Synapse 0.10.0 is released!!

Hi folks,

Whilst the blog has been a bit quiet, we’ve actually had an incredibly busy summer refining Synapse, building the new matrix-react-sdk and example apps, building an entirely new matrix-appservice-bridge framework for rapidly creating Matrix<->other-protocol bridges, getting end-to-end encryption ready for primetime and lots more fun stuff as we keep chipping away to take Matrix out of beta. We’ll write about all of these once they’re ready, but right now the big news is that after 6 release candidates we have a major new update for Synapse out today – version 0.10.0. This also includes 0.9.4, which we never quite got around to releasing and ended up skipping from 0.9.4-rc1 straight to 0.10.0-rc1.

The release focuses mainly on performance, bugfixes, and infrastructure work to support forthcoming features like end-to-end encryption, read receipts, etc. Some of the more exciting new features include preset ACLs for room creation; history visibility ACLs; SAML2 single-sign-on login (courtesy of Ericsson, thanks guys!), filename support when sending files, support for specifying a canonical alias for a room, support for intermediary SSL certificates, etc.

The full changelog is below.

To upgrade, go read https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/master/UPGRADE.rst – to install for the first time, go to https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/master/README.rst.


Changes in synapse v0.10.0 (2015-09-03)
=======================================

No change from release candidate.

Changes in synapse v0.10.0-rc6 (2015-09-02)
===========================================

* Remove some of the old database upgrade scripts.
* Fix database port script to work with newly created sqlite databases.

Changes in synapse v0.10.0-rc5 (2015-08-27)
===========================================

* Fix bug that broke downloading files with ascii filenames across federation.

Changes in synapse v0.10.0-rc4 (2015-08-27)
===========================================

* Allow UTF-8 filenames for upload. (PR #259)

Changes in synapse v0.10.0-rc3 (2015-08-25)
===========================================

* Add ``--keys-directory`` config option to specify where files such as
certs and signing keys should be stored in, when using ``--generate-config``
or ``--generate-keys``. (PR #250)
* Allow ``--config-path`` to specify a directory, causing synapse to use all
\*.yaml files in the directory as config files. (PR #249)
* Add ``web_client_location`` config option to specify static files to be
hosted by synapse under ``/_matrix/client``. (PR #245)
* Add helper utility to synapse to read and parse the config files and extract
the value of a given key. For example::

$ python -m synapse.config read server_name -c homeserver.yaml
localhost

(PR #246)

Changes in synapse v0.10.0-rc2 (2015-08-24)
===========================================

* Fix bug where we incorrectly populated the ``event_forward_extremities``
table, resulting in problems joining large remote rooms (e.g.
``#matrix:matrix.org``)
* Reduce the number of times we wake up pushers by not listening for presence
or typing events, reducing the CPU cost of each pusher.

Changes in synapse v0.10.0-rc1 (2015-08-21)
===========================================

Also see v0.9.4-rc1 changelog, which has been amalgamated into this release.

General:

* Upgrade to Twisted 15 (PR #173)
* Add support for serving and fetching encryption keys over federation.
(PR #208)
* Add support for logging in with email address (PR #234)
* Add support for new ``m.room.canonical_alias`` event. (PR #233)
* Change synapse to treat user IDs case insensitively during registration and
login. (If two users already exist with case insensitive matching user ids,
synapse will continue to require them to specify their user ids exactly.)
* Error if a user tries to register with an email already in use. (PR #211)
* Add extra and improve existing caches (PR #212, #219, #226, #228)
* Batch various storage request (PR #226, #228)
* Fix bug where we didn't correctly log the entity that triggered the request
if the request came in via an application service (PR #230)
* Fix bug where we needlessly regenerated the full list of rooms an AS is
interested in. (PR #232)
* Add support for AS's to use v2_alpha registration API (PR #210)

Configuration:

* Add ``--generate-keys`` that will generate any missing cert and key files in
the configuration files. This is equivalent to running ``--generate-config``
on an existing configuration file. (PR #220)
* ``--generate-config`` now no longer requires a ``--server-name`` parameter
when used on existing configuration files. (PR #220)
* Add ``--print-pidfile`` flag that controls the printing of the pid to stdout
of the demonised process. (PR #213)

Media Repository:

* Fix bug where we picked a lower resolution image than requested. (PR #205)
* Add support for specifying if a the media repository should dynamically
thumbnail images or not. (PR #206)

Metrics:

* Add statistics from the reactor to the metrics API. (PR #224, #225)

Demo Homeservers:

* Fix starting the demo homeservers without rate-limiting enabled. (PR #182)
* Fix enabling registration on demo homeservers (PR #223)

Changes in synapse v0.9.4-rc1 (2015-07-21)
==========================================

General:

* Add basic implementation of receipts. (SPEC-99)
* Add support for configuration presets in room creation API. (PR #203)
* Add auth event that limits the visibility of history for new users.
(SPEC-134)
* Add SAML2 login/registration support. (PR #201. Thanks Muthu Subramanian!)
* Add client side key management APIs for end to end encryption. (PR #198)
* Change power level semantics so that you cannot kick, ban or change power
levels of users that have equal or greater power level than you. (SYN-192)
* Improve performance by bulk inserting events where possible. (PR #193)
* Improve performance by bulk verifying signatures where possible. (PR #194)

Configuration:

* Add support for including TLS certificate chains.

Media Repository:

* Add Content-Disposition headers to content repository responses. (SYN-150)

Upcoming events

After a successful visit to OSCON in Oregon last month, Matrix is this week represented at Clue Con in Chicago. We have a speaking slot later today – see the full schedule here. However, this time, we will be calling in remotely from London, but what better way to demonstrate video calling than by using it?

More upcoming events include Fosscon in Pennsylvania (August 22nd), where we have two talks scheduled, and ElastixWorld in Columbia (Oct 7 & 8), where we are participating as a keynote speaker. We hope to see you there!

As always, for questions or comments – or just to say hi – please join #matrix:matrix.org using your favourite Matrix-client!

Micropub support as an Application Service!

I was at IndieWebCamp Edinburgh last week and during the hack day I created a Matrix Application Service (AS) which could act as an IndieWeb Micropub client. Any Matrix message sent to the AS (@micropub:domain) would be converted to a request to a Micropub endpoint.

This required the AS to support IndieAuth – which it does by sending !indieauth http://yourdomain.dom to @micropub:domain which then returns an OAuth2 URL to login via. Currently, the AS just supports a 1:1 mapping from m.text to h:entry but in the future, it can be expanded to include categories and potentially the reverse mapping (where Micropub clients can act as Matrix users!).

Overall, it was a great weekend and I look forward to adding more support for IndieWeb protocols in the future.

Android Matrix Console 0.4.2 & 0.4.3

In the spirit of releasing early and often, we have pushed Android Matrix Console 0.4.2 to the Google Play store.

This release comes with a few new features as well as many bugfixes:

  • A notification settings page has been added
  • Added an image slider (access by tapping an image)
  • Improved the management of multiple accounts
  • Retaining filenames on upload
  • Fixed the causes of two crashes that were reported via Google Analytics
  • Several bugfixes – see full changelog here

Update:

We have pushed another update, version 0.4.3, after a bug was reported that affected some users upgrading to 0.4.2:

  • Fixed a bug where updating to 0.4.2 caused the history list to be empty
  • Added presence information on avatars in rooms

Android Matrix Console 0.4.1

Super-quick post just to announce that we have released a new version of the Android Matrix Console. This version fixes a problem where the Playstore wouldn’t let some Android devices install the app just because they don’t have a SIM card, due to a required permission that wasn’t really needed anyway.

Grab the latest version from the play store!

Android Matrix Console 0.4.0

Matrix Console 0.4.0 for Android has been pushed to the Google Play store and shall be available shortly.

This release contains a whole lot of bugfixes, new features, and nicer UI and UX – see the changes file for details, but in summary:

  • Lots of UI and UX improvements (inc. long click on images)
  • Added GCM support (can be enabled/disabled)
  • Added Google analytics support
  • Added badges management
  • Added “orientation” management for images
  • Now offering image resizing before upload
  • Lots of bugfixes!