TB 140 : question: is it possible to have a key binding to scroll up/down in the message window?

[earthe]

Long time user, first time question.

I have tried searching and am not coming up with anything valid for recent TB.

Is there any command or way to address the message read pane and scroll up and down with custom keys?

I dislike the space bar / shift space behaviour of the newer versions and would love to get back to my TB98 ability to assign keys to scroll up and down within a single message and not switch messages, but even that on a non-space/shift-space key shortcut.

Thanks for any pointers,

e

[morat523035]

The addon does not support the message window. Here is a solution for the main window.

The following code snippets work for me using the console in TB 140.

i.e. Menu Bar > Tools > Developer Tools > Error Console

Scroll down:

(function () {
  var win = window.gTabmail.currentAboutMessage && window.gTabmail.currentAboutMessage.getMessagePaneBrowser().contentWindow;
  if (!win) return;
  if (window.Math.ceil(win.scrollY) < win.scrollMaxY) {
    win.scrollByPages(1);
  }
})();

Scroll up:

(function () {
  var win = window.gTabmail.currentAboutMessage && window.gTabmail.currentAboutMessage.getMessagePaneBrowser().contentWindow;
  if (!win) return;
  if (window.Math.floor(win.scrollY) > win.scrollMinY) {
    win.scrollByPages(-1);
  }
})();

Online Multiline to Single Line Converter
https://tools.knowledgewalls.com/online-multiline-to-single-line-converter

Reference
https://searchfox.org/comm-central/search?q=cmd_space
https://searchfox.org/comm-central/source/mail/config/version.txt

Similar thread
https://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=3122942

Alternative solutions using the cmd_space command.

• F1: Scroll down
• Shift+F1: Scroll up

{
  "f1":"window.goDoCommand('cmd_space', window.event);",
  "shift+f1":"window.goDoCommand('cmd_space', window.event);"
}

• F1: Scroll down
• F2: Scroll up

{
  "f1":"window.goDoCommand('cmd_space', {shiftKey: false});",
  "f2":"window.goDoCommand('cmd_space', {shiftKey: true});"
}

The mail.advance_on_spacebar pref controls whether the cmd_space command advances to the next/previous UNREAD message.

Troubleshooting:

You cannot run arbitrary javascript with tbkeys-lite. There is a tbkeys.xpi link on the GitHub releases page.

[earthe]

I replaced tbkeys-lite with tbkeys.

Do any of these solutions work for you in tbkeys or just in the error console?

I was also not able to get the cmd_space examples to work, nor do I seem to be able to get the example functions (which do as expected in the console) to work.

Even the example given on the tbkeys github page : https://github.com/wshanks/tbkeys#tbkeys

Scroll message body down:
v115+: window.gTabmail.currentAboutMessage.getMessagePaneBrowser().contentWindow.scrollBy(0, 100)

I can't get that to work in tbkeys in the add-ons manager, tb-keys "Preferences": Main key bindings tab.

I am able to get a basic cmd:cmd... to work, such as:
"k": "cmd:cmd_applyFiltersToSelection",

That works fine.

I note that there are no published scroll content window cmds in the published thunderbird list, which is obviously the difficulty here.

Thanks for your prompt reply and very detailed set of references and URLs. I am confused why the example on the home github page for tbkeys doesn't work.

Can you try adding that example
v115+: window.gTabmail.currentAboutMessage.getMessagePaneBrowser().contentWindow.scrollBy(0, 100)

and see if it works for you?

• e

[morat523035]

The code snippets work for me with tbkeys after converting them to a valid json string in the main key bindings in the tbkeys settings. The common key bindings on the README page work for me as well.

• F1: Scroll down
• F2: Scroll up

{
  "f1":"(function () { var win = window.gTabmail.currentAboutMessage && window.gTabmail.currentAboutMessage.getMessagePaneBrowser().contentWindow; if (!win) return; if (window.Math.ceil(win.scrollY) < win.scrollMaxY) { win.scrollByPages(1); }})();",
  "f2":"(function () { var win = window.gTabmail.currentAboutMessage && window.gTabmail.currentAboutMessage.getMessagePaneBrowser().contentWindow; if (!win) return; if (window.Math.floor(win.scrollY) > win.scrollMinY) { win.scrollByPages(-1); }})();"
}

• F1: Scroll down
• F2: Scroll up

{
  "f1":"window.gTabmail.currentAboutMessage.getMessagePaneBrowser().contentWindow.scrollBy(0, 100);",
  "f2":"window.gTabmail.currentAboutMessage.getMessagePaneBrowser().contentWindow.scrollBy(0, -100);"
}

Did you remember to click the "Save settings" button?

You can use the main key bindings in the tbkeys settings to create keyboard shortcuts in the main window.
You can use the compose key bindings in the tbkeys settings to create keyboard shortcuts in the compose window.

The addon does not support the message window.

i.e. right click a message in main window > Open > Open Message in New Window

README - Common key bindings
https://github.com/wshanks/tbkeys?tab=readme-ov-file#common-key-bindings

Troubleshooting
https://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=14872763#p14872763

JSON Validator
https://jsonlint.com/

tbkeys 2.4.1 (not tbkeys-lite)
Thunderbird ESR 140.6.0
Windows 10 Pro 22H2 32-bit

[earthe]

ok, thanks for replying!

summary: I got it working with your help! Remember to try a clean restart if you are having problems.

== long version ==

I did use the save button :] It is the only time the debug happens.

For reasons I can't understand: sometimes I have to close thunderbird and restart to get the changes to work.

Most of the time, changing the code, "save settings", switching to the inbox tab, and things work.

So, now, yes, thank you! I am able to get the code to work using tbkeys!

I was only able to actually figure out what was going wrong by doing the step by step you pointed to of doing alert() messages and finally figuring out that two things needed to happen: I had to restart thunderbird and I had to make sure I hadn't opened a new message window between start and trying the new key bindings.

Once I reduced the entire "Main key bindings" to a single line:

   "k": "(function () { var text = 'example 3'; window.alert(text); })();"  

saved, went back to list, and the "k" did nothing. I restarted Thunderbird and "k" triggered the alert perfectly. I changed the key, hit save, and the alert worked on the new key binding ("l"). etc.

So, if someone is as dumb as me and not think to restart Thunderbird clean when changes in tbkeys don't work, remember: have you tried powering it off and back on again?

Thanks again and thanks for your patience! love tbkeys! And this was a fantastic github discussion experience.

• e

[morat523035]

Glad you got it working.

I don't need to restart the app to change a keyboard shortcut. I only need to click the "Save settings" button. Maybe there was an issue when replacing tbkeys-lite with tbkeys.