Desktop App deployment guide 

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Mattermost desktop applications are available for Windows, macOS, and Linux operating systems.

You can download the apps directly from our download page and visit our installation guides for help during setup and for troubleshooting tips.

This page provides a guide on how to customize and distribute your own Mattermost desktop app, and how to distribute the official Windows desktop app silently to end users, pre-configured with the server URL and other app settings.

Custom build configuration 

You can customize and distribute your own Mattermost desktop application by configuring src/common/config/buildConfig.js.

  1. Configure the desktop app’s buildConfig.js file. There are multiple parameters you can configure to customize the user experience:

defaultTeams 

Description

List of server URLs and their display names added to the desktop app by default, which the user cannot modify. Users can still add servers through the Server Management page unless enableServerManagement is set to false.

Expects an array of key-value pairs.

Example

defaultTeams: [
  {
    name: 'example',
    url: 'https://example.com'
  },
  {
    name: 'mattermost',
    url: 'https://www.mattermost.com'
  }
]

enableServerManagement 

Description

Controls whether users can add, edit, or remove servers on the app settings page. If set to false, at least one server must be specified for defaultTeams or else users cannot interact with any servers.

Expects a boolean, true or false.

Examples

enableServerManagement: true

  1. To build the application, follow the Mattermost Desktop Development Guide.

Windows App: Pre-configuration and silent deployment 

You can distribute the official Windows desktop app silently to end users, pre-configured with the server URL. You can also set all the app settings except for the Start app on login option.

  1. Download the latest Windows installer from the Mattermost download page.

  2. Move the executable file into a shared place such as a file server.

  3. To create a batch file in Windows:

  • Open a text editor of your choice, such as Notepad or Notepad++.

  • Copy and paste the following commands in the text file:

rem "Step 1: Install Mattermost desktop app silently into user's local disk"
start \\SERVER\shared_folder\mattermost-setup-4.6.2-win.exe --silent

if not exist "%APPDATA%\Mattermost" mkdir %APPDATA%\Mattermost

rem "Step 2: Generate initial config.json into user's config directory"
(
  echo {
  echo   "version": 2,
  echo   "teams": [
  echo     {
  echo       "name": "core",
  echo       "url": "https://community.mattermost.com",
  echo       "order": 0
  echo     }
  echo   ],
  echo   "showTrayIcon": true,
  echo   "trayIconTheme": "light",
  echo   "minimizeToTray": true,
  echo   "notifications": {
  echo     "flashWindow": 2,
  echo     "bounceIcon": true,
  echo     "bounceIconType": "informational"
  echo   },
  echo   "showUnreadBadge": true,
  echo   "useSpellChecker": true,
  echo   "enableHardwareAcceleration": true,
  echo   "autostart": true,
  echo   "spellCheckerLocale": "en-US",
  echo   "darkMode": false
  echo }
) > %APPDATA%\Mattermost\config.json

Note

Instead of using this command to install the desktop app into a shared folder, you can also copy the executable to the folder before running it. This allows the shared folder to only require read-only permissions.

  1. Save the text file with the extension .bat. For instance, mattermost-app-install.bat.

  2. Use standard software asset management tools to distribute and deploy the batch file to each user.

Once run, the desktop app is added to the user’s local directory, along with the pre-configured config.json file. The installer creates a shortcut for the desktop app in the user’s start menu; if a zip version is used, you need to create the shortcut manually.

Windows App: Silently removing the app 

To remove the app silently from a user’s computer, you can run the following command:

%userprofile%\AppData\local\Programs\mattermost-desktop\Uninstall Mattermost.exe /currentuser /S

Note

The .exe needs to be closed when this command is run