matrix-docker-ansible-deploy/docs/configuring-playbook-email2matrix.md

Setting up Email2Matrix (optional)

Note: email bridging can also happen via the Postmoogle bridge supported by the playbook. Postmoogle is much more powerful and easier to use, so we recommend that you use it, instead of Email2Matrix.

The playbook can install and configure email2matrix for you.

See the project's documentation to learn what it does and why it might be useful to you.

Preparation

DNS configuration

It's not strictly necessary, but you may increase the chances that incoming emails reach your server by adding an MX record for matrix.example.com, as described in the Configuring DNS documentation page.

Port availability

Ensure that port 25 is available on your Matrix server and open in your firewall.

If you have postfix or some other email server software installed, you may need to manually remove it first (unless you need it, of course).

If you really need to run an email server on the Matrix machine for other purposes, it may be possible to run Email2Matrix on another port (with a configuration like matrix_email2matrix_smtp_host_bind_port: "127.0.0.01:2525") and have your other email server relay messages there.

For details about using Email2Matrix alongside Postfix, see here.

Register a dedicated Matrix user (optional)

We recommend that you create a dedicated Matrix user for Email2Matrix.

Generate a strong password for the user. You can create one with a command like pwgen -s 64 1.

You can use the playbook to register a new user:

ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --extra-vars='username=email2matrix password=PASSWORD_FOR_THE_USER admin=no' --tags=register-user

Take note of the user's ID as it needs to be specified as MatrixUserId on your inventory/host_vars/matrix.example.com/vars.yml file later.

Obtain an access token

Email2Matrix requires an access token for the sender user to be able to send messages to the room. Refer to the documentation on how to obtain an access token.

⚠️ Warning: Access tokens are sensitive information. Do not include them in any bug reports, messages, or logs. Do not share the access token with anyone.

Join to rooms as the sender user manually

ℹ️ Email2Matrix does not accept room invitations automatically. To deliver messages to rooms, the sender user must be joined to all rooms manually.

For each new room you would like the user to deliver messages to, invite the user to the room.

Then, log in as the sender user using any Matrix client of your choosing, accept the room invitation from the user's account.

Make sure that you and the sender user are part of the same room and that the sender user has enough privileges in the room to be able to send messages there, then log out.

Take note of each room's room ID (different clients show the room ID in a different place). You'll need the room ID when configuring the playbook below.

Adjusting the playbook configuration

To enable Email2Matrix, add the following configuration to your inventory/host_vars/matrix.example.com/vars.yml file. Make sure to replace ACCESS_TOKEN_FOR_EMAIL2MATRIX1_HERE and ACCESS_TOKEN_FOR_EMAIL2MATRIX2_HERE with the ones created above.

matrix_email2matrix_enabled: true

# You need at least 1 mailbox.
matrix_email2matrix_matrix_mappings:
  - MailboxName: "mailbox1"
    MatrixRoomId: "!qporfwt:{{ matrix_domain }}"
    MatrixHomeserverUrl: "{{ matrix_homeserver_url }}"
    MatrixUserId: "@email2matrix1:{{ matrix_domain }}"
    MatrixAccessToken: "ACCESS_TOKEN_FOR_EMAIL2MATRIX1_HERE"
    IgnoreSubject: false
    IgnoreBody: false
    SkipMarkdown: false

  - MailboxName: "mailbox2"
    MatrixRoomId: "!aaabaa:{{ matrix_domain }}"
    MatrixHomeserverUrl: "{{ matrix_homeserver_url }}"
    MatrixUserId: "@email2matrix2:{{ matrix_domain }}"
    MatrixAccessToken: "ACCESS_TOKEN_FOR_EMAIL2MATRIX2_HERE"
    IgnoreSubject: true
    IgnoreBody: false
    SkipMarkdown: true

where:

• MailboxName - local-part of the email address, through which emails are bridged to the room whose ID is defined with MatrixRoomId
• MatrixRoomId - internal ID of the room, to which received emails are sent as Matrix message
• MatrixHomeserverUrl - URL of your Matrix homeserver, through which to send Matrix messages. You can also set MatrixHomeserverUrl to the container URL where your homeserver's Client-Server API lives by using the {{ matrix_addons_homeserver_client_api_url }} variable
• MatrixUserId - the full ID of the sender user which sends bridged messages to the room. On this configuration it is @email2matrix1:example.com and @email2matrix2:example.com (where example.com is your base domain, not the matrix. domain)
• MatrixAccessToken - sender user's access token
• IgnoreSubject - if set to "true", the subject is not bridged to Matrix
• IgnoreBody - if set to "true", the message body is not bridged to Matrix
• SkipMarkdown - if set to "true", emails are bridged as plain text Matrix message instead of Markdown (actually HTML)

Refer to the official documentation here.

Installing

After configuring the playbook, run it with playbook tags as below:

ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts setup.yml --tags=setup-all,start

Notes:

• The shortcut commands with the just program are also available: just install-service email2matrix or just setup-all

  just install-service email2matrix is useful for maintaining your setup quickly when its components remain unchanged. If you adjust your vars.yml to remove other components, you'd need to run just setup-all, or these components will still remain installed. Note just setup-all runs the ensure-matrix-users-created tag too.

• After installation, you may wish to send a test email to the email address assigned to mailbox1 (default: mailbox1@matrix.example.com) to make sure that Email2Matrix works as expected.