Element Cloud Documentation

Documentation for Element and EMS by the EMS team

Element X status on EMS Cloud

This page outlines the current plan for making sliding sync (required for Element X) available for EMS cloud customers. The page will be updated if anything changes.

See the Element blog post “Element X: Ignition” for more information on Element X.

Hosts using traditional password authentication

All EMS hosts using traditional password authentication now have the sliding sync proxy and you can start using Element X.

If your host is using Custom DNS and you are not using “EMS hosts well-knowns”, you will need to update your client well-known file to enable Element X support. You will receive an email with specific instructions for your host. But, if you want to prepare, you can update your client well-known file like this:

GET https://yourcustomdoman.tld/.well-known/matrix/client

{
    "m.homeserver": {
        "base_url": "https://your-ems-hostname.ems.host"
    },
    "m.identity_server": {
        "base_url": "https://vector.im"
    },
    "org.matrix.msc3575.proxy": {
        "url": "https://your-ems-hostname.ems.host"
    }
}

If you are not using Custom DNS or if you are using “EMS hosts well-knowns”, no changes are required by you.

Hosts using delegated authentication/SSO including Element One users

Unfortunately, you will not get sliding sync support right now. We are hoping to be able to offer sliding sync in the early part of 2024.

Frequently Asked Questions

Element General

Can spaces be deleted?

Spaces in Matrix are just rooms with some extra metadata. You can delete them the same way you delete rooms. If you are an EMS admin, see How do I delete a room or a space?

How do I enable guest users in a room?

Set the following settings:

Guest users only work if a native user on the default homeserver configured in your client is a member of the room. For example, to join a room on your EMS server as a guest using the client at https://app.element.io/, an account on the matrix.org homeserver must be a member of the room.

1 Guest users will technically work with encryption enabled, but guests will not be able to read any messages as they do not have the keys to decrypt them.

It's not recommended to add encryption to public rooms. Anyone can find and join public rooms, so anyone can read messages in them. You'll get none of the benefits of encryption, and you won't be able to turn it off later. Encrypting messages in a public room will make receiving and sending messages slower.

How do I get my access token?

The access token grants full access to your Matrix account. Do not share it with anyone.

How do I link to my space outside of my Element Web?

Spaces are just rooms, so you can link to a space the same way you would a room—for example, https://matrix.to/#/#community:matrix.org.

My secret storage (key backup) secret key/passphrase has leaked, how do I reset and secure it again?
  1. Backup your message encryption keys, see Export and Import E2E Room Keys
  2. In Element Wed/Desktop settings, under Security & Privacy -> Secure backup, click Delete Backup repeatedly until all backup versions are deleted.
  3. Click Reset under Secure Backup.
  4. Click Reset under Cross-signing.
  5. Import the message encryption keys you backed up earlier. See Export and Import E2E Room Keys
What are the permissions required to start a video call?

In a room with more than two members, voice and video calls are done using the Jitsi integration. Users need "Modify widgets" permissions to add the Jitsi widget to the room and initiate a call.

Once the call is initiated, anyone in the room can join.

What is the preferred resolution for room and space icons?

Room and space icons can be shown in a full-screen lightbox, so the resolution should be high. The homeserver will create a smaller thumbnail that is displayed when viewing rooms and spaces normally.

Matrix General

Can encrypted messages be recovered?

If you want to restore encrypted messages to your Matrix account, you need to have access to your encryption keys that were used to encrypt those messages.

If you have lost your encryption keys, you will not be able to decrypt these messages and they will remain encrypted.

However, if you have used multiple devices to access your Matrix account and have access to the encryption keys on one of those devices, you can try using that device to decrypt messages.

Can I sign in to multiple Matrix accounts in Element Desktop?

If you have multiple Matrix accounts - for example, an EMS account and a matrix.org account - you cannot log in to both simultaneously in the Element Desktop client today. However, you can launch multiple Element instances locally via its Profiles feature.

Do you have tips for migrating between Matrix accounts?

Currently Matrix doesn't support moving communication history over homeservers. The suggested manual method is to invite your new user (for example on an EMS cloud server) over to the same rooms as your old user and give your new user the relevant power levels, if possible.

Old messages in a room will be visible to the new user depending on the room history setting. If you have a room with history open to members, you will be able to simply scroll back to read history (assuming at least one homeserver in the room has the history available locally). Note that changing the room history visibility setting for a room doesn't affect old messages in the room. For rooms where history is limited for new users in the room from "join" or "invite", there is no way to retrieve that history using a user who was not present in that rooms.

Note for encrypted rooms, please ensure to export encryption keys from your old account and import them to the new account. This will allow you to decrypt encrypted room history for messages you have access to. You can do this from the "Security & Privacy" settings in Element.

It may also make sense to export important messages to file, in cases where you cannot get access to them from your new account, for example due to room message visibility settings. Element allows you to export chat history from a room from the room context menu.

How do I add a password if my account was created using SSO?

If your account was created using SSO, for example via GitLab or Apple, and your homeserver supports multiple authentication methods for an account (matrix.org does), follow these steps to add a password to your Matrix account. Note, you will need access to the third party SSO account you used to create the account.

  1. Add an email address to your account. See Add Email to Your Account.
  2. Open a new Matrix client, for example https://app.element.io in a private/incognito browser window, then reset the password for your account. See step 3 and onwards in this guide. Note signing out all other devices when prompted is optional for this guide to work.
  3. You can now sign in to your Matrix account using either your original SSO account, or the password you just created.
How do I manually tombstone a room?

This can only be done by room admins (by default). This action cannot be undone.

What characters can I use in my username/localpart?

Your Matrix username/localpart can only contain lower case letters, numbers, and the characters . _ = - /.

What is an Identity Server, and how does it work?

The best response to 'What is an Identity Server' is detailed in section 2. of the vector.im Identity Server privacy policy, available here: https://element.io/legal.

New Vector runs two identity servers, one at matrix.org and another at vector.im. These servers run in a closed federation - this means that if you add (or remove) your data from one, it is added to (or removed from) the other automatically, too.

The behavior and role of Identity Servers are changing. Historically, Identity Servers provided three sets of functionality:

  1. They let users publish their third-party identifiers (email/telephone number) to a directory to allow other Matrix users to discover them.
  2. Letting users send invites to a Matrix chat room to an email address instead of a Matrix ID.
  3. Letting homeservers send emails/SMS text messages to verify that they belong to a given Matrix user so that the user can log in to the homeserver using a third-party identifier instead of a Matrix ID.

Identity Servers continue to provide the functionality described in 1. However, the features described in 2. and 3. are now provided by the homeserver instead and will be deprecated and phased out of the Identity Server in the future.

For a period in 2019, while privacy functionality was being enhanced on vector.im and matrix.org, these Identity Servers were restricted to only provide services for users on New Vector homeservers. Once privacy improvements landed, this restriction was lifted.

Element Matrix Services

Account Management

Can I migrate from Element One to Element Home/Cloud?

Unfortunately, Element One and Home are different products and do not currently have an upgrade path. You can set up an Element Home/Cloud host, then manually invite your new Element Home account to all rooms from your Element One account. Bridged rooms have to be manually re-bridged from your Home host.

The same applies to migration from Element Home/Cloud to Element One.

How do I enable 2FA on my EMS account?

Please note:

Please discontinue my account

It is best if EMS customers delete their host or account themselves. Here's how:

Delete the host from the host management page at https://ems.element.io/user/hosting by clicking the Delete host button (and confirming deletion in the resulting dialog). This will delete the host and cancel all associated subscriptions.

You can manage or cancel your Element One subscription on https://ems.element.io/user/hosting#/elementone.

Or delete the EMS account entirely. This is done from the user account page https://ems.element.io/user/account by clicking on the Delete account button and confirming. This will delete all hosts and subscriptions before removing the user's account.

Integrations

Bots? What's the reason for using them?

Bots allow you to get information and perform actions in line with your chat. There are a bunch that can be found at https://matrix.org/docs/projects/bots/.

Can I host my own Telegram bridge?

Unfortunately, you are not currently able to host your own bridges to work with your EMS-hosted homeserver. As of December 2020, we have added a Telegram bridge to EMS. See our blog post: EMS brings more interoperability to messaging.

If you have federation enabled for your homeserver, you can also bridge into publicly accessible rooms, such as https://t2bot.io/, or integrations available on public homeservers such as matrix.org.

Do DMs count towards the 20-channel limit for the paid Slack bridge?

Yes, but we're currently reviewing the bridging pricing models, and soon we'll likely be offering Slack (as well as all of our other bridges) on a usage basis rather than on a room/workspace capped basis.

When this launches, existing customers will be able to stay on their existing plan or choose to move to the new model.

How do I add a GitHub integration?

To create a GitHub integration in a room, click on the i icon at the top right, accept the privacy policy, click Add widgets, bridges & bots, click Add integrations and select GitHub from the Bots list. When prompted, log in to GitHub and select the repositories and functions you want.

Note that your server needs to have federation enabled for integrations to work.

How do I add RSS integration to my Matrix server?

To create RSS integration in a room, click on the i icon at the top right, accept the privacy policy, click Add widgets, bridges & bots, click Add integrations and select RSS Bot from the Bots list. Then, enter the RSS URL and click Subscribe.

Note that your server needs to have federation enabled for integrations to work.

How do I bridge to Libera Chat IRC rooms with more than 100 users?

Please talk to your account manager, or open a support ticket by emailing support@matrix.org. The bridge team will consider requests on a case-by-case basis.

What is the difference between the free and paid Slack bridge?

They're mostly the same. The big difference is that the free one doesn't bridge DMs / puppet your account. See also Do DMs count towards the 20 channel limit for the paid Slack bridge?

With Jitsi video conferencing, how is the data being transferred?

Jitsi conferencing data goes directly from the browser to the Jitsi server, and it does not use the Matrix protocol. If you add a Jitsi widget to a room, that widget will be stored in the room state as Matrix events, but the Jitsi communication itself is from the client to the Jitsi server used.

Miscellaneous

Are all my messages stored on my homeserver?

Messages are stored on your server. However, if you are communicating with users registered on other servers, then relevant messages/events will also exist on their server.

How do I send "System Alerts" or post from the @server user?

The web console has a form to do this. "System status messages" - You can use this form to send messages to all users of your server. For example, this could be used to send "messages of the day", or important policy updates, etc.

How do I update External IDs for my users?

When managing SSO integrations, you might need to edit the external IDs for your Matrix users. This can be done using the Synapse Admin API. You can follow this knowledge base page for further details, How do I migrate to SSO while keeping my original accounts?.

Is there a maximum file size per upload?

The file upload limit for EMS hosts is currently set at 100MB.

What are the benefits of paying for an EMS homeserver?

EMS aims to take the hassle out of hosting and managing your own Matrix stack. There is a significant technical overhead (in terms of technical knowledge required) as well as ongoing time and resources to ensure that your server continues running and is kept up to date with all of the latest security updates etc. With EMS, you don't have to worry about that, as it is all taken care of for you at the touch of a button.

We also provide a (growing) suite of proprietary host administration tools in the form of the EMS Synapse admin dashboard to help give you better insight and control of your server.

What are the limitations in terms of storage?

We’ve shied away from hard limits for storage and instead adopted a fair use policy. If you use the server for business conversations and share a few images as part of your discussions, you will never have problems. However, if you share thousands of images daily per user, you will hit a limit.

Pricing & Payment

Do you offer other payment options like PayPal, Crypto, or IBAN/SEPA?

Currently, we only accept Credit or Debit/bank account cards as payment. "Debit cards" should work with any regular bank account.

How do I update my payment info?

To update your payment info, go to https://ems.element.io/user/billing. From here, you can update your payment details.

If I join a room with a lot of external users from my homeserver, will I be charged for those?

No, you are only ever charged for users that are registered on your server and who have been active for more than two days in a month. These users make up your Monthly Active User (MAU) total. Users that are registered on other servers (that you communicate with over federation), guest users, and users who are only briefly active on your server are not counted.

Server Configuration & Management

Are custom appservices supported?

Uploading custom (YAML) registration files for appservices is not currently supported for EMS hosts.

We are actively working on improving bridging support for EMS hosts and hope that this will be something that you see substantial improvement in over the coming months.

Are you able to use a custom domain like "matrix.example.com"?

Yes, absolutely! However, you need to set this at host creation time as the homeserver name is "baked in" to all of the events that the homeserver creates.

You can set both the homeserver name, e.g., example.com (so your Matrix user IDs would be of the form @foo:example.com), and your (Element) client address, which might be something like webchat.example.com. However, to prove that you own the domain in question, you will need to place some JSON / text into two well-known files on the webserver for your domain. In the setup wizard, you will be guided through this process when setting up the custom domain for your server.

Can I add all my users to a Space by default?

Yes, this is available for Gold and Enterprise customers. Please talk to your Account Manager or open a support ticket.

Can I change the default room notification level for my users?

This is currently not possible, unfortunately.

Can I customize the Element web login page?

Yes, you can modify the look and feel of your client to suit you.

Please see our blog article on custom branding for your Element instance here https://element.io/blog/custom-branding/ and Client Look & Feel for more details.

You will be able to enter the customization preferences from the managed host page of your EMS account - https://ems.element.io/user/hosting.

Can I use a subdomain instead of the root domain with my EMS server?

Yes. However, this is not recommended. For the same reason your email address probably is not someone@email.example.com, you probably don't want your Matrix IDs to be @someone:matrix.example.com.

Please see https://element-hq.github.io/synapse/latest/setup/installation.html#choosing-your-server-name for additional details on your server name.

Can I use EMS-hosted well-knowns with the root of my domain?

Yes, you can, but there are some limitations:

CNAME and .well-known?

The client file needs to contain:

{
    "m.homeserver": {
        "base_url": "https://yourEMShost.ems.host"
    },
    "m.identity_server": {
        "base_url": "https://vector.im"
    }
}

The server file needs to contain:

{
    "m.server": "yourEMShost.ems.host:443"
}
CNAME doesn't work with Cloudflare?

You can use the CNAME with CloudFlare, but you have to change the Proxy status to DNS only.

Could you expand on "over federation"?

If you have federation turned on in your server configuration, you are able to communicate with users registered on other servers (e.g., matrix.org).

You are only ever charged for users that are registered on your server and who have been active for more than two days in a month. These users make up your Monthly Active User (MAU) total. Users that are registered on other servers (that you communicate with over federation), guest users, and users who are only briefly active on your server are not counted.

DNS is not resolving

This problem is most likely caused by a delay in DNS replication downstream of your DNS servers.

How can I manage my #general room?

You can gain admin permissions in this room by calling this Synapse Admin API or by contacting EMS Support at https://ems.element.io/support.

Gold and Enterprise customers can also request changes to the list of default rooms their users are automatically added to.

How do I change the name/brand of the Element Web client?

You can rename the Element client from Element to for example Company Chat with the Client name field on https://ems.element.io/user/hosting#/hosts. See Client Look & Feel for additional details.

How do I change the server's custom domain?

You can only set a custom domain name for a server at setup time. This is because the server's domain name is "baked-in" to all of the events generated by the server.

So, you would need to deprovision an existing server and create a new one, selecting your custom DNS preferences from the advanced settings section of host setup configuration if you wish to change the current host DNS.

How do I delete a room or a space?

Go to https://ems.element.io/user/hosting#/admin, click Rooms, and find the room or space you want to delete. Then click the button to delete it.

How do I delete users when administering the server?

You can deactivate users from the admin dashboard for your host at https://ems.element.io/user/hosting.

Select the Server Admin tab and then the User Info sub-tab. From here, you can search for the relevant user and hit the Deactivate account button.

How do I enable the public room directory?

The public room directory is enabled on your EMS server if both Federation and Guest users are enabled.

How do I reactivate a user?
How do I migrate from EMS to self-hosted if I choose to do so in the future?

Currently, the process of migrating away is manual. However, we hope to have an automated, self-serve system in the not too distant future. For the time being, if you wish to migrate away, please email ems-support@element.io (while your EMS server is still up and running) and ask for a snapshot of your Synapse database. We will then generate a snapshot for you and create a link to download the data. You can then use this to restore the database / Synapse instance on your own infrastructure.

Note that migrating from EMS to self-hosted is only possible if you use your own domain (Custom DNS) with your EMS server.

I deleted my host, now my server name is taken, and I cannot rebuild

This is part of a security measure. We generally prevent hosts from returning to the pool after they were initially claimed to prevent people from attempting to imitate old servers/users. Contact support from https://ems.element.io/support while signed in to get the hostname released.

Online users are displayed as offline?

Unfortunately, we are not able to offer user presence as a feature at the moment. This is due to potential performance impact and excess resource usage on hosts when this feature is enabled. The Synapse team is aware of this, and it is on their roadmap to address. However, we do not currently have a timeline for when it will be available again.

What does "Include bridged accounts" on the user management page mean?

When you bridge to external services, external users get an "appservice user" on your EMS server. If you have any bridges and check this checkbox, users from across your bridges will also be shown.

Element Matrix Services

Element Matrix Services

Add Additional Users

  1. Click Your Account and Manage Servers or click this link https://ems.element.io/user/hosting.
  2. Click the Hosts tab.
  3. Change Total Monthly Active User Seats to the number of users you want and click Save at the bottom.
    • Note that you cannot decrease your user count later.

For server on our legacy plans, Say you want a total of 10 Monthly Active Users on your EMS Nickel server. Add 5 in the Additional users field. Then click Save.

Element Matrix Services

Add Users

  1. Click Your Account and Manage Servers or click this link: https://ems.element.io/user/hosting

  2. Click Server Admin

  3. Select your host

  4. Click Add user Enter the username and click Add

  5. Select Make new user server admin if you want this user to be able to use the Synapse Admin API to perform administrative tasks on your server. Be careful with this as this option has a lot of power on your server.

  6. The username and password for the new user is displayed. You will only be able to see this information once so send the password to the user in a secure manner and then delete it

Element Matrix Services

Apply coupon/discount

Coupons can only be applied by new customers before purchasing any products. However, if you are an existing customer and want to add a coupon, please contact support at https://ems.element.io/support.

Terms and Conditions apply. See the page for your coupon or ask your Element contact or support.

Element Matrix Services

Client Look & Feel

This feature allows you to customize the home and welcome page on your EMS-provided Element Web client.

Blog posts

See also our blog posts on the subject:

Create home and login template

  1. Create the files you want to use.

    1. Edit ems_home.html. This can be as simple as a couple of lines of HTML, for example:

      <h1>Snow Leopard LTD</h1>
<h2>Rooms to join</h2>
<ul>
    <li><a href='/#/room/#welcome:snowleopard-staging.ems.host'>Welcome to Demo web chat (#welcome)</a></li>
    <li><a href='/#/room/#support:snowleopard-staging.ems.host'>Support (#support)</a></li>
    <li><a href='/#/room/#offtopic:snowleopard-staging.ems.host'>Off topic conversation (#offtopic)</a></li>
</ul>

      You can also add a more complex HTML and styling.

    2. It looks like this in your web browser:

    3. Edit ems_welcome.html. This is a bit more complex, but it can be almost anything you want as long as it has links to Log in (/#/login) and Create account (/#/register). The default design is based on this template. You can get creative with the CSS and the !important tag.

      Click to see ems_welcome contents

      The only change I made from the template is adding <p>This is some demo text!</p> on line 177.

      <style type="text/css">

/* we deliberately inline style here to avoid flash-of-CSS problems, and to avoid
* voodoo where we have to set display: none by default
*/

h1::after {
    content: "!";
}

.mx_Parent {
    display: -webkit-box;
    display: -webkit-flex;
    display: -ms-flexbox;
    display: flex;
    -webkit-box-orient: vertical;
    -webkit-box-direction: normal;
    -webkit-flex-direction: column;
    -ms-flex-direction: column;
    flex-direction: column;
    -webkit-box-pack: center;
    -webkit-justify-content: center;
    -ms-flex-pack: center;
    justify-content: center;
    -webkit-box-align: center;
    -webkit-align-items: center;
    -ms-flex-align: center;
    align-items: center;
    text-align: center;
    padding: 25px 35px;
    color: #2e2f32;
}

.mx_Logo {
    height: 54px;
    margin-top: 2px;
}

.mx_ButtonGroup {
    margin-top: 10px;
}

.mx_ButtonRow {
    display: -webkit-box;
    display: -webkit-flex;
    display: -ms-flexbox;
    display: flex;
    -webkit-justify-content: space-around;
    -ms-flex-pack: distribute;
    -webkit-box-align: center;
    -webkit-align-items: center;
    -ms-flex-align: center;
    align-items: center;
    justify-content: space-between;
    box-sizing: border-box;
    margin: 12px 0 0;
}

.mx_ButtonRow > * {
    margin: 0 10px;
}

.mx_ButtonRow > *:first-child {
    margin-left: 0;
}

.mx_ButtonRow > *:last-child {
    margin-right: 0;
}

.mx_ButtonParent {
    display: -webkit-box;
    display: -webkit-flex;
    display: -ms-flexbox;
    display: flex;
    padding: 10px 20px;
    -webkit-box-orient: horizontal;
    -webkit-box-direction: normal;
    -webkit-flex-direction: row;
    -ms-flex-direction: row;
    flex-direction: row;
    -webkit-box-pack: center;
    -webkit-justify-content: center;
    -ms-flex-pack: center;
    justify-content: center;
    -webkit-box-align: center;
    -webkit-align-items: center;
    -ms-flex-align: center;
    align-items: center;
    border-radius: 4px;
    width: 150px;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-position: 10px center;
    text-decoration: none;
    color: #2e2f32 !important;
}

.mx_ButtonLabel {
    margin-left: 20px;
}

.mx_Header_title {
    font-size: 24px;
    font-weight: 600;
    margin: 20px 0 0;
}

.mx_Header_subtitle {
    font-size: 12px;
    font-weight: normal;
    margin: 8px 0 0;
}

.mx_ButtonSignIn {
    background-color: #368BD6;
    color: white !important;
}

.mx_ButtonCreateAccount {
    background-color: #0DBD8B;
    color: white !important;
}

.mx_SecondaryButton {
    background-color: #FFFFFF;
    color: #2E2F32;
}

.mx_Button_iconSignIn {
    background-image: url('welcome/images/icon-sign-in.svg');
}
.mx_Button_iconCreateAccount {
    background-image: url('welcome/images/icon-create-account.svg');
}
.mx_Button_iconHelp {
    background-image: url('welcome/images/icon-help.svg');
}
.mx_Button_iconRoomDirectory {
    background-image: url('welcome/images/icon-room-directory.svg');
}

/*
.mx_WelcomePage_loggedIn is applied by EmbeddedPage from the Welcome component
If it is set on the page, we should show the buttons. Otherwise, we have to assume
we don't have an account and should hide them. No account == no guest account either.
*/
.mx_WelcomePage:not(.mx_WelcomePage_loggedIn) .mx_WelcomePage_guestFunctions {
    display: none;
}

.mx_ButtonRow.mx_WelcomePage_guestFunctions {
    margin-top: 20px;
}
.mx_ButtonRow.mx_WelcomePage_guestFunctions > div {
    margin: 0 auto;
}

@media only screen and (max-width: 480px) {
    .mx_ButtonRow {
        flex-direction: column;
    }

    .mx_ButtonRow > * {
        margin: 0 0 10px 0;
    }
}

</style>

<div class="mx_Parent">
    <a href="https://element.io" target="_blank" rel="noopener">
        <img src="welcome/images/logo.svg" alt="" class="mx_Logo"/>
    </a>
    <h1 class="mx_Header_title">_t("Welcome to Element")</h1>
    <!-- XXX: Our translations system isn't smart enough to recognize variables in the HTML, so we manually do it -->
    <h4 class="mx_Header_subtitle">_t("Decentralised, encrypted chat &amp; collaboration powered by $matrixLogo")</h4>
    <p>This is some demo text!</p>
    <div class="mx_ButtonGroup">
        <div class="mx_ButtonRow">
            <a href="#/login" class="mx_ButtonParent mx_ButtonSignIn mx_Button_iconSignIn">
                <div class="mx_ButtonLabel">_t("Sign In")</div>
            </a>
            <a href="#/register" class="mx_ButtonParent mx_ButtonCreateAccount mx_Button_iconCreateAccount">
                <div class="mx_ButtonLabel">_t("Create Account")</div>
            </a>
        </div>
        <!-- The comments below are meant to be used by Ansible as a quick way
            to strip out the marked content when desired.
            See https://github.com/element-hq/element-web/issues/8622.
            TODO: Strip out these comments and rely on the guest flag -->
        <!-- BEGIN Ansible: Remove these lines when guest access is disabled -->
        <div class="mx_ButtonRow mx_WelcomePage_guestFunctions">
            <div>
                <a href="#/directory" class="mx_ButtonParent mx_SecondaryButton mx_Button_iconRoomDirectory">
                    <div class="mx_ButtonLabel">_t("Explore rooms")</div>
                </a>
            </div>
        </div>
        <!-- END Ansible: Remove these lines when guest access is disabled -->
    </div>
</div>

    4. It looks like this in your web browser:

Serve the files

You must host the files somewhere where they are publickly accessible and you need to enable the CORS header Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * on the web server for these files. See https://enable-cors.org/ for instructions on how to do this.

Configure your EMS server

  1. Add the URLs to the Client look & feel section in the EMS Control Panel. Click Save.

    Unfortunately, we have a bug in the validator affecting files hosted on Matrix. Just ignore the error.

    • Note if you are hosting the files on your own web server, you only need to change your EMS server configuration or reprovision if the URLs have changed. Changes to the contents of existing files are applied automatically

  2. Once your host finishes reprovisioning, check your Element Web to ensure the changes are applied correctly.

    1. Welcome page image and Welcome page content

    2. Client logo

    3. Home page content

Image Credits

Element Matrix Services

EMS Server With Custom Domain

For this guide, I will be using the domain element.io. I will set up EMS so that the Matrix usernames becomes @someone:element.io, and the Element client will be at https://chat.element.io/

From the guide at Get Your Own EMS Server, I will be replacing the EMS hostname ems-demo-staging.ems.host with element.ems.host

Custom domains are only supported with Element Enterprise Cloud plans.

Prerequisites

See also

Setup

Some providers for DNS and website hosting providers need special configuration. See Provider specific instructions at the bottom for known solutions.

  1. Follow steps 1 - 10 from Get Your Own EMS Server

  2. On step 10 from Get Your Own EMS Server, turn ON Custom DNS

  3. In the Custom Homeserver domain field, enter element.io

  4. Create two files on your website according to the instructions given.
    The path cannot be changed, but up to 30 redirects are supported.
    While not required, you should add the header Content-Type application/json to both files.

    1. https://element.io/.well-known/matrix/server

      {
    "m.server": "element.ems.host:443"
}

    2. https://element.io/.well-known/matrix/client

      You need to enable the CORS header Access-Control-Allow-Origin: * on the web server for this file. See https://enable-cors.org/ for instructions on how to do this. If you are using redicrects, the CORS headers must be set on all steps/hops.

      {
    "m.homeserver": {
        "base_url": "https://element.ems.host"
    },
    "m.identity_server": {
        "base_url": "https://vector.im"
    },
    "org.matrix.msc3575.proxy": {
        "url": "https://element.ems.host"
    }
}
    Optional Nginx-specific configuration

    If your web server is running Nginx, you can set this in the Nginx config instead of creating actual files.

    server {
    server_name element.io

    ...

    # Matrix well-known files
    location /.well-known/matrix/client {
        return 200 '{"m.homeserver":{"base_url":"https://element.ems.host"},"m.identity_server":{"base_url":"https://vector.im"},"org.matrix.msc3575.proxy":{"url":"https://element.ems.host"}}';
        add_header Content-Type application/json;
        add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' '*';
    }
    location /.well-known/matrix/server {
        return 200 '{"m.server": "element.ems.host:443"}';
        add_header Content-Type application/json;
    }
}

  5. Click Check again to verify that your .well-known files are configured correctly

    You can also verify your `.well-known` files from the command line

    Note the lines access-control-allow-origin: * and content-type: application/json

    1. On Mac or Linux, using the terminal

      $ curl -i https://element.io/.well-known/matrix/client
HTTP/2 200 
date: Fri, 31 Jul 2020 09:11:21 GMT
content-type: application/json
content-length: 129
set-cookie: __cfduid=x...; expires=Sun, 30-Aug-20 09:11:21 GMT; path=/; domain=.element.io; HttpOnly; SameSite=Lax
access-control-allow-origin: *
cf-cache-status: DYNAMIC
cf-request-id: 0...
expect-ct: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://report-uri.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/beacon/expect-ct"
server: cloudflare
cf-ray: 5...

{
    "m.homeserver": {
        "base_url": "https://element.ems.host"
    },
    "m.identity_server": {
        "base_url": "https://vector.im"
    },
    "org.matrix.msc3575.proxy": {
        "url": "https://element.ems.host"
    }
}

$ curl -i https://element.io/.well-known/matrix/server
HTTP/2 200 
date: Fri, 31 Jul 2020 09:11:25 GMT
content-type: application/json
content-length: 52
set-cookie: __cfduid=x...; expires=Sun, 30-Aug-20 09:11:25 GMT; path=/; domain=.element.io; HttpOnly; SameSite=Lax
access-control-allow-origin: *
cf-cache-status: DYNAMIC
cf-request-id: 0...
expect-ct: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://report-uri.cloudflare.com/cdn-cgi/beacon/expect-ct"
server: cloudflare
cf-ray: 5...

{
    "m.server": "element.ems.host:443"
}

    2. On Windows, using PowerShell

      PS C:\Users\twilight> Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://element.io/.well-known/matrix/client


StatusCode        : 200
StatusDescription : OK
Content           : {
                        "m.homeserver": {
                            "base_url": "https://element.ems.host"
                        },
                        "m.identity_server": {
                            "base_url": "https://vector.im"
                        },
                        "org.matrix.msc3575.proxy": {
                            "url": "https://element.ems.host"
                        }
                    }
RawContent        : HTTP/1.1 200 OK
                    Connection: keep-alive
                    Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
                    CF-Cache-Status: DYNAMIC
                    cf-request-id: 0...
                    Expect-CT: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://repor...
Forms             : {}
Headers           : {[Connection, keep-alive], [Access-Control-Allow-Origin, *], [CF-Cache-Status, DYNAMIC], [cf-request-id, 0...]...}
Images            : {}
InputFields       : {}
Links             : {}
ParsedHtml        : System.__ComObject
RawContentLength  : 129


PS C:\Users\twilight> Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://element.io/.well-known/matrix/server


StatusCode        : 200
StatusDescription : OK
Content           : {
                        "m.server": "element.ems.host:443"
                    }
RawContent        : HTTP/1.1 200 OK
                    Connection: keep-alive
                    Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
                    CF-Cache-Status: DYNAMIC
                    cf-request-id: 0...
                    Expect-CT: max-age=604800, report-uri="https://repor...
Forms             : {}
Headers           : {[Connection, keep-alive], [Access-Control-Allow-Origin, *], [CF-Cache-Status, DYNAMIC], [cf-request-id, 0...]...}
Images            : {}
InputFields       : {}
Links             : {}
ParsedHtml        : System.__ComObject
RawContentLength  : 52

  6. You can continue without the .well-known files in place, but your server will have limited functionality until this is fixed

  7. In the Custom Client domain field, enter chat.element.io. This can be any domain, except the same as Custom Homeserver domain

  8. Create a CNAME DNS record with your DNS provider according to the instructions given
    chat.element.io. CNAME element.element.io.

  9. This shows how this is done with Cloudflare DNS. Depending on your DNS provider, this might be different. Consult the documentation for your provider. Note that Proxy must be turned off with Cloudflare.

  10. Back on EMS, click Check again. Note that sometimes it might take a while for your new DNS record to propagate. You can continue, but functionality will be limited. Check back with the Hosts tab on https://ems.element.io/user/hosting and click Rebuild Host once the DNS record is in place.

    You can also verify the CNAME DNS record using the command line

    1. On Mac or Linux, using the terminal

      $ dig chat.element.io CNAME

; <<>> DiG 9.10.6 <<>> chat.element.io CNAME
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 57888
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;chat.element.io.   IN CNAME

;; ANSWER SECTION:
chat.element.io. 299 IN CNAME element.element.io.

;; Query time: 32 msec
;; SERVER: 1.1.1.1#53(1.1.1.1)
;; WHEN: Fri Jul 31 10:21:56 BST 2020
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 91

    2. On Windows, using PowerShell

      PS C:\Users\twilight> Resolve-DnsName -Name chat.element.io -Type CNAME

Name                           Type   TTL   Section    NameHost
----                           ----   ---   -------    --------
chat.element.io                 CNAME  299   Answer     element.element.io

  11. Continue from step 11 on Get Your Own EMS Server

Provider-specific instructions

GitHub Pages

If you are hosting your website with GitHub Pages, add this to the Jekyll config file _config.yml

include:
  - .well-known

Microsoft Azure

If you are using Microsoft 365 / Azure to manage your domain or the rest of your infrastructure, please use the following instructions to host the .well-known/matrix URI (RFC 8615).

In this section, we will configure Azure to serve https://yourdomain.com/.well-known/matrix/client and https://yourdomain.com/.well-known/matrix/client.

The summary of steps is as follows:

Prepare client and server .well-known files locally

On your computer, prepare two plain text files called client and server (again, notice the lack of file extension such as ".txt") which contain the following:

client
{
    "m.homeserver": {
        "base_url": "https://your-tenant.ems.host"
    },
    "m.identity_server": {
        "base_url": "https://vector.im"
    },
    "org.matrix.msc3575.proxy": {
        "url": "https://your-tenant.ems.host"
    }
}

Remember to replace your-tenant by the name of your EMS tenant.

server
{
    "m.homeserver": {
        "base_url": "https://your-tenant.ems.host:443"
    }
}

Remember to replace your-tenant by the name of your EMS tenant.

You will be uploading these shortly.

Create a Storage account and Static website

Storage account

In the Azure Portal, create a Storage account.

Screenshot 2023-11-10 at 14-20-46 Microsoft Azure.png

The name needs to be unique to Azure. yourdomainwellknown is an option that should work well in most scenarios.

Performarce can be left to Standard.
Redundancy should be set to Geo-redundant storage (GRS) as the .well-known URI will be a core part of your EMS deployment.
You can leave all other options to their default or change them to fit your specific deployment scenario.

Finally, click create.

Static website

Once the Storage account is created, you will need to create a Static website in this Storage account.
In the Storage account overview, choose "Static website", in the Data management section.

Screenshot 2023-11-10 at 15-15-32 Microsoft Azure.png

You do not need to provide a specific Index document name or Error document path.

Enabling the Static website in your Storage account will automatically create a $web storage container to which you can upload the json text files which will be served at the .well-known URI.

Go to "Containers", in the "Data storage" section, to upload the client and server files you prepered earlier.

Click on the $web container, then chose "Upload", which will open a panel on the right.

When uploading the client and server files, make sure to open the "advanced" part of the upload panel and choose to upload to a specific folder: .well-known/matrix/

Azure: Storage account: upload .well-known/matrix/

Create a CDN, CNAME DNS entry for your custom domain and Custom domain name for the CDN endpoint

Creating a CDN is needed because Azure does not allow serving HTTPS over a custom domain using only a Storage account Static website. To do so, a CDN is necessary.

Create a CDN endpoint

Go back to your Storage account's main view and choose "Front Door and CDN" in the Security + Networking section, to create a CDN endpoint.

Azure: Storage account: CDN: endpoint

Service type: Azure CDN is sufficient, the more advanced features of Azure Front Door are not necessary here.

If you need to create a new profile, you may call the Profile name and Endpoint name as you wish.
For consistency, it is suggested to call them yourdomainwellknown as previously.

For Origin host name, pick your Static website.

For Query string caching behaviour, pick Ignore Query String, although this setting is not important in our context.

Once your endpoint is deployed, go to the resource, then go to your endpoint's further settings by clicking on it. Make note of its hostname (rfc8615demo.azureedge.net in our example) as you will need it shortly.

Azure: CDN: overview

Create CNAME DNS entry for your custom domain

You will now create a DNS entry for your custom domain, a CNAME pointing to your Azure CDN endpoint's hostname. How to do so exactly will depend on who hosts your DNS servers. The specifics of this are beyond this documentation, but the following general information should be sufficient.

In your DNS provider's admin panel, add a DNS entry with the following details:

Once created, this DNS entry may take some time to propagate, but in most cases will be picked up quickly by Azure, as needed in the next step.

Associate your custom domain with your CDN Endpoint

In the endpoint's settings, choose "+ custom domain" to start adding your custom domain. A panel will open on the right.

Enter your custom domain: yourdomain.com and finally, click add.

If the CNAME entry can be seen by Azure, after a few minutes your custom domain should be associated with your CDN Endpoint.

Final result

https://yourdomain.com/.well-known/matrix/client and https://yourdomain.com/.well-known/matrix/server are now served over HTTPS by Azure.

You should now have the following resources in your Azure account:

Resources

Element Matrix Services

How to Get an EMS Server

  1. Go to https://ems.element.io/

  2. Click Sign up or Sign in

  3. Enter your email address

  4. Click the confirmation link in the email

  5. Enter your name or company name and a password on https://ems.element.io/user/account. Then click Billing address and payment method

  6. Enter your billing address and credit card information on https://ems.element.io/user/billing

  7. Click Your Account, then Manage Servers to get started setting up your EMS server

  8. Click the Setup tab, and choose your Host Size

  9. Select your hostname and click Check. Keep in mind that this cannot be changed later

  10. Configure your host settings, then click Next. If you want to use Custom DNS (ie. have your usernames be @someone:yourdomain.com instead of @someone:yourhost.ems.host and have your Element client on your own domain), see EMS Server With Custom Domain

  11. Confirm your payment options. Then click Purchase

  12. Sit tight for a few minutes while your server is being built

  13. When it's done, click Manage hosts to configure additional settings and add users

Element Matrix Services

Migrate From EMS to Self-Hosted

For support on Synapse or matrix-media-repo, ask in the Matrix rooms #synapse:matrix.org and #mediarepo:t2bot.io. For support on bridges, see the bridge documentation for each bridge's support channel.

See also this excellent blog post by Josh Simmons at The Matrix.org Foundation.

Important

Export data

  1. Go to https://ems.element.io/user/hosting#/exports
  2. Select the server you want to export from in the drop-down box, then click Create export
  3. Wait for the export of your config, database, and media to complete
  4. Once all exports have completed, download all files provided

Import process

For all components, you must install the same version as your EMS server is running. Version information is provided in the hostname-config.md file. If a newer version is available, once the import is completed and verified, follow the official upgrade documentation for each component to upgrade.

All required configuration values are provided in the hostname-config.md file.

  1. Following official documentation, install and configure
    1. PostgreSQL. Refer to the Synapse PostgreSQL documentation for database setup
    2. Synapse
    3. Optional (see media step below): matrix-media-repo
  2. When generating your Synapse configuration file, you MUST use the same domain as your EMS server
  3. Do not start Synapse yet
  4. In the Synapse config file (usually homeserver.yaml), set:
    1. pepper. If you do not do this, you have to reset all passwords
    2. Signing key. This is stored in a file. See this config file option for path. Alternatively, add the public key for your EMS hosted server to old_signing_keys. If your EMS server is still running, you can find your public signing key at https://yourHostname.ems.host/_matrix/key/v2/server
    3. macaroon_secret_key
  5. Import the Synapse database
    1. Create a new database per the Synapse PostgreSQL documentation
    2. Or, if your Synapse database is not empty, empty it
      WARNING - THIS WILL IMMEDIATELY AND IRRECOVERABLY DELETE DATA, PLEASE TAKE CARE. WE ACCEPT NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU DELETE THE WRONG DATABASE OR DATA
      Connect to the database with psql, then run the following queries: 
      DO $$ DECLARE
r RECORD;
BEGIN
    FOR r IN (SELECT tablename FROM pg_tables WHERE schemaname = current_schema()) LOOP
        EXECUTE 'DROP TABLE ' || quote_ident(r.tablename) || ' CASCADE';
    END LOOP;
END $$;

DROP sequence cache_invalidation_stream_seq;
DROP sequence state_group_id_seq;
DROP sequence user_id_seq;
      Disconnect from the database
    3. Extract the database dump 
      unzip emsHostname-synapse-database.zip
    4. Import the database dump 
      pg_restore \
    --username USERNAME \
    --host HOSTNAME \
    --dbname DATABASE_NAME \
    --no-owner \
    /path/to/id-emsHostname-synapse-database.dir/
    5. Verify that sequence was set correctly. Connect to the database and run the query 
      SELECT * FROM state_group_id_seq;
      last_value should be greater than 1
  6. Import media into matrix-media-repo according to documentation here or import media into Synapses built-in media repository using the import_to_synapse executable available from the latest matrix-media-repo release
  7. Start Synapse and ensure everything is working as expected
  8. Optionally, install Element Web or use another Matrix client
  9. Optionally, install the sliding-sync proxy. This is required for Element X
    • Note, we do not provide an export of the Sliding Sync database as this would not provide any value. As you need to log out and back in from Element X after the migration and in doing so your Sliding Sync proxy needs to re-sync each user. All your data is already included in the Synapse database
  10. If you have any bridges, please see the documentation for each bridge
    Discord | Hookshot | IRC | Signal | Slack | Telegram | Whatsapp
    • The process for importing the bridge databases is the same as with Synapse
  11. Cancel your EMS server. See this FAQ document for instructions. Note, this cannot be undone and all your data will be lost. Ensure your imported server is working as expected before doing this
Element Matrix Services

Migrate From Self-Hosted to EMS

Notes

Before starting with this guide, please contact EMS support from https://ems.element.io/support or by emailing ems-support@element.io

Preparation

This section outlines what you should do ahead of the migration in order to ensure the migration goes as quickly as possible and without issues.

SSH to your matrix server

You might want to run everything in a tmux or a screen session to avoid disruption in case of a lost SSH connection.

Generate password for gpg encryption

pwgen -s 64 1

Alternatively, you can use our GPG key. Note, this expires on 2023-04-28, if this is soon, please talk to your EMS contact.
ems-support-public.pgp

GPG

If gpg is being uncooperative, use the command gpgconf --kill gpg-agent.

Create a folder to store everything

mkdir -p /tmp/synapse_export
cd /tmp/synapse_export

The guide from here on assumes your current working directory is /tmp/synapse_export.

Set restrictive permissions on the folder

If you are working as root: (otherwise set restrictive permissions as needed):

chmod 000 /tmp/synapse_export

Copy Synapse config

Copy the following files and send to EMS Support:

Stop Synapse

DO NOT START IT AGAIN AFTER THIS
Doing so can cause issues with federation and inconsistent data for your users.

While you wait for the database to export or files to transfer, you should edit or create the well-known files and DNS records to point to your EMS host. This can take a while to update so should be done as soon as possible in order to ensure your server will function properly when the migration is complete.

Database export

PostgreSQL

Dump, compress and encrypt

Replace:

pg_dump -O -h <dbhost> -U <dbusername> -d <dbname> | gzip > customer_db_export.sql.gz
gpg --symmetric --no-symkey-cache customer_db_export.sql.gz
rm customer_db_export.sql.gz

If required, split into smaller files

Please only do this if you have a slow connection and are worried about transferring a single large file.

split -b 100m customer_db_export.sql.gz.gpg customer_db_export.sql.gz.gpg.part-
rm customer_db_export.sql.gz.gpg

SQLIte

Compress and encrypt

tar -zcvf homeserver.db.tar.gz /path/to/homeserver.db
gpg --symmetric --no-symkey-cache homeserver.db.tar.gz
rm homeserver.db.tar.gz

If required, split into smaller files

Please only do this if you have a slow connection and are worried about transferring a single large file.

split -b 100m homeserver.db.tar.gz homeserver.db.tar.gz.part-
rm homeserver.db.tar.gz

Media export

If you are using SQLIte as database

Skip ahead to and follow Backup media export.

Download the export tool

Download the latest version of export_synapse_for_import-linux-x64 (or export_synapse_for_import-win-x64.exe) from https://github.com/turt2live/matrix-media-repo/releases

wget https://github.com/turt2live/matrix-media-repo/releases/download/vx.x.x/export_synapse_for_import-linux-x64
chmod +x export_synapse_for_import-linux-x64

Run the export

Replace:

./export_synapse_for_import-linux-x64 -h
./export_synapse_for_import-linux-x64 -dbHost <dbhost> -dbPort 5432 -dbName <dbname> -dbUsername <dbusername> -mediaDirectory /path/to/synapse/media_store -serverName <yourdomain.tld> -destination ./customer_media_export
mv logs customer_media_export
mv media-repo.yaml customer_media_export
rm export_synapse_for_import-linux-x64

Compress and encrypt

tar -zcvf customer_media_export.tar.gz customer_media_export
gpg --symmetric --no-symkey-cache customer_media_export.tar.gz
rm customer_media_export.tar.gz
rm -r customer_media_export

If required, split into smaller files

Please only do this if you have a slow connection and are worried about transferring a single large file.

split -b 100m customer_media_export.tar.gz.gpg customer_media_export.tar.gz.gpg.part-
rm customer_media_export.tar.gz.gpg

Backup media export

Compress and encrypt

Replace * /path/to/synapse/media_store (the path to where synapse stores your media)

tar -zcvf customer_backup_media_export.tar.gz /path/to/synapse/media_store
gpg --symmetric --no-symkey-cache customer_backup_media_export.tar.gz
rm customer_backup_media_export.tar.gz

If required, split into smaller files

Please only do this if you have a slow connection and are worried about transferring a single large file.

split -b 100m customer_backup_media_export.tar.gz.gpg customer_backup_media_export.tar.gz.gpg.part-
rm customer_backup_media_export.tar.gz.gpg

Transfer

Download the files, then upload to the Google Drive folder shared by EMS or a location as agreed with your EMS contact.

On your local computer:

scp -r -P 1234 -i ~/.ssh/matrix-server youruser@1.2.3.4:/tmp/synapse_export /some/local/folder

Cleanup

We strongly recommend that you leave the export and Synapse untouched until the import is finished and everything is verified working.

Note on users and Element

Element does have support for changing the delegated homeserver URL. All your users will have to sign out and sign in again to Element. You should ensure everyone has Key Backup configured and working.

Your users will not be able to decrypt messages send in their encrypted rooms while your server is offline for the migration.

Force logout of old sessions after migration

If you do not log out all sessions for your users before the migration, you can force this later. Below is a sample config file for nginx that tells all clients trying to connect to it to sign out.

Note that the headers are important, otherwise this will not work one one or more of the Element clients. Valid HTTPS is required.

This is not tested on any other Matrix clients, but it should work in theory if the client follows the Matrix Spec.

server {
    listen [::]:443 ssl http2;
    listen 443 ssl http2;

    server_name old.delegated.url.com;

    location / {
        if ($request_method = 'OPTIONS') {
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' '*';
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Methods' 'GET, POST, OPTIONS';
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers' 'authorization,DNT,User-Agent,X-Requested-With,If-Modified-Since,Cache-Control,Content-Type,Range';
            add_header 'Access-Control-Max-Age' 1728000;
            add_header 'Content-Type' 'text/plain; charset=utf-8';
            add_header 'Content-Length' 0;
            return 204;
        }
        if ($request_method = 'POST') {
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' '*' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Methods' 'GET, POST, OPTIONS' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers' 'authorization,DNT,User-Agent,X-Requested-With,If-Modified-Since,Cache-Control,Content-Type,Range' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Expose-Headers' 'Content-Length,Content-Range' always;
        }
        if ($request_method = 'GET') {
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Origin' '*' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Methods' 'GET, POST, OPTIONS' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Allow-Headers' 'authorization,DNT,User-Agent,X-Requested-With,If-Modified-Since,Cache-Control,Content-Type,Range' always;
            add_header 'Access-Control-Expose-Headers' 'Content-Length,Content-Range' always;
        }

        default_type application/json;
        return 401 '{"errcode":"M_UNKNOWN_TOKEN","error":"Server moved, please log in again."}';
    }

    ssl_session_timeout 1d;
    ssl_session_cache shared:MozSSL:10m;  # about 40000 sessions
    ssl_session_tickets off;
    ssl_protocols TLSv1.3;
    ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
    add_header Strict-Transport-Security "max-age=63072000" always;
    ssl_stapling on;
    ssl_stapling_verify on;

    error_log /var/log/nginx/old.delegated.url.com.error.log;
    access_log /var/log/nginx/old.delegated.url.com.access.log;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/old.delegated.url.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/old.delegated.url.com/privkey.pem;
}

# Redirect HTTP to HTTPS
server {
    listen 80;
    listen [::]:80;

    server_name old.delegated.url.com;

    if ($host = old.delegated.url.com) {
        return 301 https://$host$request_uri;
    }

    return 404;
}
Element Matrix Services

Reset User Password

Resetting an account password will log out all sessions. Before doing this, make sure that


  1. Click Your Account and Manage Servers or click this link https://ems.element.io/user/hosting.

  2. Click Server Admin, select your host, then Users

  3. Click the user you want to manage

  4. Click Reset password, enter a new password and click Go

Element Matrix Services

Token based registration

Create a new registration token using the Synapse Admin API. Give this to your users.

The registration flow looks like this:

  1. Enter username, password and email as normal. Click Register

  2. Enter the registration token and click Continue

  3. Continue registration like normal

Authentication

Authentication

LDAP Active Directory

This guide assumes you already have a forest/domain configured and that your environment is properly secured.

This is a basic configuration. You may want to set additional options or permissions in your forest/domain.

See also Delegated Authentication for single sign-on (SSO) integration.

Setup

To enable authentication with LDAP and Active Directory, the following needs to be done:

Configure Your EMS Server

Bind URI: ldaps://ldap.example.com:636
Base: OU=matrix,DC=example,DC=com
Bind DN: CN=emsadmin,CN=Users,DC=example,DD=com
Bind Password: supersecret
UID: SamAccountName
Display Name: See below
Email: mail

Import-Module ActiveDirectory
Get-ADUser test_user -Properties *
Authentication

OpenID Connect

Your homeserver can be configured to authenticate its users with an OpenID Connect provider. Here we list the most popular providers and how to configure them.

See also Delegated Authentication for single sign-on (SSO) integration .

Authentik

In the Element Matrix Services configuration form

Gitea

In the Element Matrix Services configuration form

GitHub

For detailed information, read GitHub's guide on OpenID .

  1. Create a new application on GitHub.com .
  2. Choose a name for you and your users to recognize.
  3. Choose a homepage URL. You can pick any URL. If your company maintains a guide on how to use Matrix, this would be most helpful.
  4. The Authorization callback URL needs to be https://my-host.ems.host. Adapt the URL to match your homeserver's address. You must use your .ems.host domain, even if your server uses Custom DNS.
  5. Save and note the client ID and client secret. Those are needed when adding the OpenID Connect integration in our interface.

In the Element Matrix Services configuration form

Use the preset GitHub for a simplified form or use Custom with the following values:

GitLab

For detailed information, read GitLab's guide on OpenID .

  1. Create a new application on GitLab.com.
  2. Choose a name for you and your users to recognize.
  3. Choose a homepage URL. You can pick any URL. If your company maintains a guide on how to use Matrix, this would be most helpful.
  4. The Redirect URL needs to be https://my-host.ems.host/_synapse/client/oidc/callback. Adapt the URL to match your homeserver's address. You must use your .ems.host domain, even if your server uses Custom DNS.
  5. Check the scopes read_user, openid and profile.
  6. Save and note the client ID and client secret. Those are needed when adding the OpenID Connect integration in our interface.

To connect your own GitLab instance, simply adapt the URL path.

In the Element Matrix Services configuration form

Google

For detailed information, read Google's guide on OpenID .

  1. Create a new application on Google .
  2. Click Create credentials and OAuth client ID.
  3. Select the application type Web application.
  4. Choose a name for you and your users to recognize.
  5. Add an authorized redirect URI with your homeserver URL, like https://my-host.ems.host/_synapse/client/oidc/callback. You must use your .ems.host domain, even if your server uses Custom DNS.
  6. Save and note the client ID and client secret. Those are needed when adding the OpenID Connect integration in our interface.

In the Element Matrix Services configuration form

Use the preset Google for a simplified form or use Custom with the following values:

If you want shorter usernames and are not worried about username collisions within your domain, please consider using SAML2 to authenticate with Google.

Okta

For detailed information, read Okta's guide onOpenID .

  1. Create a new App. Sign-in method OIDC - OpenID Connect and Application type Web Application.
  2. Choose a name for you and your users to recognize.
  3. Sign-in redirect URIs: https://my-host.ems.host/_synapse/client/oidc/callback. Adapt the URL to match your homeserver's address. You must use your .ems.host domain, even if your server uses Custom DNS.
  4. Sign-out redirect URIs: https://my-host.ems.host/_synapse/client/oidc/backchannel_logout. Adapt the URL to match your homeserver's address. You must use your .ems.host domain, even if your server uses Custom DNS.

In the Element Matrix Services configuration form

Username attributes

This refers to the user's localpart in their Matrix ID (@localpart:example.com). The data provided in a minimally configured Okta user is not ideal for integration with EMS. Below are some possible configuration suggestions. All examples below use the Matrix server domain example.com.

Available values for username and display name are email (you must include email in Scopes), phone_number (you must include phone in Scopes), address, name, family_name, given_name, middle_name, nickname, preferred_username, profile, picture, website, gender, birthdate, zoneinfo,locale, and updated_at. (List updated June 8, 2023. See this document for updated information. Available options are listed in the table under "Scopes" and after the "profile" bullet under "Scope values").

Make sure all users that will be using your EMS server have the selected attributes set.

Option 1: Username attribute email. This will use the user's entire email address as their localpart. Including the domain. It will also be encoded to be compatible with Matrix. For example, email jane@example.com will become jane=40example.com:example.com. To use the email, you must also include email in Scopes.

Option 1b: We can add some logic to your OIDC config to exclude the email domain. Contact support for further details.

Option 2: Username attributes: name. This will use the user's full name from Okta. Note that spaces (and other special characters) are not supported in Matrix localparts. For example, spaces will be encoded as =20. (I.e., Jane Doe becomes @jane=20doe:example.com.

Option 2b: We can add some logic to replace spaces with for example underscore. Contact us for details.

Option 3: By default, usernames in Okta must be an email. But, if you have changed this behavior, you can set Username attributes to preferred_username to use the username.

Note, the attribute you choose for localparts does not have to be unique. But if you, for example, set Username attributes to given_name, the first Jane who sign in to your EMS server will become @jane:example.com and the second Jane becomes @jane1:example.com.

Please contact EMS Support at https://ems.element.io/support to discuss your options.

Integrations

Integrations

Admin Bot

Matrix brings lots of possibilities for collaboration through federation of different homeservers. This calls for moderation tools which consider the decentral power levels of Matrix rooms.

Admin Bot is only available on homeservers with the Element Enterprise Cloud plan.

Admin Bot is a service account which works in addition to the EMS Server Admin UI and Synapse Admin API.

Most administrative tasks in a Matrix room require a local account with the power level "Administrator" (100) to be a room member.

The Admin Bot extension ensures this by inviting and promoting the account adminbot in every Matrix room created on your server. This way you can moderate content in these rooms, invite and promote room members and kick or ban unwanted members.

Use case examples

Good to know

See also

AdminBot for global room administration.

Setup

  1. Go to the Integrations tab on the EMS homeserver page.
  2. If you have more than one homesever, select the homeserver to add Admin Bot to.
  3. In the section Extensions, click on Admin Bot. If this is not visible, check that the homeserver is using the Element Enterprise Cloud plan.
  4. Click on Set Up Integration and confirm the pricing in a modal.

Usage

Admin Bot improves your ability to use the Server Admin tab on the EMS homeserver page and Synapse Admin API by having a local admin in every room.

Furthermore, you can use Element Web to log into the adminbot account:

  1. Go to the Integrations tab on the EMS homeserver page.

  2. If you have more than one homeserver, select the one you want to administrate.

  3. In the section Extensions, click on Admin Bot. If this is not visible, check that the homeserver is using the Element Enterprise Cloud plan.

  4. If this is the first time you log in using this browser, click Secure Backup Phrase (click to view) and copy the phrase to your clipboard.

  5. Click on Log in as Admin bot. You will need to enter the Secure Backup Phrase on first login with a new browser in order to access Secure Storage and encrypted messages.

Removal

Removing the integration will not cause the user adminbot to leave rooms. This is a separate step to make mistakes easier to recover from. If the integration was accidentally deactivated and Admin Bot left rooms as the last local Administrator in that room, such rooms can no longer be moderated by anyone and need to be abandoned. Those room also couldn't be rejoined by Admin Bot.

You can deactivate the adminbot account using the EMS Admin GUI or Synapse Admin API, if you want it to leave all rooms.

Integrations

Audit Bot

Audit Bot is for compliance with the law or your organization's guidelines. This service account allows you to read every conversation on your server, including encrypted conversations.

Audit Bot is only available on homeservers with the Element Enterprise Cloud plan.

Use case examples

Good to know

See also

AuditBot for regulation and compliance.

Setup

  1. Go to the Integrations tab on the EMS homeserver page.
  2. If you have more than one homesever, select the homeserver to add Audit Bot to.
  3. In the section Extensions, click on Audit Bot. If this is not visible, check that the homeserver is using the Element Enterprise Cloud plan.
  4. Click on Set Up Integration and confirm the pricing in a modal.

Optional export

Audit Bot can be configured to write all decrypted events in all rooms to an S3-compatible storage of your choice. This is a continous export which will start with the configuration of a bucket and stop if you clear the configuration. Messages from the past are not exported retrospectively.

Usage

You can use Element Web to log into the auditbot account:

  1. Go to the Integrations tab on the EMS homeserver page.

  2. If you have more than one homeserver, select the one you want to administrate.

  3. In the section Extensions, click on Audit Bot. If this is not visible, check that the homeserver is using the Element Enterprise Cloud plan.

  4. If this is the first time you log in using this browser, click Secure Backup Phrase (click to view) and copy the phrase to your clipboard.

  5. Click on Log in as Audit bot. You will need to enter the Secure Backup Phrase on first login with a new browser in order to access Secure Storage and encrypted messages.

Removal

Removing the integration will not cause the user auditbot to leave rooms. This is a separate step to make mistakes easier to recover from. If the integration was accidentally deactivated and Audit Bot left rooms as the last local Administrator in that room, such rooms can no longer be moderated by anyone and need to be abandoned. Those room also couldn't be rejoined by Audit Bot.

You can deactivate the auditbot account using the EMS Admin GUI or Synapse Admin API, if you want it to leave all rooms.

Integrations

Create a Conference Call in a Room

Setting up

  1. Create a room

  2. Click Room Info, then Add apps, bridges & bots

  3. Read and accept the Terms of Service for the Integration Manager

  4. Select Jitsi from the list of available widgets

  5. Save the URL if you wish, this is also easily available later. Then click Save

  6. Click the X to close the integration manager

  7. To join the room conference, expand the Jitsi section at the top. Then click Join Conference

  8. Allow camera and microphone access. Note this might be different depending on your browser and operating system

  9. You are now in the conference

Inviting external participants

  1. Click the info button in the bottom right corner

  2. Click Copy

  3. Send the link to the external participant. They can just copy and paste it to their browser to join

Screen sharing

  1. Click the screen sharing in the bottom left corner

  2. Give permissions when asked

    • In macOS
      you need to grant the Screen Recording Privacy permission, and
      screen sharing does not work with the Element Desktop app

  3. Select the application or screen you want to share, then click Allow. Note this might be different depending on your browser and operating system

  4. Everyone can now see your screen

Integrations

Discord Bridge

The Discord bridge is no longer available for purchase. This documentation is for existing customers of the bridge only.

Setup

First, you need to register a Discord application for your bridge. Discord applications can be registered and managed in the Discord Developer Portal.

  1. Click on the New Application button in the upper right corner.
  2. Give it a name (visible when authorizing the bridge), read Discord's Terms and click Create.
  3. Note the Client ID. It's required for the bridge.
  4. Navigate to the Bot tab. The navigation can be found on the left.
  5. Click Add Bot. You may also need to click Yes, do it! to confirm your action.
  6. Note the Bot Token. It's required for the bridge.

Authorize your account

Before authorizing your Discord App, you first need to grant your account the following rights:

  1. Manage Webhooks
  2. Manage Server

Screenshot 2022-10-17 at 07.45.19.png

Connect Discord server(s)

You need to authorize your Discord App to each Discord server you wish to bridge. Give the following URL to a Discord server admin, if you aren't the Discord server admin.

The authorization URL is https://discordapp.com/api/oauth2/authorize?client_id=YOUR_CLIENT_ID&scope=bot&permissions=607250432. Replace YOUR_CLIENT_ID with your Client ID mentioned above.

Usage

Bridge a room

  1. In a web browser, navigate to the Discord room you wish to bridge. The URL includes the server ID (also called guild ID) and the channel ID. The URL format is https://discord.com/channels/GUILD_ID/CHANNEL_ID.
  2. In a Matrix room you want to bridge, invite @discord:example.ems.host (replace the domain with the one of your homeserver).
  3. Post the message !discord bridge GUILD_ID CHANNEL_ID after replacing the two placeholders.
  4. A privileged Discord user will need to approve the bridge request by responding with !matrix approve
  5. Messages from Discord are now bridged to Matrix and vice versa.

Unbridge

To unbridge a room post !discord unbridge in the Matrix room.

Private Chats

Currently, private chats are not supported by the EMS Discord bridge.

Integrations

Hookshot

Dedicated Hookshot instances are available for EMS Enterprise customers. To request Hookshot added to your server, please talk to your Account Manager.

This guide only covers EMS-specific settings. You must review the Hookshot documentation available at https://matrix-org.github.io/matrix-hookshot/latest/hookshot.html.

This guide uses my demo server with the EMS hostname and server domain snowleopard-staging.ems.host. You must use your .ems.host domain for all fields, even if your server uses Custom DNS. Replace snowleopard-staging with your hostname.

GitHub

Use the following settings for your GitHub app:

Send the following information to your Element contact:

Integrations

Migrate to the new GitHub and Feeds bots

New versions of the GitHub and RSS bots provided by Element are now available!

The previous bots are now considered deprecated and can no longer be configured. These bots have user IDs like @_neb_rssbot_...:matrix.org or @_neb_github_...:matrix.org and will be decommissioned on April 30, 2023.

Who is this for?

These instructions are for anybody who previously set up a GitHub or RSS bot using the integration manager provided by Element.

How to migrate

You may migrate your bots using Element Web or Desktop.

  1. Open the Room info side panel and press Add/Edit widgets, bridges & bots.

  2. Select the bot you are migrating (Feeds or GitHub).

  3. Press Add to add the new bot to the room.

  4. Set up the new bot. Any configurations added previously will be shown under Migrate connections.

    • When migrating GitHub, it may be necesssary to log in again.

  5. Kick the deprecated bot.

If you don't want to migrate

If you don't want to migrate your bots, you can just kick the GitHub or RSS Bot user from the room.

If you don't do anything

If you don't take any action, the deprecated bots will remain functional for the time being, but can no longer be configured. These bots will stop functioning fully after the date mentioned above.

If you have issues

Issues can be reported to element-hq/element-integration-manager.

Some bots won't be available anymore

The following bots will also be deprecated, but unfortunately do not have a new version available:

Integrations

Public IRC Bridges

Matrix.org (and others) host a number of IRC bridges for public networks.

A list of these networks can be found on the offical documentation.

Please note that matrix.org does not operate all of the networks listed, and is not responsible for content sent over the bridges.

Integrations

Public Slack Bridge

Matrix.org provides a public free Slack bridge, which is free to use forever but comes with some limitations:

This guide explains how to use the free Slack bridge from the Matrix.org Integration Manager to integrate your Matrix room with a Slack room.

Setup

  1. Create a new room in Matrix, with encryption off

  2. Click Room Info in the top right corner of the room

  3. Click Add widgets, bridges & bots

  4. Choose Slack from the list of available bridges and integrations

  5. Click Add Bridge
    NOTE if you have purchased your Slack bridge from EMS: Ensure it says Slack integration on <your ems domain> here.

  6. Click Add to Slack

  7. Enter your Slack workspace URL, and click Continue

  8. Enter your Slack email address and password, then click Sign in

  9. Click Allow

  10. Close the Slack tab and return to Element

  11. Click List channels

  12. Click the Slack channel you want to bridge to the Matrix room

  13. Slack is now added to the Matrix room

  14. Go to the channel you selected on Slack, click the below the message box, enter invite, and select Add apps to this channel

  15. Add the Element Bridge

  16. The Matrix room and Slack channel are now bridged

Integrations

Signal Bridge

This guide explains how to use the Signal bridge from the EMS Integration Manager to integrate your Signal chats with your EMS server.

It requires your EMS server to have federation on.

The following instructions are done with the Element Desktop on the Element side and on Element iOS for the Signal side. Element Android should be almost identical to Element Web.

Purchase the Signal integration

  1. Open the EMS control panel at: https://ems.element.io/user/hosting
    Click the Integrations tab and if you have more than one server, select the server you wish to add the Signal integration to.

  2. Click on Signal Bridge in the list of available Bridges.

  3. Enter the maximum number of users in Maximum Signal users.
    Please note: this is the maximum number of Signal users who actually send messages over the bridge each month. You are only billed for the number of Signal users who are active. Once you exceed the maximum, then the bridge will be disabled until you increase the maximum.
    If you enter less than 5, you will get a warning.

    If you enter 5 or greater in Maximum Signal users, you will not see a warning.

    Once you have entered Maximum Signal users, click Purchase (remember you can always go back to this step and increase the maximum number of Signal users if you need more in the future).

  4. A dialogue will remind you of the price per user and ask if you wish to proceed. Click Purchase if you wish to proceed with the Signal Integration.

  5. You will have to wait a few minutes while your host is reprovisioned with the Signal bridge. Once reprovisioning is finished, you are able to bridge Signal to your EMS server using your Element client.

Bridge Signal to your Element account

  1. Once the bridge is running, open your Element app. Click on the + next to People.

  2. Create a Direct Message conversation by typing @signalbot:example.ems.host (replace the domain with the one of your homeserver). Then click Go.
    element-dm.png

  3. The bridge account will join your room and tell you how to use it.

  4. Open Signal on your mobile device (iOS or Android) and tap on your avatar to go to Settings and then Linked Devices and then + to start the Signal QR code scanner. You will use this QR code scanner to scan a QR code displayed by your Element client in the next step.

  5. From your Element client, send a login message to the bot to connect to your Signal account.

  6. A QR code will be displayed. Quickly scan the QR code with Signal on your mobile device. You have about a minute before it times out. If it times out, just send the login message again to generate another QR code.

  7. On your Element client, you will see Successfully logged in as <your_phone_number> (UUID: <your_signal_id>). Once a new message arrives in one of your Signal chats, you will see an invitation for it in your Element client. Each Signal chat is a separate Matrix room. Join one or more chats and start chatting from either your Element app on desktop, iOS or Android or your Signal on mobile.

Sending a message to a Signal User

To send a message to a Signal user, you must first be connected to the bridge (see above). This currently works only for Signal users that the bridge has seen activity from.

  1. On your Element client, open your DM with the Signal bridge bot.
  2. Say pm followed by the phone number for your contact.
  3. You will be invited to a DM with that user, and can send messages to them.

Why do Signal user names show up as phone numbers?

Some signal users may appear as a phone number rather than their real name. This can because of one of the following reasons:

  1. The user has not spoken to you on Signal yet, and so has not sent their profile information.
  2. The user has not added you as a contact on their phone.
  3. The Signal bridge has not yet synchronized the profile information of the user from Signal (this should happen fairly soon after your first interaction).

EMS does not support the bridge as a primary device

The EMS Signal Bridge is implemented as a secondary device bridge in order to prevent Signal from ratelimiting the bridge. This means that you still need Signal installed on your iOS or Android device in order to use the bridge.

Integrations

Slack Bridge

The Slack bridge is no longer available for purchase. This documentation is for existing customers of the bridge only.

The EMS Slack bridge is a paid integration for EMS homeservers. In addition to the features provided by the matrix.org bridge, it:

Purchase the Slack integration

  1. Open the EMS control panel at: https://ems.element.io/user/hosting

  2. Click the Integrations tab and if you have more than one server, select the server you wish to add the Slack integration to

  3. Click on Slack Bridge in the list of available Bridges

  4. Enter the maximum number of users in Maximum Slack users.
    Please note: this is the maximum number of Slack users who actually send messages over the bridge each month. You are only billed for the number of Slack users who are active. Once you exceed the maximum, then the bridge will be disabled until you increase the maximum.

Once you have entered Maximum Slack users, click Purchase (remember you can always go back to this step and increase the maximum number of Slack users if you need more in the future).

  1. A dialogue will remind you of the price per user and ask if you wish to proceed. Click Purchase if you wish to proceed with the Slack Integration

  2. You will have to wait a few minutes while your host is reprovisioned. Once reprovisioning is finished, you are able to bridge Slack to your EMS server using your Element client.

Setup

The setup process for the EMS Slack bridge is the same as the public Slack bridge hosted by matrix.org, explained here

Initiate a DM with a Slack user from Matrix

Integrations

Teams Bridge

The Teams bridge is no longer available for purchase. This documentation is for existing customers of the bridge only.

Introduction

This guide explains how to set up a Teams bridge with your Element host. You will need to be an administrator of your Teams group to set the bridge up. Connecting to a Teams workspace that you do not control is currently not supported.

Setup

The setup process requires fetching a few details from your Teams workspace.

  1. In the Teams app, not the admin page. Click the three dots next to your Teams, then Get link to team
  2. Click Copy
  3. Paste this link into the Teams Link field on the Teams Bridge setup form on https://ems.element.io/user/hosting#/integrations
  4. Click Link Teams to Element
  5. Follow the Microsoft flow and allow access

Bot Username and Password

The bridge requires a Teams user to be registered as a bot to send messages on behalf of Matrix users. You just need to allocate one user from the Teams interface to do this.

  1. First, you must go to the Azure Active Directory page.
  2. Click users.
  3. Click New user.
  4. Ensure Create user is selected.
    • Enter a User name ex. matrixbridge.
    • Enter a Name ex. Matrix Bridge.
    • Enter an Initial password.
    • Create the user.
    • Optionally, set more profile details like an avatar.
  5. You will now need to log in as this new bot user to set a permanent password (Teams requires you to reset the password on login).
  6. After logging in you should be prompted to set a new password.
  7. Enter the bot username and password into the integration form.

Welcome room

Users can be automatically prompted to link their Teams account to their Element account when they join a room bridged to a Teams channel (for instance, public rooms in the room directory). Ticking the Send a welcome message to new users of the bridge checkbox will make the bridge bot user start a DM with any new joining Element users and let them know how to get connected. If you wish to disable this behavior, leave this box unchecked.

Max Teams users

The bridge is billed based upon the number of participating Teams-side users, so you should set the maximum number of users you'd expect to see using the bridge to ensure your costs meet expectations. If the number of active Teams users exceeds this value, the bridge will be blocked, until you increase the limit. Whatever you set the limit to, you will only be charged for the number of remote users actively using the bridge.

Bot Commands

In a chat with the "Teams Bridge" bot, users can manually connect their Teams account with their EMS account by sending the login command to the bridge bot. The bot will reply with a link that users can use to login

You must authenticate with MS Teams to continue: <login.microsoftonline.com link>

After succesfully login in you should get a message like:

You are now authenticated as **Teams User**

To add a bridged Microsoft Teams team as a space in Element, this can be accomplished by sending the joinspace command. This should add a new space to the sidebar of you Element client with the same name as the teams that you had previously setup with the Bridge, with individual channels showing up as rooms within the new space.

Other commands and option are availble via sending help to the bot. The current help text is show below:

Known limitations

Integrations

Telegram Bridge

This guide explains how to use the Telegram bridge from the EMS Integration Manager to integrate your Telegram chats with your EMS server.

It requires your EMS server to have federation on.

The following instructions are done with the Element Desktop on the Element side and on Element iOS for the Telegram side. Element Android should be almost identical to Element Web.

Purchase the Telegram integration

  1. Open the EMS control panel at: https://ems.element.io/user/hosting

  2. Click the Integrations tab and if you have more than one server, select the server you wish to add the Telegram integration to.

  3. Click on Telegram Bridge in the list of available Bridges.

  4. Enter the maximum number of users in Maximum Telegram users.
    Please note: this is the maximum number of Telegram users who actually send messages over the bridge each month. You are only billed for the number of Telegram users who are active. Once you exceed the maximum, then the bridge will be disabled until you increase the maximum.

  5. If you wish to allow Matrix users who aren't logged in to Telegram to participate in bridged Telegram chats, follow the steps in this section.

Once you have entered Maximum Telegram users, click Purchase (remember you can always go back to this step and increase the maximum number of Telegram users if you need more in the future).

  1. A dialogue will remind you of the price per user and ask if you wish to proceed. Click Purchase if you wish to proceed with the Telegram Integration.

  2. You will have to wait a few minutes while your host is reprovisioned. Once reprovisioning is finished, you are able to bridge Telegram to your EMS server using your Element client.

Bridge Telegram to your Element account

  1. Once the bridge is running, open your Element app. Click on the + next to People.

  2. Create a Direct Message conversation by typing @telegram:example.ems.host (replace the domain with the one of your homeserver). Then click Go.

  3. Wait for the bridge account to join your room.

  4. Open Telegram on your mobile device (iOS or Android) and tap on ≡, go to Settings, and then Devices, and then Link Desktop Device to start the Telegram QR code scanner. You will use this QR code scanner to scan a QR code displayed by your Element client in the next step.

  5. From your Element client, send a login-qr message to the bot to connect to your Telegram account.

  6. A QR code will be displayed. Quickly scan the QR code with Telegram on your mobile device.

  7. On your Element client, you will see Successfully logged in as <username>, and you will see invitations for each of your Telegram channels, groups, and DMs in your Element client. Each Telegram chat is a separate Matrix room. Join one or more chats and start chatting from either your Element app on desktop, iOS or Android or your Telegram on mobile.

Sending a message to a Telegram User

To send a message to a Telegram user, you must first be connected to the bridge (see above).

  1. On your Element client, open the "Telegram bridge bot" room.

  2. Say pm followed by the phone number or username. The phone number must exist in your Telegram contacts.

  3. You will be invited to a DM with that user, and can send messages to them.

Bridging Matrix users without a Telegram account

By default, a Matrix user will have to connect their Telegram account for their messages to be bridged to Telegram. If you provide a bot token, we will use this bot to relay the messages of any Matrix users to Telegram. (Note: relaying is supported for Telegram groups, but is not yet supported for Telegram channels.)

Follow these steps to register a bot account with Telegram.

  1. With your Telegram account, message @BotFather. If talking to BotFather via the bridge using Element, note that all "slash" command messages (eg. /start) sent to BotFather must begin with two slashes instead of one (eg. //start).

  2. Create a new bot by sending the message /newbot to BotFather. The created bot will be the Telegram relay bot used by your bridge. Follow the subsequent prompts to give your bot a display name and a username.

  3. Wait for BotFather to provide you a bot token.

  4. Send the message /setprivacy to BotFather and follow the prompts to set your new bot's privacy settings to "Disabled". This allows your relay bot to bridge all messages sent in a Telegram group, not just messages that mention the bot by name.

  5. Open the EMS control panel for your Telegram bridge and enter the token you received from BotFather in the "Bot token" field, then wait for the page to notify you when your bridge is ready. EMStelegramBotToken.png

  6. In your Element client, view your DM with the Telegram bridge bot and send the ping-bot command. The bot should respond with the ID of your relay bot in Matrix, which indicates that the relay bot has been set up correctly.

  7. In your Element client, invite the Matrix relay bot to any room that bridges a Telegram group that should relay Matrix users' messages to Telegram. A convenient way to do so is to send a message of !tg ping-bot in such a room (which will be intercepted by the bridge bot & won't appear in Telegram), wait for the bridge bot to respond with a "pill" of the relay bot's Matrix ID, click on the pill, and then click "Invite" on the sidebar that appears.

  8. In Telegram, confirm that your Telegram relay bot has joined the group. If it hasn't, you may manually invite your bot to the group (as long as you have permissions to do so) by viewing the group's details, selecting "Add Members", and entering the username of your relay bot that you chose in step 2.

Using the Telegram bridge

See our documentation here.

Integrations

WhatsApp Bridge

This guide explains how to use the WhatsApp bridge from the EMS Integration Manager to integrate your WhatsApp chats with your EMS server.

It requires your EMS server to have federation on.

The following instructions are done with the Element Desktop on the Element side and on Element iOS for the WhatsApp side. Element Android should be almost identical to Element Web.

Purchase the WhatsApp integration

  1. Open the EMS control panel at: https://ems.element.io/user/hosting

  2. Click the Integrations tab and if you have more than one server, select the server you wish to add the WhatsApp integration to

  3. Click on WhatsApp Bridge in the list of available Bridges

  4. Enter the maximum number of users in Maximum WhatsApp users.
    Please note: this is the maximum number of WhatsApp users who actually send messages over the bridge each month. You are only billed for the number of WhatsApp users who are active. Once you exceed the maximum, then the bridge will be disabled until you increase the maximum.

    • If you enter less than 5, you will get a warning
    • If you enter 5 or greater in Maximum WhatsApp users, you will not see a warning
    • Once you have entered Maximum WhatsApp users, click Purchase (remember you can always go back to this step and increase the maximum number of WhatsApp users if you need more in the future).

  5. A dialogue will remind you of the price per user and ask if you wish to proceed. Click Purchase if you wish to proceed with the WhatsApp Integration

  6. You will have to wait a few minutes while your host is reprovisioned with the WhatsApp bridge. Once reprovisioning is finished, you are able to bridge WhatsApp to your EMS server using your Element client.

Bridge WhatsApp to your Element account

  1. Once the bridge is running, open your Element app. Click on the + next to People

  2. Create a Direct Message conversation by typing @whatsappbot:example.ems.host (replace the domain with the one of your homeserver). Then clickGo

  3. The bridge account will join your room and tell you how to use it

  4. Open WhatsApp on your mobile device (iOS or Android) and go to Settings and then Linked devices and then Link a device and tap OK to start the WhatsApp QR code scanner. You will use this QR code scanner to scan a QR code displayed by your Element client in the next step

  5. From your Element client, send a login message to the bot to connect to your WhatsApp account

  6. A QR code will be displayed. Quickly scan the QR code with WhatsApp on your mobile device. You have about a minute before it times out. If it times out, just send the login message again to generate another QR code

  7. On your Element client, you will see Successfully logged in as <phone-number> (device #<number>).

  8. From your Element client, send a message of sync groups --create-portals to the bot to bridge your existing WhatsApp chats to Matrix. You will then see invitations for each of your WhatsApp chats in your Element client. Each WhatsApp chat is a separate Matrix room. Join one or more chats and start chatting from either your Element app on desktop, iOS or Android or your WhatsApp on mobile.

Sending a message to an WhatsApp User

To send a message to a WhatsApp user, you must first be connected to the bridge (see above).

  1. On your Element client, open the "WhatsApp bridge bot" room.
  2. Say pm followed by the international formatted phone number for your contact.
  3. You will be invited to a DM with that user, and can send messages to them.

For the EMS bridge to work, you must login to WhatsApp on iOS or Android every 14 days

From WhatsApp's documentation:

Your phone won’t need to stay online to use WhatsApp on linked devices, but if you don’t use your phone for over 14 days, your linked devices will become disconnected.

This means that you cannot uninstall the iOS or Android WhatsApp app and that you must login to that app every 14 days. If you don't, the Element WhatsApp Bridge will stop working.

My contacts show as @whatsapp_[phone number]:homeserverdomain.com

Try sending the sync contacts command in your DM with the WhatsApp bridge bot.

Relay Mode is not supported

EMS does not support the WhatsApp Bridge's Relay Mode for Element Cloud, Element Enterprise Cloud or Element One.

Using the WhatsApp bridge

Please see our documentation here.

Element

Element

Add Email to Your Account

  1. Go to Element All settings

  2. Enter your email address and click Add

  3. When you get this message, check your email

  4. Click the link in the email. Make sure it opens in another tab/window, leaving your Element client where it is

  5. When you get this message, you can close the verification tab/window and return to Element

  6. Go back to Element and click Continue

  7. Enter your account password or confirm using SSO, then click Continue

  8. If all worked correctly, your new email should now show up under the Email addresses section in Element settings. If not, something went wrong and you need to try again

Element

Change Account Password

Resetting the account password will log out all your sessions. Before doing this, make sure that


If you know your current password

  1. Go to Element All settings

  2. Enter your current password and your new password

  3. You might want to export your E2E room keys. Just to be on the safe side in case something goes wrong. See also Export and Import E2E Room Keys

  4. Click Continue.
    Note: This warning is outdated, see this issue

  5. Click OK

  6. You now need to sign in again on all your other devices

If you do not know your current password

Note, this will only work if you have an email address attached to your Matrix account. If you do not have an email address attached, contact the administrators of your homeserver. (support@matrix.org does not reset passwords in any circumstance)

  1. Sign out of Element

  2. Click Sign out

  3. Click "Not sure of your password? Set a new one"

  4. Enter your email address, and a new password. Then click Send Reset Email

  5. Click Continue.
    Note: This warning is outdated, see this issue

  6. When you get this message, check your email

  7. Click the link in the email. Make sure it opens in new browser tab, leaving your Element client open

  8. Click Confirm changing my password

  9. You can now close this tab and return to Element

  10. Click I have verified my email address

  11. Click Return to login screen

  12. Sign in like normal with your new password. Note that all your other sessions have been signed out and you need to sign in again.

Element

Element Settings

Notice: Please be advised this document is currently a work in progress, some information is currently missing and will be updated in due course.

Remember: Have you tried - https://element.io/help ?
Don't forget to download our User Guide

Relating to this page, Element Settings, you can specifically check for relevant information from the Account Management and Settings sections.

Accessing Settings

You can change your Matrix account settings by clicking your profile icon in the top left of the Element client. By defualt, this will be a coloured circle with the first letter of your Matrix ID. From the presented drop-down menu, you'll be able to jump into specfic settings straight away, or access 'All Settings'.

You can also use this menu to quickly return 'Home', provide 'Feedback' and this is where you can 'Sign Out' from your client.

Disclaimer: The below setting layout / order may change in subsequent client updates, however generally most settings will still perform the same function.

General

Profile

Allows you to change your 'Display Name', this is the name seen by others whilst messaging with them. Updating this will notify all rooms of the change of name. You are also able to upload / change your profile picture, you can do this by hoovering over the existing picture and clicking.

After making your changing, click 'Save' to set them. You Matrix ID in full is also displayed here for your reference.

Account

Allows you to add email addresses / phone numbers to your account, as well as change your 'Language and Region' setting. Adding of Third-Party IDs requires verifying your login by either supplying your account password, or using SSO (such as when using Element One).

Discovery

Allows you to agree to the identity server (vector.im) Terms of Service to allow yourself to be discoverable by email address or phone number, change your identity server. Using an identity server is optional. If you choose not to use an identity server, you won't be discoverable by other users and you won't be able to invite others by email or phone.

You can stop using an identity server by clicking 'Do not use an identity server'

Manage integrations

Allows you to turn on or off the use of an integration manager. You the toggle button to configure as desired.

Deactivate account

Allows you to deactivate your account - Warning! Deactivating your account is a permanent action.

Appearance

Appearance settings allows you to customise the look and feel of your client, all settings provide visual representation of the changes so you can confirm your preferred style. Options include Theme, Message Layout, Font Size and Image size in the timeline.

Notifications

Notification settings allow you to customise default notification settings which are synced to your account, however you are also able to customise whether you recieve notifications for this specific device. Note: A device is per client, using both a web-based Matrix client and a Desktop client on the same physical device will still appear as two separate devices.

Desktop Notifications

To enable desktop notifications from your client, you can enable the toggle 'Enable desktop notifications for this session', you can also customise these notifications to also display the message that triggers the notification using the 'Show message in desktop notification' toggle. When using a web-based Element client, you will also need to accept permissions allowing the client to display notifications.

Notification types explained

Notification settings allow notifications to be set as either 'Off', 'On' or 'Noisy'.

For finer tuning, you can easily configure per room notification setting from the context menu you get by clicking on the ... icon that appears when hovering over the room name in the room list. You can use this to temporarily mute a room, or make sure you’re not missing anything from a given discussion. You can select the following options:

Keyword Notifications

From the notification settings you can also add additional keywords to listen for to trigger a notification. You can directly specify how a notification triggered from these keywords responds in the 'Mentions & keywords' section.

Preferences

Keyboard

Sidebar

Voice & Video

Security & Privacy

Labs

Help & About

From Help & About you can find important information related to the client itself, such as it's current version, your homeserver and identity server details as well as links to our FAQ, Legal documents and credits.

Your Access Token

Your access token gives full access to your account via the use of Matrix APIs, you can read more about them depending on your needs. If you are an Admin of a homeserver, and are using an account with Admin access, you can make use of the Synapse Admin API. For both admins and regular users, the Matrix APIs can be found from the latest Matrix Spec page - these include:

Bug Reporting

If you've experience a bug, the best place to report it is by submitting a bug report to the appropriate Github repository for your client, the Element account

Element

Exporting Messages

Note: If you are an EMS server admin and wish to export your entire EMS server, please see Migrate From EMS to Self-Hosted.

Using your Element client you can export your Room's message history in HTML, Plain Text or JSON format - including attachments.

  1. Open the room you wish to export message history

  2. Access 'Room Info' using the icon in the top right

  3. Select 'Export Chat', then confirm your desired settings for export

  4. Finally click 'Export' - once the export has completed you will be prompted to save an archive of the export.

Element

Submit Debug Logs

  1. Search for other issues of the same problem on

  2. If you cannot find any, create one by clicking New issue, then Get started in the Bug report section.

  3. Go to the section for your device

Element Web and Desktop

  1. Go to Element All settings

  2. Under Help & About, click Submit debug logs

  3. Enter a GitHub issue link and a description. Then click Send logs

  4. Click OK

Element iOS

  1. Tap the cog in the top left of Element

  2. Scroll down to the OTHER section, then tap Report bug

  3. Enter a GitHub issue link and a description, make sure Send logs is checked, then click Send

Element Android

  1. Tap the three stacked dots in the top right

  2. Tap Report bug

  3. Enter a GitHub issue link and a description, make sure Send logs, and Send crash logs are checked, then tap the send arrow in the top right

Cross Signing

Cross Signing

Check Status

  1. Go to Element Security & Privacy settings

  2. Expand the Advanced section

  3. Look for All keys backed up

Cross Signing

Export and Import E2E Room Keys

Element Web and Desktop

Export

  1. Go to Element Security & Privacy settings

  2. Click Export E2E room keys

  3. Enter a secure passphrase and click Export

  4. Choose to save the file

  5. Select a directory on your computer

Import

  1. Go to Element Security & Privacy settings

  2. Click Import E2E room keys

  3. Click Browse

  4. Select your export

  5. Enter your passphrase and click Import

Element iOS

Export

  1. Tap the cog in the top left of Element

  2. Tap Security

  3. Tap Export keys manually

  4. Enter a secure passphrase and tap Export

  5. Choose Save to Files

  6. Choose a location then tap Save

Import

This is a temporary solution until this issue is resolved

  1. Tap the in the bottom right corner

  2. Tap Create room

  3. Tap the room name (Empty room) at the top

  4. Tap the room name again

  5. Under Advances, enable encryption

  6. Tab Done in the top right

  7. Tab the to send a file

  8. Tap Send file

  9. Browse to and select your export

  10. Tap the file you just sent

  11. Tap Import

  12. Enter your passphrase and tap Import

Element Android

Export

  1. Tap your user picture in the top right

  2. Tap the cog

  3. Tap Security & Privacy

  4. Tap Export E2E room keys

  5. Select a location and a file name, then tap SAVE

  6. Enter a secure passphrase, then tap EXPORT

Import

  1. Tap your user picture in the top right

  2. Tap the cog

  3. Tap Security & Privacy

  4. Tap Import E2E room keys

  5. Browse to and select your export

  6. Enter your passphrase and tap IMPORT

Cross Signing

Reset Cross Signing

Only do this if you have forgotten or lost your cross signing backup passphrase.

Please read through the entire document before starting to make sure you understand the consequences of doing this.

If you have an active session

  1. You may wish to backup your keys before doing this just to be on the safe side if something goes wrong: See Export and Import E2E Room Keys

  2. Click Reset in the Cross-signing section

  3. Click Clear cross-signing keys

  4. Click Generate a Security Key or Enter a Security Phrase. Then Continue

  5. Take note of your key then click Continue

  6. Enter your account password and click Continue

  7. You can delete any untrusted sessions in Element Security & Privacy settings. Select the sessions you want to remove and click Delete 1 session

  8. Optionally, Sign out old devices no longer needed

If you DO NOT have an active session

Doing this will destroy all your keys and you will NOT be able to access any historical encrypted messages.

  1. Log in to Element

  2. Click Skip

  3. Click Skip again

  4. Do not connect to Key Backup or verify session when asked

  5. Note that you will not be able to decrypt any previous messages after doing this

  6. Follow the steps from If you have an active session

Sign out old devices

  1. Go to Element Security & Privacy settings

  2. Select the devices you wish to sign out

  3. Click Sign out n selected devices

  4. Authenticate with your Matrix account password or via SSO

Cross Signing

Set up Cross Signing

On first login to a new account

  1. Sign up or log in

  2. Click Generate a Security Key or Enter a Security Phrase. Then click Continue

  3. Take note of your key, then click Continue

If you did not set it up on first login, or if you did not get asked

  1. If you do not have key backup configured, you will be asked to set it up the first time you enter an encrypted room. Click Start using Key Backup

  2. Click Generate a Security Key or Enter a Security Phrase. Then Continue

  3. Take note of your key, then click Continue

  4. Enter your account password, then click Continue

If you clicked Don't ask me again

  1. Go to Element Security & Privacy settings

  2. Click Start using Key Backup

  3. Click Generate a Security Key or Enter a Security Phrase. Then Continue

  4. Take note of your key, then click Continue

  5. Enter your account password, then click Continue

Cross Signing

Verify new Login

When you log in to a new device/session, you must verify the login and connect it to cross signing and secret storage to access your backed up encryption keys for historical messages. This assumes you already have configured cross signing, see Set up Cross Signing.

  1. Log in to Element with your username and password

  2. Choose one of the methods below for cross signing

Compare emojis using another login

  1. Click Use another login
  2. On another device/session that is connected to cross signing, click Accept
  3. Click Start
  4. Compare the emojis on your new and old sessions. They should be the same emojis and in the same order. Click They match on both sessions
  5. If all was successful, you should get this green shield on both sessions. Click Got it. Your new device/session is now verified and will download your backed up message encryption keys

Scan QR code on another login

Login is here demonstrated on Element Android

  1. On your phone, tap Verify this login
  2. Your phone is now waiting for you to accept from another device
  3. On another device/session that is connected to cross signing, click Accept
  4. On your phone, tab Scan with this device
  5. Using your phone, scan the QR code shown on your other session

  6. Your phone waits for you to confirm green shield on your other session. Click Yes

  7. Tap Done on your phone
  8. If all was successful, you should get this green shield on both sessions. Click Got it. Your new device/session is now verified and will download your backed up message encryption keys

Using your Security Key

  1. Click Use Security Key
  2. Enter your Security key when prompted and click Continue
  3. If all was successful, you should get this green shield on both sessions. Click Got it. Your new device/session is now verified and will download your backed up message encryption keys

Non-English

Non-English

Deutsch: Nutzung der eigenen Domain mit EMS

Matrix ist ein Chat-Protokoll, mit dem Nutzer*innen auf verschiedenen Servern miteinander chatten können. Deshalb ist, wie bei E-Mail-Adressen, der Server fester Bestandteil einer jeden Nutzer-Adresse: @jennifer:unternehmen.de.

Nach dem @-Zeichen folgt der Benutzername und nach dem Doppelpunkt folgt die Server-Adresse.

Dies ist auch der Fall, wenn sie die Kommunikation mit anderen Matrix-Servern verbieten und ausschließlich intern chatten.

Gerne können Sie Ihre eigene Domain mit Element Matrix Services (EMS) nutzen. Damit werden die Matrix-Adressen Ihrer Anwender kürzer und auf Ihre Organisation anpasst.

Alternativ bietet Ihnen EMS ohne Aufpreis eine Subdomain. Hierbei ist keine Einrichtung Ihrerseits notwendig. Dann sehen die Adressen Ihrer Anwender*innen beispielsweise so aus: @jennifer:unternehmen.ems.host.

Hier sind die Vorteile der Optionen:

Vorteile einer eigenen Domain Vorteiler einer EMS-Subdomain
Nutzer- und Chat-Raum-Adressen sind kürzer und auf Ihre Organisation angepasst Sie können sofort mit einer verfügbaren Subdomain starten
Benötigt die Ablage von zwei Dateien auf Ihrer Webseite oder einen DNS-Eintrag (Anleitung für Ihr IT-Team ist unten im Text) Keine Anpassung in Ihrer IT notwendig
Migration zu anderen Anbietern oder in die eigene IT-Landschaft möglich Migration zu anderen Anbietern und in die eigene IT später nicht leicht möglich[^1]
Ihre Domain muss erreichbar bleiben Keine Verantwortung auf Ihrer Seite

[^1]: Bei der Einrichtung eines Matrix Servers muss eine Domain festgelegt werden. Ein Wechsel der Domain ist momentan nicht möglich. Die Domain wird Teil der Nutzer- und Chat-Adressen. Dies betrifft auch Server, welche nicht mit anderen Servern föderieren.

Reihenfolge der Einrichtung

Sie haben sich entschieden Ihre eigene Domain zu nutzen? Sehr gut!

  1. Bestellen Sie den Matrix-Server bei EMS unter Angabe ihrer eigenen Domain. Sie müssen auch eine EMS-Serveradresse im Format unternehmen.ems.host wählen.
  2. Folgen Sie der Anleitung im Abschnitt “Einrichtung auf Ihrem Webspace”.
  3. Überprüfen Sie auf https://ems.element.io/user/hosting, dass Ihre Domain erfolgreich eingerichtet wurde.

Einrichtung auf Ihrem Webspace

Diese Schritte müssen Sie tätigen, um Ihre eigene Domain zu verwenden.

Sollten Sie eine englische Anleitung bevorzugen, finden Sie diese hier: https://element-hq.github.io/synapse/latest/delegate.html

Damit Anwendungen Ihren Matrix-Server bei EMS finden, müssen Sie auf Ihrer Domain einen Hinweis auf dessen Ort hinterlassen. Sie haben dafür die zwei folgenden Optionen.

Ablage von .well-known Dateien (empfohlene Option)

Erstellen Sie zwei statische JSON-Dateien auf Ihrer Webseite. Diese müssen unter den folgenden Pfaden öffentlich aus dem Internet erreichbar sein.

Statt matrix.org, sind hier die entsprechenden Pfade auf Ihrer Domain gemeint.

Ist der Ordner .well-known auf Ihrem Webspace nicht vorhanden, erstellen Sie ihn. Manche Programme blenden Ordner aus, wenn sie mit einem Punkt starten. Er könnte also schon existieren. Erstellen Sie darin einen Ordner matrix.

Die JSON-Dateien client und server dürfen keine Dateiendung haben und müssen die folgenden Inhalte haben. Ersetzen Sie “unternehmen” mit Ihrem EMS-Hostnamen. Diesen finden Sie auf https://ems.element.io/user/hosting vor “.ems.host”, z.B. “unternehmen.ems.host”. Wurde Ihr Server vor dem Sommer 2020 angelegt, hat er vermutlich die Endung “.modular.im”.

GET /.well-known/matrix/client

{
    "m.homeserver": {
        "base_url": "https://unternehmen.ems.host"
    },
    "m.identity_server": {
        "base_url": "https://vector.im"
    }
}

GET /.well-known/matrix/server

{
    "m.server": "unternehmen.ems.host:443"
}

Ersetzen Sie in beiden Beispielen unternehmen.ems.host durch Ihre EMS-Serveradresse.

Fehlerbehebung

Um zu überprüfen, ob alles korrekt eingerichtet wurde, geben Sie Ihre Domain auf der folgenden Webseite ein.

https://federationtester.matrix.org/ (Nur in englischer Sprache)

Eine grüne Fläche mit dem Wort “SUCCESS” signalisiert eine erfolgreiche Einrichtung. Auch in EMS sollten Sie nun unter https://ems.element.io/user/hosting eine erfolgreiche Prüfung der Domain vorfinden.

Ist eine rote Nachricht “Connection Errors” zu sehen, war eine Verbindung zum Server nicht möglich. Haben Sie den Server bei EMS schon bestellt? Ist Ihre Webseite nicht über HTTPS erreichbar? Hier sollte der .well-known Ordner und die darin enthaltene Datei öffentlich aus dem Internet zugänglich sein.

Sehen Sie die Nachricht “No SRV Records”, wurde der DNS-Eintrag nicht gefunden. Dieser Eintrag ist nur notwendig, sollten Sie keine Datei auf Ihrem Webspace veröffentlichen können. Überprüfen Sie, ob Sie alles richtig eingegeben haben und das Formular Ihres Domain-Anbieters gespeichert haben. Ist alles richtig, brauchen Sie vielleicht nur etwas zu warten. Nach dem Ändern von DNS-Einträgen braucht es ein paar Minuten, bis sich die Änderung im Internet verteilt.