Services/Mattermost
Mattermost chat system
As part of the Gitlab instance, FB3 offers Mattermost for chats. Anyone who can log in to the FB3-Gitlab can also use Mattermost.
Discontinuation in May 2026
Mattermost no longer supports authentication via Gitlab in the free version starting with version 11 (also see the announcement from Mattermost). As a result, Gitlab has announced that starting with version 19, expected to be released in May of this year, Mattermost will no longer be included in the Gitlab Linux packages (also see the section on Mattermost in "Deprecations and removals by version").
Since the paid licenses of Mattermost are associated with enormous costs, the FB3 Mattermost server will be discontinued with the update of the FB3 Gitlab to version 19. The exact date for this will be announced later.
Alternatives
Since Mattermost is also used centrally by the university and will also be affected by this change, Department 8 is currently evaluating the next steps. There is a Mattermost channel where alternatives are being discussed.
The recommendation is to migrate to the central university solution as soon as it becomes available.
Exporting data
Unfortunately, the Mattermost plugin for exporting chat data is not available in the free version. The Mattermost Web API can be used to export channels and private chats instead.
E.g. the following Python script can be adapted for this purpose:
Access token for the API
Mattermost has the option to create Personal Access Tokens for API access, but unfortunately this must be activated individually for each account.
Instead, session tokens can be used, which can be retrieved from the web browser as follows. It should be noted that these tokens have a limited lifespan.
- Login to Mattermost in a browser.
- Press F12 to open the development tools.
- Switch to the Network tab.
- Press F5 to reload the page.
- In the list of web requests in the Network tab, click on one with the value view in the File column.
- On the right side, switch to the Cookies tab.
- The value of
MMAUTHTOKENcan be used to access the API.