Purpose

This software stack provides the Team Chat (TCH) service Mattermost.

Properties

Topology

The stack consists of 2 containers:

• tch-mattermost: the Mattermost application
• tch-mattermost-postgresql: the RDBMS used as backend storage

Configuration

There are no stack-specific configuration variables.

See also the variables which control integration of the stack into the reverse proxy.
For changes to take effect the stack has to be reinstalled.

First Steps

On first start a screen appears which requests you to create an account. This account receives administrator privileges. 

You have to provide your email-address, an arbitrary username and a password. Note: The password must be at least 10 characters long and must contain uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Be careful as you enter your password just once (and not a second time for confirmation). If the Create account button is not responsive the most likely reason is that your chosen password violates these contraints.

In the next screen you choose between creating a team and switching to the "system console". The system console is the administrator's switchboard, a menu system which gives you access to all bells and whistles of Mattermost.

Usually you want to start with creating a team. In the first panel you provide the team's name. In the second panel you may use a different URL under which you want this team to be accessible, the deafult is the team name in lowercase. After hitting Finish you are dropped into the newly created team with two public channels already predefined: "Town Square" and "Off-Topic".

Mattermost now offers a short tutorial. Then (or if you skip the tutorial) you are in the channel screen of the "Town Square" channel. The current channel is displayed in the top bar, below you may enter a short text describing the channel. On the left side you find a blue sidebar which lists channels you have access to and a means to quickly write a direct message to any member.

The "Hamburger menu" at the top of the sidebar provides you with various actions, e.g. your account settings (where you also configure notifications), inviting other people or a download link to the various mobile apps. People with elevated rights (e.g. channel owner or team admins) will find additional menu items there. 

Have a look into your "Account Settings" first, escpecially the "Notifications" and "Display" areas.

Members are added by inviting them. To invite people who are not yed known to this Mattermost instance you copy a URL and send it to the person suing whichever means you choose. Adding already known peoply simply implies providing their username.

Mattermost is all about sending messages. These are directed to channels which are grouped into teams. To join a team you need an invitation to become a team member.

Message may be directed to a public, or private channel or as direct message to individual members. 

• Public channels are open to all team members. In the left sidebar on the Mattermost UI they are marked with a globe icon.
• Private channels are only visible to team members with the appropriate permission. There is a channel owner which has elevated rights (but is not a Mattermost administrator). Members may be added to a private channel by any channel member. These channels are marked with a lock icon.
• Direct messages go between two or more individual people (group messages). Only those will see the message.

Some more features:

• Teams and indivdual messages are both directly reachable through a link.
• To address a team member use an ampersand followed by the member's name.
• Messages are searchable through the search box. It searches through all channels of the current team where you may read messages. An advance search mode is also available.
• There are format options for messages.
• Of course you may choose to get notified when messages arrive.
• When working often with mattermost [keyboard shortcuts][https://docs.mattermost.com/help] come in handy.

Related Documents

• Most recent changes