Older documentation
This documentation hasn't been updated in a while. Some information might no longer be valid.
There may be more up to date information in the new documentation section.
Client Server API
How to use the client-server API
If you haven't already, get a homeserver up and running on
https://localhost:8448 - e.g. by following the instructions at
https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/blob/master/INSTALL.md
Accounts
Before you can send and receive messages, you must register for an account. If you already have an account, you must login into it.
Registration
The aim of registration is to get a user ID and access token which you will need when accessing other APIs:
curl -XPOST -d '{"username":"example", "password":"wordpass", "auth": {"type":"m.login.dummy"}}' "https://localhost:8448/_matrix/client/r0/register"
{
"access_token": "QGV4YW1wbGU6bG9jYWxob3N0.AqdSzFmFYrLrTmteXc",
"home_server": "localhost",
"user_id": "@example:localhost"
}
NB: If a user is not specified, one will be randomly generated for you. If you
do not specify a password, you will be unable to login to the account if you
forget the access_token.
Implementation note: The matrix specification does not enforce how users
register with a server. It just specifies the URL path and absolute minimum
keys. The reference homeserver uses a username/password to authenticate user,
but other homeservers may use different methods. This is why you need to
specify the type of method.
Login
The aim when logging in is to get an access token for your existing user ID:
curl -XGET "https://localhost:8448/_matrix/client/r0/login"
{
"flows": [
{
"type": "m.login.password"
}
]
}
curl -XPOST -d '{"type":"m.login.password", "user":"example", "password":"wordpass"}' "https://localhost:8448/_matrix/client/r0/login"
{
"access_token": "QGV4YW1wbGU6bG9jYWxob3N0.vRDLTgxefmKWQEtgGd",
"home_server": "localhost",
"user_id": "@example:localhost"
}
Implementation note: Different homeservers may implement different methods for
logging in to an existing account. In order to check that you know how to login
to this homeserver, you must perform a GET first and make sure you recognise
the login type. If you do not know how to login, you can GET /login/fallback
which will return a basic webpage which you can use to login. The reference
homeserver implementation support username/password login, but other
homeservers may support different login methods (e.g. OAuth2).
Communicating
In order to communicate with another user, you must create a room with that user and send a message to that room.
Creating a room
If you want to send a message to someone, you have to be in a room with them. To create a room:
curl -XPOST -d '{"room_alias_name":"tutorial"}' "https://localhost:8448/_matrix/client/r0/createRoom?access_token=YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
{
"room_alias": "#tutorial:localhost",
"room_id": "!asfLdzLnOdGRkdPZWu:localhost"
}
The "room alias" is a human-readable string which can be shared with other users so they can join a room, rather than the room ID which is a randomly generated string. You can have multiple room aliases per room.
Sending messages
You can now send messages to this room:
curl -XPOST -d '{"msgtype":"m.text", "body":"hello"}' "https://localhost:8448/_matrix/client/r0/rooms/%21asfLdzLnOdGRkdPZWu:localhost/send/m.room.message?access_token=YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
{
"event_id": "YUwRidLecu"
}
The event ID returned is a unique ID which identifies this message.
NB: There are no limitations to the types of messages which can be exchanged.
The only requirement is that "msgtype" is specified. The Matrix specification
outlines the following standard types: m.text, m.image, m.audio,
m.video, m.location, m.emote. See the specification for more information
on these types.
Users and rooms
Each room can be configured to allow or disallow certain rules. In particular, these rules may specify if you require an invitation from someone already in the room in order to join the room. In addition, you may also be able to join a room via a room alias if one was set up.
Inviting a user to a room
You can directly invite a user to a room like so:
curl -XPOST -d '{"user_id":"@myfriend:localhost"}' "https://localhost:8448/_matrix/client/r0/rooms/%21asfLdzLnOdGRkdPZWu:localhost/invite?access_token=YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
This informs @myfriend:localhost of the room ID
!CvcvRuDYDzTOzfKKgh:localhost and allows them to join the room.
Joining a room via an invite
If you receive an invite, you can join the room:
curl -XPOST -d '{}' "https://localhost:8448/_matrix/client/r0/rooms/%21asfLdzLnOdGRkdPZWu:localhost/join?access_token=YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
NB: Only the person invited (@myfriend:localhost) can change the membership
state to "join". Repeatedly joining a room does nothing.
Joining a room via an alias
Alternatively, if you know the room alias for this room and the room config allows it, you can directly join a room via the alias:
curl -XPOST -d '{}' "https://localhost:8448/_matrix/client/r0/join/%21asfLdzLnOdGRkdPZWu:localhost?access_token=YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
{
"room_id": "!CvcvRuDYDzTOzfKKgh:localhost"
}
You will need to use the room ID when sending messages, not the room alias.
NB: If the room is configured to be an invite-only room, you will still require an invite in order to join the room even though you know the room alias. As a result, it is more common to see a room alias in relation to a public room, which do not require invitations.
Getting events
An event is some interesting piece of data that a client may be interested in. It can be a message in a room, a room invite, etc. There are many different ways of getting events, depending on what the client already knows.
https://jsfiddle.net/gh/get/jquery/1.8.3/matrix-org/matrix.org/tree/master/jekyll/_posts/howtos/jsfiddles/event_stream
Getting all state
If the client doesn't know any information on the rooms the user is invited/joined on, they can get all the user's state for all rooms:
curl -XGET "https://localhost:8448/_matrix/client/r0/sync?access_token=YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
{
"account_data": {
"events": [
{
...
}
]
},
"next_batch": "s9_3_0_1_1_1",
"presence": {
"events": [
{
"content": {
"currently_active": true,
"last_active_ago": 19,
"presence": "online"
},
"sender": "@example:localhost",
"type": "m.presence"
}
]
},
"rooms": {
"invite": {},
"join": {
"!asfLdzLnOdGRkdPZWu:localhost": {
"account_data": {
"events": []
},
"ephemeral": {
"events": []
},
"state": {
"events": []
},
"timeline": {
"events": [
{
"content": {
"creator": "@example:localhost"
},
"event_id": "$14606534990LhqHt:localhost",
"origin_server_ts": 1460653499699,
"sender": "@example:localhost",
"state_key": "",
"type": "m.room.create",
"unsigned": {
"age": 239192
}
},
{
"content": {
"avatar_url": null,
"displayname": null,
"membership": "join"
},
"event_id": "$14606534991nsZKk:localhost",
"membership": "join",
"origin_server_ts": 1460653499727,
"sender": "@example:localhost",
"state_key": "@example:localhost",
"type": "m.room.member",
"unsigned": {
"age": 239164
}
},
...
],
"limited": false,
"prev_batch": "s9_3_0_1_1_1"
},
"unread_notifications": {}
}
},
"leave": {}
}
}
This returns all the room information the user is invited/joined on, as well as all of the presences relevant for these rooms. This can be a LOT of data. You may just want the most recent event for each room. This can be achieved by applying a filter that asks for a limit of 1 timeline event per room:
curl --globoff -XGET 'https://localhost:8448/_matrix/client/r0/sync?filter={"room":{"timeline":{"limit":1}}}&access_token=YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN'
{
...
"rooms": {
"invite": {},
"join": {
"!asfLdzLnOdGRkdPZWu:localhost": {
...
"timeline": {
"events": [
{
"content": {
"body": "hello",
"msgtype": "m.text"
},
"event_id": "$14606535757KCGXo:localhost",
"origin_server_ts": 1460653575105,
"sender": "@example:localhost",
"type": "m.room.message",
"unsigned": {
"age": 800348
}
}
],
"limited": true,
"prev_batch": "t8-8_7_0_1_1_1"
},
"unread_notifications": {}
}
},
"leave": {}
}
}
(additionally we have to ask curl not to try to interpret any {} characters
in the URL, which is what the --globoff option is for)
Getting live state
In the response to this sync request the server includes a token that can be
used to obtain updates since this point under the object key next_batch. To
use this token, specify its value as the since parameter to another /sync
request.:
curl -XGET "https://localhost:8448/_matrix/client/r0/sync?since=s9_7_0_1_1_1&access_token=YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
{
"account_data": {
"events": []
},
"next_batch": "s9_9_0_1_1_1",
"presence": {
"events": [
{
"content": {
"currently_active": true,
"last_active_ago": 12,
"presence": "online"
},
"sender": "@example:localhost",
"type": "m.presence"
}
]
},
"rooms": {
"invite": {},
"join": {},
"leave": {}
}
}
By default this request will not wait in the server, always returning a value
even if nothing interesting happened. However, by applying the timeout query
parameter, which gives a duration in milliseconds, we can ask the server to
wait for up to that amount of time before it returns. If no interesting events
have happened since then, the response will be relatively empty.:
curl -XGET "https://localhost:8448/_matrix/client/r0/sync?since=s9_13_0_1_1_1&access_token=YOUR_ACCESS_TOKEN"
{
"account_data": {
"events": []
},
"next_batch": "s9_13_0_1_1_1",
"presence": {
"events": []
},
"rooms": {
"invite": {},
"join": {},
"leave": {}
}
}
Example application
The following example demonstrates registration and login, live event streaming, creating and joining rooms, sending messages, getting member lists and getting historical messages for a room. This covers most functionality of a messaging application.