Moving chats to the Matrix workspace
What happens to existing Cortex conversations when your organization moves to the Matrix workspace, and how the move can be undone.
An organization moves its existing Cortex conversations into the Matrix workspace in three steps. Organization administrators start and confirm each step.
Moving existing chats needs a messaging deployment that supports it. Until your
deployment does, your existing chat keeps working exactly as before, and
nothing is moved: starting an import is refused
(IMPORT_WINDOW_UNAVAILABLE) before anything becomes read-only. Where it is
supported, the import runs as a dedicated administrator account for your
organization, set up with the deployment's messaging server
(Deploying messaging).
If your deployment has no Matrix workspace at all, existing chat is never read-only.
1. Import
The administrator starts the import. Cortex copies each conversation into its own encrypted Matrix room:
- Messages appear in their original order, with their original times, from the people who wrote them.
- Someone who has left the organization is shown as Former member.
- Uploaded files are not moved. A note in the room says so.
While the import runs, existing chats are read-only. You can still open and
read them, but sending, renaming, deleting, editing and uploading are refused
(LEGACY_CHAT_FROZEN). This keeps a message from being written somewhere the
import can no longer see.
If your retention policy deletes a conversation while the import is copying
it, the import can fail with SOURCE_REFUSED. Start the import again: it picks
up the history as it is now.
2. Commit
When everything has been imported, the administrator commits the move. The Matrix workspace becomes where your organization's chat lives, and the old chats stay read-only.
3. Undo, within 14 days
For 14 days after the commit, the administrator can roll the move back:
- Your existing chats become writable again.
- The imported rooms stay in the Matrix workspace, because messages cannot be un-sent. Cortex stops taking part in them.
- Rooms that were still importing are moved to the bottom of your list.
After 14 days a rollback is refused.
What your people see
- Old chat links still work. A bookmark, notification or pasted link to an
existing chat (
/chat/<id>) opens the room that chat was imported into, if the person is in that room. Otherwise it opens the chat home. A link never reveals whether a room exists that the person cannot open. - Chats outside Cortex point to the new room. When the import makes a chat read-only, the Ask Cortex panel in workflows and the conversation on a workflow step show a This chat moved to Matrix notice in place of the message box, with a link to the conversation in Cortex. Anything already written stays readable.
- A reply cut off by the import appears in the room as a short note saying the reply was interrupted, not as a half-finished answer.
Limits
- Signing in to the Matrix workspace from an old link. If the person has not yet connected their browser to the Matrix workspace, following an old link starts the connection and returns them to the chat home, not the room. They can open the room from the list; the link works directly afterwards.
- Old links need Cortex's own address. An old link opens the room only when Cortex is opened at the address your deployment configures for it (the Cortex app URL). Opened under any other host name, for example a second ingress or an IP address, the link opens the chat home instead.
- Old links need a browser. The link is resolved in the browser, so it shows an empty page for a moment before it opens the room. A client that does not run JavaScript never follows it.
- Video and FLAC. The move does not change what can be sent or previewed: video still cannot be sent and FLAC audio is still not previewed. See Attachments.