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Synapse App

About

Matrix is an open network for secure, decentralized communication.

Post installation

Step 1: Select Matrix IDs

Just like email, users on matrix has a unique universal id. These ids are of the form @username:domain.com.

To give users a "memorable id", this app (also known as home server) is pre-setup to use the second level domain for the domain part of the id (also known as the server_name). For example, if you installed the app at matrix-homeserver.example.com, this app package will set the server_name to example.com. This will generate user ids of the form @username:example.com.

If you require a different server name, use a File Manager to edit /app/data/configs/homeserver.yaml and restart the app.

Step 2: Delegation

Matrix clients and other matrix servers discover the Matrix server for an ID using Well-Known URIs. The Well-Known URI is a document that is served up from the server_name domain (i.e example.com) that delegates the handling to another server (i.e matrix-homeserver.example.com).

If server_name is an app hosted on Cloudron, you can use Cloudron's Well Known URI support to serve up well-known documents. Go to the Domains view and set the Matrix domain in the Advanced settings:

Be sure to provide both the hostname and port number (443). To verify the delegation setup, try this command from your laptop/PC:

$ curl https://example.com/.well-known/matrix/server
{ "m.server": "matrix-homeserver.example.com:443" }

Step 3. Federation

Federation setup is automatic. Use the Federation Tester to verify that everything is setup properly. Note you must enter the server_name (like example.com) in the form field in the website and NOT the location of your home server (despite what the form says).

Admin

To make an existing user an admin, open a Web terminal and run the following command:

PGPASSWORD=${CLOUDRON_POSTGRESQL_PASSWORD} psql -h ${CLOUDRON_POSTGRESQL_HOST} -p ${CLOUDRON_POSTGRESQL_PORT} -U ${CLOUDRON_POSTGRESQL_USERNAME} -d ${CLOUDRON_POSTGRESQL_DATABASE} -c "UPDATE users SET admin=1 WHERE name='@user:example.com'"

Customizations

Synapse offers a variety of customizations. To make changes, use a File Manager to edit /app/data/configs/homeserver.yaml and restart the app.

Home page

The index.html can be customized by editing /app/data/index.html. Note that any assets have to be embedded inline.

Spaces

MSC1772: Matrix Spaces support can be enabled by editing /app/data/configs/homeserver.yaml using the File Manager and adding the following line:

experimental_features: { spaces_enabled: true }

Be sure to restart the app after making the change.