Special alert

Special alert

Only Site managers have access to the Special alert content type.

A Special alert displays at the top of pages you specify, surrounded by a red border if using the default style, or it displays as a red banner with white font if using the priority style. You may only have one special alert active on a site at a time. A special alert should be approved by the website lead first and only users with the site manager role may create special alerts.

Special alerts should ONLY be used to convey urgently important information.

Default Display style example:

image-20260818-153605.png

Priority Display style example:

image-20260818-153743.png

Create a Special alert

  1. From the administration bar, select Workbench, and then select My Dashboard.

My Dashboard
  1. Navigate to the Content types panel and select Add/edit beside Special alert.

Special alert selected
  1. Check the box beside Display this alert to have the alert display. If you do not check this check box, your special alert will not display!

Display this alert checked
  1. Optionally add a Title.

Title field and display style
  1. Optional: Choose a display style

    1. Default Display style example:

      image-20260818-153605.png

       

    2. Priority Display style example:

      image-20260818-153743.png
  2. Optionally add a Date and Time to display the alert.

Date and Time
  1. Enter a concise alert message in the Special alert message section. Make sure to delete the placeholder text.

Special alert message box
  1. The Pages field determines which pages the alert will be visible on.

    • To only display the Special alert on the homepage, enter <front> in the pages field.

    • To display the Special alert on all pages of your site, leave the Pages field blank.

    • To limit the pages on which the Special alert appears, enter the URL paths, one path per line. You may use a backslash and asterisk (/*) to include all the items under a single path. Examples:

      • /news - includes the News listing page and not any news items.

      • /news/* - includes all the news items under News, but does not include the News listing page.

  2. Select Show for the listed pages for the alert to show for all the pages listed in the Pages field. Select Hide for the listed pages to hide the alert for all the pages listed in the Pages field.

  3. Select Save configuration to save the alert.

Note: The URL path is the characters that are displayed after the backslash of the site

e.g. www.uwaterloo.ca/example-site/path.

Removing a Special alert

To remove a Special alert, you will need to unpublish it.

  1. From the administration bar, select Workbench, and then select My Dashboard.

  2. Navigate to the Content types panel and select Add/edit beside Special alert.

  3. Uncheck the box beside Display this alert.

  4. Select Save configuration.