HOWTO: Mozilla Thunderbird Address Book

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Introduction

This article explains the basic setup of a miru directory server for use as a shared Mozilla Thunderbird address book.

Configure VMware Player

Example using a miru directory server installed as a virtual appliance.

First visit VMware's website and download and install the VMware Player, you will probably need to reboot to finish configuration. Download the miru directory server virtual appliance and extract, for example onto your desktop.

Start the VMware network configuration tool, Start > Run > "C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Player\vmnetcfg.exe"

The VMware network configuration tool is not listed in the Start menu, but resides inside the program directory.

Switch to the "Host Virtual Network Mapping" and click the ">" button next to "VMware Network Adapter VMnet1".

The virtual networks can be configured as bridged, virtual: i.e. host-only, or NATted with a host interface.

Change the IP address to 192.168.148.0.

The IP address of the host side of a virtual host-only network.

Configure Miru Directory Server

Download the virtual appliance image from the Novell site:

• OCEAN-vm.1.0.beta.5.address-book-demo.zip

Start the virtual appliance using the Ocean.vmx icon.

Directory containing VMware configuration and a miru directory server disk image.

Once completed the screen should appear as follows, select "Keep".

The virtual machine UUID also includes the network interfaces MAC address.

Open up a web browser and navigate to http://192.168.148.2 login using username admin and password miru, visit the address book page to add and edit address book entries.

Once started the console displays a menu for performing basic functions including powering off the virtual machine

Configure Mozilla Thunderbird

Ensure you have installed Mozilla Thunderbird and it is functioning normally. Start Mozilla Thunderbird and navigate to the options menu (Windows: Tools > Options, Linux: Edit > Preferences), select the composition and addressing tabs.

Addressing allows configuration of a global LDAP directory and which directories auto-complete should search.

Check the "Directory Server" box, select "Edit Directories...", and "Add" for a new directory server. Configure as follows:

Name:          Address Book
Hostname:      192.168.148.2
Base DN:       cn=Address Book,dc=example,dc=com
Port number:   389

The address book name will appear in the Mozilla Thunderbird Address Book

To test click on the "Address Book" icon, select "Address Book" on the left column of address books then type in "john" in the search panel on the upper right hand side.

The address book interface can be used to query specific directories.

Currently with Thunderbird 1.5.0.5 on Windows there is a defect in using the global address book for composition auto-complete, to workaround this problem navigate to the account settings (Windows: Tools > Account Settings, Linux: Edit > Account Settings), select composition & addressing from the list on the left and specify the "Address Book" directory for addressing.

The directory used for each account can be overriden, but only one can be currently used for auto-complete.

Now you can test auto-complete on email composition, start a new email and type in the name "john" into the address panel, the name "John Smith" and email address john@smith.com should appear as an auto-complete suggestion.

Thunderbird will auto-complete email addresses from your configured address books.

AddTo Miru Mozilla Thunderbird Extension

Download the Thunderbird extension to your desktop and install into Mozilla Thunderbird. Installation can be by dragging the XPI file onto the Thunderbird window or via the menu Tools > Extensions > Install and navigate to the XPI file. You will be presented with a prompt to verify installation.

• addto_miru_directory_server-1.0.0-tb.xpi

Thunderbird asks for confirmation of installation to ensure malicious extensions are not secretly installed.

Once added you will need to restart Mozilla Thunderbird for the extension to function.

Extension in Thunderbird can be installed, configured, and remove from the extension window.

After restarting return to the extensions window and configure the "AddTo Miru Directory Server" extension, the settings are as follows.

Server address:     192.168.148.2
Access protocol:    HTTP
Access port:        80
Username:           admin
Password:           miru

The AddTo extension requires the server address and login details for the web interface.

Right clicking on any email address will popup a modified menu allowing you to add the address directly to the miru directory server.

Email addresses can be added to your personal address book or a shared miru address book.

Testing on a network

The initial configuration of VMware and the directory server virtual appliance is for a virtual host-only network. For sharing between multiple machines you will need to change the network configuration of VMware Player and the directory server to match your local network. First step find a free IP address on your local network. For this section I will use an IP address 192.168.1.2 as an example.

Re-configure the directory server to use a LAN IP address of 192.168.1.2, for example through the web interface. When using the web interface the save request will not complete as the IP address will have already changed.

The LAN interface can be configured via the console or the web interface.

Change the networking from "Host-only" to "Bridged" by the drop down menu labelled "Ethernet" at the top of the VMware Player window. For this setting to take effect close the window and restart the virtual appliance by the icon "Ocean.vmx".

If you have multiple adapter you might have to restart the VMware network configuration tool and mark which adapters should not be used for bridging: the "Automatic Bridging" tab, or explicitly set one interface to use: "Host Virtual Network Mapping" tab.

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