Chat History in HipChat and retention policies

[Svante Gustafsson Björkegren]

Hi,

Does anybody know what the "Store No History" really means in HipChat admin? I have issues understanding this :-/

I understand the two other settings:

Store All History - All posts are stored and nothing is deleted unless deleted manually

Store Last 75 Messages - rotates out the older posts (per room and 1-1 chats)

But what happens if I select Store No History? Isn't that in contradiction with the purpose of a chat system? Will the post go away at the same time as I post it? (probably not) Is it session-based so everything is deleted when I disconnect?

The reason I am asking is that I have been asked by a customer to elaborate on how attachments are stored on the HipChat servers. (with its public URLs) and how chat history can be used to delete attachments in controlled way.

Thnx in advance!

// Svante

[GarretA · Accepted solution]

Hi Svante,

When using that setting, messages remain visible in our applications while they are open, but after closing them and reconnecting to HipChat no chat history will be visible. They're never stored on our servers.

Note that shared files are not currently affected by these settings and will still be browsable via the Files sidebar in the room/chat. For more information on files, see here; http://help.hipchat.com/knowledgebase/articles/64477-are-files-uploaded-to-hipchat-secure-private-

[Svante Gustafsson Björkegren]

Hi Garret,

Thnx for your answer! It clarified a lot.

However, according to the following posts: http://help.hipchat.com/knowledgebase/articles/64406-how-do-i-delete-chat-history-and-files-files are also deleted when a HipChat post is deleted.

I have verified that attachments are deleted when a post is deleted so maybe that also is the case if posts are deleted when closing a session.

Rgrds,

// Svante

[GarretA]

So I guess it's a bit confusing. You can't explicitly delete a message when using the "store no history" option, since they're never stored to begin with. In this mode, the messages only exist on screen for the users who received them, until they close that room/chat.

[Svante Gustafsson Björkegren]

Ok, got it! So in the case Store No History it is not possible to delete files from the server since the post it came with does not exist there and the only way to delete a file is by deleting the post it came with. Sounds a bit "catch 22"-ish.

Does the other option (store last 75) delete files when it rotates out old post? Logically it should, right?

[GarretA]

Actually, we never automatically delete files or links that show up in the sidebar. There's currently not a way to go manage uploaded files if history retention is set to anything other than "store all history". Keep an eye on the help text beneath the dropdown for this option: "Changing this setting will not affect files or existing chat history."

Clearly there's room for improvement here. We're planning to add day-based retention options in the future that will include files/links, but haven't begun work on this yet; http://help.hipchat.com/forums/138883-suggestions/suggestions/3032844-specify-history-retention-by-number-of-days

[Svante Gustafsson Björkegren]

Thanks for you clarifiaction in this matter. It helped a lot! I have voted for the feature request also!

Cheers,

// Svante