where the searches will start from, e.g. "dc=example,dc=com"
    • "Port number": leave this as 389 (unless directory is on a different port)
    • Bind DN: specify a bind DN or leave it blank for anonymous bind
    • Uncheck the "Use secure connection" for non-SSL connection
  • On the Offline tab:
    • You may click "Download Now" to get a local copy for working offline
  • On the Advanced tab:
    • Specify the limit of matches that will be returned
    • Scope: specify if the searches will be One Level or Subtree
    • Specify a search filter
  • After all is set, click "OK" on the Add dialog
  • Make sure the Directory Server is selected in the drop down list and the checkbox for the "Directory Server" is checked.
  • Click "OK" on the Options dialog
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What's Next?

  • Now when you compose or reply to messages, as you start typing in the Address fields, Thunderbird will present a list of possible matches which you can select from the directory server.
  • e.g. Type in "John", a list of entries that contains "John" will be presented from the Directory. You can then select the correct John and his email address.


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Advanced Hint - Mail Compose Typedown

In mail compose, when typing a partial mail address, a typedown window appears listing possible matches against address books and LDAP directories. For large companies, there may be a large number of users in the directory with the same name. In such a scenario, it may be hard to tell which person you really want to send the message to. In Thunderbird, the type down window can be customized to show arbitrary LDAP fields. This can be accomplished by setting the following preferences: 

   	    user_pref("mail.autoComplete.commentColumn", 2);
   	    user_pref("ldap_2.servers.DIRECTORYNAME.autoComplete.commentFormat", "[ou]");

The first preference tells us to use a comment column in the type down (the default value is 0 for no comment), and that the value for the comment is a custom string unique to each directory. The commentFormat preference is set on EACH directory. It acts as a template, specifying the extra LDAP attribute which should be used in the comment field along with how the attribute should be formatted. It expects the following format:

  • The desired LDAP attribute should be wrapped in square brackets. In this example, we are setting the organization unit as the LDAP attribute.
  • You can also insert arbitrary text to clarify the LDAP attribute. i.e. "Department: [ou]" would yield a type down entry that looks like "John Smit Department: Client Engineering".

Taken from http://www.mozilla.org/projects/thunderbird/specs/ldap.html

Retrieved from "http://directory.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Addressbook-Thunderbird"
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