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IT Services Group D-PHYS

Bots

For the full list of available bots and to get help, join #bots:mbot.ethz.ch. New bots and updates will be posted in this room.

To manage bots /invite or /kick them like regular users. They respond to !commands or react to patterns or words.

Most of them support encryption, but it can be unreliable. It is probably a bad idea anyway to include a bot in your encrypted conversations.

Maubot

Most of them are documented on the maubot github page or on t2bot.io (a public integration network for Matrix).

Gitlab

A bot for showing Gitlab activity in your Matrix room and for interacting with your Gitlab repositories.

Getting notifications in your room

Apply the following steps:

  1. Invite gitlab (@gitlab:mbot.ethz.ch) to your room.
  2. Log in to Gitlab and open your repository's webhooks settings.
  3. For the URL, put https://mbot.ethz.ch/_matrix/maubot/plugin/gitlab/webhooks?room=!your_room_id. Your room ID can be found on the "Advanced" tab of your room settings in Element.
  4. For the Secret Token, put mbot
  5. Check off the triggers you'd like to have in your room and click "Add webhook".

To later remove the bot from your room, delete the webhook in Gitlab and kick the bot from the room.

Managing your repositories with the bot

The bot has several commands to do things like create issues which require access to your Gitlab account.

  1. Invite gitlab (@gitlab:mbot.ethz.ch) to a private chat.
  2. Log in to Gitlab and go to your account settings. Once there, click "Access Tokens" on the left side.
  3. Generate a new access token with a name and optional expiration date. Ensure the token has all available scopes assigned. These are required so that it can create issues and such on your behalf.
  4. In your private chat with the bot, say !gitlab login your_access_token
  5. If successful, say !gitlab help to see what the bot can do.

Reminders

  • Supports recurring reminders, cron-style reminders, room reminders

Usage

  • Invite reminder (@reminderbot:mbot.ethz.ch) to your room
  • Type !help reminders or have a look at the readme
  • For room reminders set the appropriate power level (Moderator)

Lunch

A maubot plugin for the canteen lunch menus at ETH Zurich.

  • Show lunch menu (optional canteens filter)
  • Set up recurring reminders to post the lunch menu

Gitlab: https://gitlab.phys.ethz.ch/isgphys/maubot-ethzlunch

Usage

  • Invite lunch (@lunchmenu:phys.ethz.ch)
  • Show menu: !lunch menu or !lunch menu [canteens] (or one of the aliases such as !hunger)
  • German menus: !lunch config language de
  • Reminder: !lunch remind 11:00 (and optionally 👍️ it to get pinged)

It shows a selection of canteens on Hönggerberg by default. If you are interested in other canteens:

  • List them all: !lunch canteen
  • Configure your selection: !lunch config canteen <canteens> (example: all or poly,food market,fusion)

For details see:

  • !lunch
  • !lunch config
  • !lunch help

Arxiv

A maubot plugin that gives arXiv summaries (ETH gitlab, github).

  • Invite arxiv (@arxiv:phys.ethz.ch) to your room
  • Paste URLs of arXiv abstracts (https://arxiv.org/abs/XXX) to your room
  • The bot will respond with Date, Title, Authors, Abstract and PDF link.

Stickers

Note: Service is disabled due to lack of an integration manager

Create your own sticker packs to share with others (or to keep to yourself). This requires an integration manager which supports custom sticker packs.

Usage

  • Invite stickers (@stickers:mbot.ethz.ch) to a private chat.
  • Say !stickers newpack and follow the directions.
  • Open the integration manager and edit your sticker packs.
  • Paste the URL the bot gave you into the "Add Sitcker Packs" box.
  • Click "Add Stickerpack"

Emailbot

A bot that posts messages to rooms when an email is received. Ideal for uses where a short message is desired in a chat room when a newsletter goes out.

This bot can only receive emails from within the ETH network, this includes:

  • mails from @phys.ethz.ch or @ethz.ch mail addresses
  • mailing lists (lists.phys.ethz.ch/)
  • direct mails from computers or IoT devices on the ETH network

It is still possible to route external emails to the bot via a D-PHYS mailbox or alias. Please contact us to request a mailbox/alias (if not already existing).

Usage

  • Invite emailbot @emailbot:mbot.ethz.ch to your Matrix room.
  • Get your room's internal ID (for instance, !ZkngAyfszzfCqwNZUd:phys.ethz.ch which is #test:phys.ethz.ch).
  • Contact rda @rda:phys.ethz.ch (via DM) to set the appropriate allow_from rule for your room ID.
  • Send an email to <room id without !>_<domain>@emailbot.mbot.ethz.ch (eg: ZkngAyfszzfCqwNZUd_phys.ethz.ch@emailbot.mbot.ethz.ch).
  • See the message the bot posts (click on view to see the whole message).
  • Optional: create an email forward from a mailbox or subscribe to a mailing list using the email address from above.