Mattermost 4.4: Plugin support in beta, plus new “Do Not Disturb” mode

Greetings!

We just rolled out our November 2017 update and there’s a lot to be excited about.

We’re always trying to help our users become more productive. Here are three new ways we’re making good progress:

• Plugin Support in Beta: New plugins allow IT admins to deeply customize your experience by overriding key parts of the Mattermost user interface and server functions.
• New Do Not Disturb mode: Let people know when you’re busy by changing your status to Do Not Disturb, which also quiets your notifications temporarily.
• AD/LDAP Sync with SAML Authentication: Enterprise customers using SAML authentication can now synchronize user attributes (including deactivation status) with AD/LDAP.

You can download Mattermost 4.4 to try out these new features.

We’re also very pleased to announce that there are now over 100 open source projects (that we know of) based on the Mattermost open source project. It’s an amazing milestone and we have our community to thank for the outstanding work. Thank you!

Thanks also for all community contributions this month and in particular to our 4.4 MVP, Sudheer Timmaraju, for his help on our Redux project and improvements on the webapp.

Now here’s some more about what’s in store for people deploying Mattermost 4.4:

Plugin Support in Beta

In large organizations, with thousands or tens of thousands of staff, small improvements to user experience can have a huge impact. Especially when they meet the unique needs of users and workflows.

Before, organizations had to either wait for improvements to the Mattermost server or create forks of the user interface. But now with plugin support, they can customize the user interface and server functions far more easily than ever before.

Mattermost now offers plugin support for two types of plugins:

• Client plugins let you customize the Mattermost interface by overriding elements such as the profile popover, channel header or sidebar. They also let you enable new message types (e.g., maps and charts). To see what this looks like, check this sample plug-in as an example.
• Server plugins make it easier to integrate with third-party systems such as JIRA, GitLab or Jenkins. For example, you can now use a plugin to connect JIRA and Mattermost without installing an external connector service, which reduces the number of things IT has to manage. A sample plugin for a video and audio call system (e.g., Zoom and Skype for Business) is currently in progress.

Moreover, in upcoming releases, Enterprise Edition will support server plugins that enable you to extend Mattermost functionality to meet a specific requirement (e.g., profiling performance metrics) and to implement highly customized compliance rules for information barriers.

Here’s a link to the Admin Guide if you want to learn more about plugin support in Mattermost.

If you’re curious to learn more about plugins or you want to share some feedback, head over to our forum and join the discussion.

Do Not Disturb

Productivity means having time to collaborate—and having time to focus. Thanks to our new Do Not Disturb (DND) status setting, you can now stay online while letting your colleagues know you’re currently unavailable.

When you’re busy and don’t want to be interrupted, switch your status to DND and be left alone. With fewer distractions, you’ll be able to do better work in less time. The way it should be.

You can switch your status to Do Not Disturb with the /dnd command or the status dropdown on the user interface. The DND command disables desktop and mobile push notifications. Unread channels in the lefthand-side will still appear bold and show mention jewels as they normally would.

Head over here if you want to check out some more details.

 

You can now switch your status to DND.

Enterprise Edition (E20): AD/LDAP Sync with SAML Authentication

Mattermost 4.4 now offers SAML login with AD/LDAP sync. Now, when a user is deactivated from Active Directory or LDAP, they are automatically deactivated from Mattermost as well.

As a result, admins don’t have to manually change attributes when users are deactivated, which saves time. It’s one less thing to do.

Here’s what you need to know about this new feature:

• Users can login with SAML single sign-on (SSO) just as they were able to before (i.e., there’s no changes for the end user).
• Once LDAP sync is enabled, user attributes—including deactivation—are automatically synchronized with LDAP; deactivated users will now be deactivated from Mattermost as well.
• This feature is unique to Mattermost; Slack currently doesn’t support this feature.

SAML, or Security Assertion Markup Language, is an advanced authentication method which allows enterprises to add SSO support.

To learn more about configuring Mattermost with SAML, see our documentation.

SAML sync can be set up and configured in the System Console.

New Open Source Projects Built on Mattermost

We are pleased to announce that we now have over 100 open source projects built on the Mattermost open source project, thanks to our outstanding community.

Rather, that’s 100 open source projects that we know of. If you’ve created one that’s not yet on the list, please share it with us when you’re ready. We would be delighted to hear from you.

Here are three new integrations that have popped up since our last release:

1. Mattersend Python Integration

This simple command line interface (CLI) utility, written in Python 3, enables users to post text to a Mattermost Incoming Webhook. For details please check out the GitHub repository.

Thanks to Joaquim Homrighausen for your amazing work!

2. Sensu Monitoring Service

Here’s a handler that integrates Mattermost with Sensu, and open source monitoring tool that enables users to monitor app health, system statuses, KPIs and more. Take a look at the repository.

Many thanks for your contribution, Matthew Frost!

3. Spy Bot Integration

Curious to chat with a colleague the moment that person logs onto Mattermost without having to keep checking to see whether they’re online yet? Mattermost Spy Bot integration will automatically notify you when users you’ve selected to “spy” on come online. Here’s the repository.

This integration was contributed by Prabhu Jayakumar. Thanks so much!

Hacktoberfest

One last thing: The 2017 Hacktoberfest event is now complete. Once again, developers around the world contributed considerably to several open source projects.

We are thrilled to have been a part of the Digital Ocean event for the second straight year.  

Stay tuned for more details on this year’s winner, which will be published in our next release announcement.

Thank You to Our Contributors

Many thanks to all of our other contributors to this release. Here are our shout-outs this month in alphabetical order:

amyblais, asaadmahmood, bbodenmiller, ccbrown, chclaus, cherealnice, CometKim, comharris, coreyhulen, cpanato, crspeller, csduarte, dmeza, enahum, esethna, fraziern, gelim,  grundleborg, hmhealey, Hyeongmin-Kwon, it33,  ivernus, jarredwitt, jasonblais, jespino, johncoleman83, jwilander, letsila, lfbrock, lindalumitchell, lindy65, longsleep, maruTA-bis5, MusikPolice, pichouk, R-Wang97, rickbatka, ryantm, santos22, saturninoabril, sebgl, shieldsjared, sudheerDev, thePanz, tkbky, tolidano, yeoji, yuya-oc, Zapix

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