Channel Actions

Inside channels, you can also do more than post messages and upload files. Increase your interaction with messages through Channel actions.

Find channel actions

To find channel actions, go to the right of the channel title and click the menu.

Channel actions vary depending on the server configuration, so the items listed below might not all be visible in your installation.

Favorite

To help organize and prioritize your communications, you can favorite (or star) channels, private groups, and DMs.

To favorite a channel, click the star icon to the left of the channel header.

Favoriting a channel moves it to a Favorites section on the channels list, making it easier to access and find.

Channel Info

Here you can see all kinds of information about the current channel. If you admin permissions, you can edit this information. These are the channel info options:

• Channel Name: The name of the channel, how users see the title and find the channel via search.

• Topic: The topic shows next to the title on the channel header. Great for giving more info about the channel.

• Announcement: Announcements post in a bar under the channel header.

• Description: The description of the channel.

• Private: Tells whether a channel is private, and can set the channel to private or public.

• Read Only: Tells whether a channel is read-only, and toggles the read-only status on the channel. In read-only channels, only people with admin permissions can post messages. Good for announcements channels.

• Archived: Tells if a channel is archived, and toggles the archived status of a channel. Nobody can post messages in an archived channel, and channel search will not find that channel.

• Password: Tells whether a channel has a password and let you set the password. If a channel has a password, other users need to enter the password to become a member of the channel.

If a retention policy is active on this channel, a red warning box appears saying when messages or files are deleted.

Search Messages

Ministry.Chat search supports basic search commands which work like Gmail search.

Ministry.Chat also supports the use of "regular expressions." Regular expressions provide flexibility and the ability to search chat entries in any language, even ones which are traditionally a challenge like "CJK" languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean).

Basic Search Commands

You can use these commands before or after entering search terms:

• from:me to search for messages only created by the current user.

• from:user.name to search for messages created by a specific user. The username entered must be the format without spaces (i.e., "john.doe" and not "John Doe.") Search for any mentions of a user by searching for their username.

• has:star returns messages that are starred by the current user.

• is:pinned or has:pin returns messages that pin in the current channel.

• has:url or has:link returns messages that contain a link.

• has:location or has:map returns messages that have a location attached.

• before:dd/mm/yyyy, after:dd/mm/yyyy and on:dd/mm/yyyy return message that were created before, after, or on the provided date.

  Dashes dd-mm-yyyy or dots dd.mm.yyyy can be used instead of slashes. order:asc, order:ascend, or order:ascending sorts messages by ascending timestamp.

• order:desc, order:descend, or order:descending sorts messages by descending timestamp.

  You can also jump to where a message is located by hovering the mouse over the search result and selecting jump to message.

Regex

These references tell more about the powerful world of regex:

• Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression

• Regex 101 - https://regex101.com/#javascript

• Regexr - http://regexr.com/

• Regex Info - http://www.regular-expressions.info/javascriptexample.html

Members List

Here you can see all the users on the channel and see more information about them. If you have the proper permission, you can manage them on your channel.

At first, the list only shows currently active users. To see all users, click the show all.

To see more information on a user, click their name on the list.

The user preview screen shows their name, username, any role tags they might have, and their current timezone. From there, you can:

• Start a direct conversation with the user by clicking the conversation option

• Start a video call with the user

• Set the user as channel owner

• Set the user as a channel's moderator

• Mute the user

• Remove the user from the channel

Notifications

You can change the behavior of notifications for channels where you are a member. By default, a channel notifies you whenever someone mentions you or uses the @all mention.

These options are on the channel notifications tab:

• Disable Notifications: Disable all notifications for the channel.

• Audio: Select whether the channel will emit a sound whenever someone mentions you or posts a message in that channel. The sound played can be customized.

• Desktop: Controls notification behavior when using any desktop app or browser.

• Mobile: Controls push notification behavior when using any mobile app.

• Email: Set whether an email sends whenever someone mentions you or posts a message, or disable email notifications.

• Unread Room Status: Control whether the channel on the channel list highlights when there is a new message or mention.

• Unread Tray Icon: Controls whether the tray icon highlights when there are new messages or mentions on the current channel.

Message list options

This section details a list of all different types of lists specific to channels:

• Files List: A list of all the files uploaded to the current channel.

• Mentions: All messages that mentioned you on the current channel.

• Starred Messages: All messages that you have starred in the current channel.

• Pinned Messages: All messages pinned to the current channel.

Streaming

If the feature Youtube Livestream is enabled, the Streaming Tab activates on the channel actions menu.

Through the Streaming tab, owners of the channel of server admins can start streaming or add another stream to the channel using a URL.

Start a stream

Note: Depending on the settings of the server, you might be only able to link live streams from Youtube. In doubt always ask your server's admin.

1. Press the Broadcast my Camera button.

2. Login with a Google account. Remember that streaming must be activated through your Youtube account. For more information, see Introduction to live streaming Google guide).

To add a different Livestream, get the URL (must be from Youtube) for the stream, enter it into the Livestream source field and hit save.

You can also add a message for whenever the stream is unavailable in the Livestream not available message field.

To add a stream with no video and only audio, use the Enable audio only button.

(Users) Start a Live Stream

If you are not a channel owner and there is already a live stream set to that channel, press play on the stream tab. This starts a pop-up with the stream embedded. The pop-up does not close even if you change channels.

Prune Messages

If you are a server admin, or your admin has given you the clean-channel-history permission, the prune messages option allows you to delete messages from a channel swiftly.

Note: Messages and files deleted with this option are deleted forever and cannot be recovered. Be careful and double-check your arguments before pressing Prune.

Use the following parameters to delete specific messages:

• Newer than: Deletes all messages posted after a particular date.

• Older than: Deletes all messages posted before a particular date.

Fill dates for both the Newer than and Older than fields to delete all messages.

• Users: Allows you to specify any users to delete the content. When filled with a username, that user's messages deleted.

Refine the parameters above with the following options. Check each to enable:

• Inclusive: Deletes all messages that land on the exact start/end times you have specified in the Newer than and Older than fields.

• Exclude pinned messages: Do not delete pinned messages.

• Only remove the attached files, keep messages: Removes files but not the messages themselves