Rocket.Chat to Matrix Migration Script

Script to migrate users, channels and messages from Rocket.Chat communication platform to a Matrix Synapse server. It currently has beta quality and comes with no warranty.

Installation and Usage

This setup is intended to migrate from Rocket.Chat to Synapse once, using mongo database dumps and a fresh Synapse instance. After the migration and some clean up, the Synapse might be used by users.

Exporting RC data

Currently manually via mongodb. Run the following on the server:

mongoexport --collection=rocketchat_message --db=rocketchat --out=rocketchat_message.json
mongoexport --collection=rocketchat_room --db=rocketchat --out=rocketchat_room.json
mongoexport --collection=users --db=rocketchat --out=users.json

Export them to inputs/

Configuring the Matrix Dev Server

Generate a Synapse homeserver config with the following command (you might change my.matrix.host for the actual server name, as it can't be changed afterwards):

docker compose run --rm -e SYNAPSE_SERVER_NAME=my.matrix.host -e SYNAPSE_REPORT_STATS=no synapse generate

To run the script without hitting rate limiting and activating an Application Service to send messages by different users with our desired timestamps, you MUST add the following options to the freshly generated files/homeserver.yaml. Do not leave these in the production setup!

rc_joins:
  local:
    per_second: 1024
    burst_count: 2048
rc_joins_per_room:
  per_second: 1024
  burst_count: 2048
rc_message:
  per_second: 1024
  burst_count: 2048
rc_invites:
  per_room:
    per_second: 1024
    burst_count: 2048
  per_user:
    per_second: 1024
    burst_count: 2048
  per_issuer:
    per_second: 1024
    burst_count: 2048
app_service_config_files:
  - /data/app-service.yaml

Now edit app-service.example.yaml and save it at files/app-service.yaml, changing the tokens manually.

Copy over .env.example to .env and insert your values. Also export the variables with source .env.

Starting the Matrix Dev Server

Boot up the container and (for the first time starting the server or after resetting it manually) create an admin user:

docker compose up -d
# Wait for the Server to boot, then register an admin user
docker compose exec -it synapse register_new_matrix_user http://localhost:8008 --config /data/homeserver.yaml --admin --user $ADMIN_USERNAME --password $ADMIN_PASSWORD

Then you can access the homeserver in Element Web or the local admin interface as http://localhost:8008 with your $ADMIN_USERNAME/$ADMIN_PASSWORD as username/password.

Store an access token for that user:

curl --request POST \
  --url http://localhost:8008/_matrix/client/v3/login \
  --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  --data "{\"type\": \"m.login.password\",\"user\": \"$ADMIN_USERNAME\",\"password\": \"$ADMIN_PASSWORD\",\"device_id\": \"DEV\"}" \
> src/config/synapse_access_token.json

Installing and Running the Script

Install NodeJS >= v19 and npm on your system, install the script's dependencies via npm install --omit=optional.

To finally run the script, execute it via npm start.

Running Tests

npm test.

Cleaning Up

To clean up the Synapse server and local storage database, run either the convenience script ./reset.sh or start with:

docker compose down
sudo rm files/homeserver.db
rm db.sqlite

Then you can restart with an empty but quite equal server, following the instructions above to start the dev server.

Design Decisions

• Getting data from Rocket.Chat via manual mongodb export
• Room to Channel conversion:
  • Read-only attributes of channels not converted to power levels due to complexity
• Reactions and emojis:
  • So far only reactions used in our chats have been translated
  • To add more, src/emojis.json can be modified (PRs with additions are appreciated)
    • These mappings take precedence over the used translation library
  • Individual logos of netzbegruenung and verdigado have been replaced by a generic sunflower
  • Skin colour tones and genders have been ignored in the manual translation, using the neutral versions
• Discussions are not translated, yet, as they have a channel-like data structure which probably should be translated to threads
• Generally state change events are not translated (anymore, for the sake of complexity), but the final state should be equal
  • Memberships: change events are ignored. Memberships are applied at the start, when needed or terminated at the end
  • Name changes: as the previous state is usually unknown, they are ignored
• If the root message of a thread is deleted or of a deleted user, the thread will be skipped
• The script follows a design to easily continue a migration if the script crashed by restarting it
• Any normal username containing the configured admin name causes trouble

Contributing

This FOSS project is open for contributions. Just open an issue or a pull request.

Hint: pre-commit

To keep the code clean and properly formatted, install and use pre-commit.

• Install it via pip install pre-commit

• Install the repo's pre-commit hooks for yourself: pre-commit install.

  Now it will run whenever you commit something

• Run pre-commit against all files: pre-commit run --all-files

License

Licensed under AGPL v3 or newer. Copyright 2023 verdigado eG support@verdigado.com.

Support

Contact support@verdigado.com to get an offer for personal or commercial support. Community support might be provided through the issue tracker.