Export current e-mail from Thunderbird into external process

Question

I would like to create an extension which adds a toolbar button in Thunderbird. When pressing the button, an external application is launched and the text of the current mail message is exported to that application.

Do you know about an extension which already do that? How to write that kind of extension? What should I study to be able to do it?

(I am a newbie to creating Mozilla extensions)

Answer 1

Unfortunately, extension development isn't friendly for beginners. You may start with this link: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Extensions/Thunderbird . I'd recommend you to use Netbeans and foxbeans plugin to create extension's boilerplate project. Also there is extension which every developer must have: Developer Assistant.

Now about inter-process communications. It's most tricky part. I see the only possible solution here. It is to create XPCOM component and implement all IPC there. It is long and hard story. You should be comfortable with C++ and you should be ready to spent more than a week for all this stuff...