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Using Python with the Admin + Client-Server APIs

You can use Python to make consume and utilise APIs, including those available with Matrix - such as the Synapse Admin API, and the Matrix Client-Server API. See the below docs to learn more about them before progressing with this guide.

The key requirement before progressing is getting the Matrix Accounts' access_token, if your using the Synapse Admin API, you must use a Matrix Account which is a Synapse Admin.

Using python

You will need Python setup on your system to make use of the script. The best way to use Python is to keep individual projects / scripts in separate virtual environments (venv). The documentation on this can be found here, for example on Windows you'd use:

python -m venv .\myPythonProject\
.\myPythonProject\Scripts\Activate.ps1

The script uses the requests library in order to make the API requests, to install in in you venv, after activating run:

python -m pip install requests

You will then be able to run scripts you create by using:

python .\myPythonProject\scriptName.py

Writing a python script

At it's most basic, you will need to setup the below template within your script:

import requests

homeseverURL = 'example.com'
accountToken = 'accountTokenStringExample'
requestHeaders = {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + accountToken
}
requestData = {
    'key': 'value'
}

getResponse = requests.post('API Endpoint URL', headers=requestHeaders).json()
postResponse = requests.post('API Endpoint URL', headers=requestHeaders, data=requestData).json()
Example #1: Join Users to Rooms

For example, let'Let's say you wanted to join a list of users to a list of rooms, you would adapt this template to something like the below to make use of the Edit Room Membership API:

import requests

# Homeserver
homeserverURL = 'example.com'

# Credentials
accountToken = 'mat_Hwpn2I2gVIZ8WodfsdfsdfsdfSBf7xAV_BAGYU1'

# Rooms to Auto-Join
roomAliasList = ['#room1:example.com', '#room2:example.com']

# Users to Auto-Join
userList = ['@user1:example.com', '@user2:example.com']

# API Auth Header
requestHeaders = {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + accountToken,
}

# Loop through all rooms, adding all users to those rooms
for roomAlias in roomAliasList:
    # Construct API Endpoint URL
    editRoomMembershipURL = 'https://' + homeserverURL + '/_synapse/admin/v1/join/' + roomAlias
    # Loop through all users
    for user in userList:
      	# Construct POST contents
        editRoomMembershipData = {
            "user_id": user
        }
        # Send Request
        response = requests.post(editRoomMembershipURL, headers=requestHeaders, data=editRoomMembershipData).json()
Example #2: Delete Older Media

If you are looking to remove all media older than a specific Unix Timestamp, you could adjust the template above to make use of Delete local media by date or size.

import requests

# Homeserver
homeserverURL = 'example.com'

# Credentials
accountToken = 'mat_Hwpn2I2gVIZ8WodfsdfsdfsdfSBf7xAV_BAGYU1'

# API Auth Header
requestHeaders = {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer ' + accountToken,
}

# Construct API Endpoint URL
unixTimestamp : str = '1672531200000'
deleteMediaURL = 'https://' + homeserverURL + '/_synapse/admin/v1/media/delete?before_ts=' + unixTimestamp

# Send Request
response = requests.post(deleteMediaURL, headers=requestHeaders).json()
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