Misc / General CSI -> Front page message/announcement type feature

[richm]

I'm borrowing and expanding on idea that came up in this thread by Scott Blood:

Couple of Questions

But didn't want to hijack the original thread...

I'd like to see some kind of "front message" module.

I know we have "news" but perhaps a "scroller" or "stock ticker" type message would get clients attention better when we know we are having technical difficulties.

It would have to be "behind" the login (e.g. can't see the scroller message until you are logged in.) Or configurable to allow/disallow putting it on the main index page (no login needed)

Maybe to the right of "Support Center" once logged in and also along the bottom of the " Submit a Ticket" page?

With a Staff CP that allows you to place a "front message" to get clients attention that we are having a given issue and are aware of it.

...or maybe even a "trigger" within IRS such that if they typed in the problem, it would bring up a news article about current known issues we are working to resolve.

Or, a special keyword within IRS, such that if they type something like "systemstatus" they would get a related news item.


Regards,

Rich

[Siora]

I totally agree with this. This request can be used by everyone (can be used to advertise sales).

[ScottGBlood]

Originally Posted by Siora

I totally agree with this. This request can be used by everyone (can be used to advertise sales).

This gets my vote totally.

Currently on the support phone system we can place a message that is heard by all users before they get through to a support member and it has reduced the calls to the IT Support people 10 fold.

now that we have rolled out the support system in head office we are seeing duplicate calls raised because we can show a message like this on the system without hacking into the php behind which to be honest is quite complicated for me because i am a c++ \ c# programmer.

Regards

[ScottGBlood]

Hey All,

After a quick conversation with jamie, he has given me a very good solution to this which is a good workaround until something more permenant is implemented for this.

Login to the admin CP and in templates --> general edit the index template from...

 
<{displaytemplate name="header"}>
 <table width="100%"  border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
 <tr><td align="left" valign="top">
 
  <table width="100%"  border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
  <{foreach key=key value=item from=$widgets}>
  <{if $item[split] eq 0}><tr><{/if}>
 
   <!-- BEGIN WIDGET: <{$item[title]}> -->
   <td width="50%"><table cellspacing="3" cellpadding="1" width="100%" border="0">
              <tbody>
                <tr>
                  <td valign="top" width="15" nowrap><a href="<{$item[link]}>"><img src="<{$item[icon]}>" border="0"></a></td>
                  <td width="98%" align="left" valign="top"><a href="<{$item[link]}>" id="moduletitle"><strong><{$item[title]}></strong></a><br />
     <span class="smalltext"><{$item[description]}></span></td>
                </tr>
              </tbody>
            </table></td>
   <!-- END WIDGET: <{$item[title]}> -->
  <{if $item[split] eq 1}></tr>
          <tr>
            <td height="4" colspan="2" background="<{$themepath}>linerepeat.gif"><img src="<{$themepath}>space.gif" width="1" height="4"></td>
            </tr><{/if}>
   <{/foreach}>
 
    <tr>
   <td height="5" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><img src="<{$themepath}>space.gif" width="1" height="5"></td>
    </tr>
          <tr>
            <td colspan="2">
   <!-- QUICK BOX ITEMS -->
   <{if $istroubleshooterquickbox eq true}>
   <{displaytemplate name="tsquickbox"}>
   <{/if}>
   <{if $ispopularfilesqb == true}>
   <{displaytemplate name="dlpopularfilesquickbox"}>
   <{/if}>
   <{if $islatestfilesqb == true}>
   <{displaytemplate name="dllatestfilesquickbox"}>
   <{/if}>
   <{if $ispopulararticlesqb == true}>
   <{displaytemplate name="kbpopulararticlesqb"}>
   <{/if}>
   <{if $islatestarticlesqb == true}>
   <{displaytemplate name="kblatestarticlesqb"}>
   <{/if}>
   </td>
            </tr>
        </table>
</td><td width="5"><img src="<{$themepath}>space.gif" width="5" height="1"></td></tr>
</table>
  <{displaytemplate name="footer"}>

to

 
<{displaytemplate name="header"}>
 <table width="100%"  border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
 <tr><td align="left" valign="top">
 
  <table width="100%"  border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0">
  <{foreach key=key value=item from=$widgets}>
  <{if $item[split] eq 0}><tr><{/if}>
   <!-- BEGIN WIDGET: <{$item[title]}> -->
   <td width="50%"><table cellspacing="3" cellpadding="1" width="100%" border="0">
              <tbody>
                <tr>
 
                  <td valign="top" width="15" nowrap><a href="<{$item[link]}>"><img src="<{$item[icon]}>" border="0"></a></td>
                  <td width="98%" align="left" valign="top"><a href="<{$item[link]}>" id="moduletitle"><strong><{$item[title]}></strong></a><br />
     <span class="smalltext"><{$item[description]}></span></td>
                </tr>
              </tbody>
            </table></td>
   <!-- END WIDGET: <{$item[title]}> -->
  <{if $item[split] eq 1}></tr>
          <tr>
            <td height="4" colspan="2" background="<{$themepath}>linerepeat.gif"><img src="<{$themepath}>space.gif" width="1" height="4"></td>
            </tr><{/if}>
   <{/foreach}>
 
    <tr>
   <td height="5" bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><img src="<{$themepath}>space.gif" width="1" height="5"></td>
    </tr>
          <tr>
            <td colspan="2">
   <!-- QUICK BOX ITEMS -->
   <{if $istroubleshooterquickbox eq true}>
   <{displaytemplate name="tsquickbox"}>
   <{/if}>
   <{if $ispopularfilesqb == true}>
   <{displaytemplate name="dlpopularfilesquickbox"}>
   <{/if}>
   <{if $islatestfilesqb == true}>
   <{displaytemplate name="dllatestfilesquickbox"}>
   <{/if}>
   <{if $ispopulararticlesqb == true}>
   <{displaytemplate name="kbpopulararticlesqb"}>
   <{/if}>
   <{if $islatestarticlesqb == true}>
   <{displaytemplate name="kblatestarticlesqb"}>
   <{/if}>
   </td>
            </tr>
        </table>
</td><td width="5"><img src="<{$themepath}>space.gif" width="5" height="1"></td></tr>
</table>
<b>WE ARE CURRENTLY EXPERIENCING PROBLEMS WITH THE PHONE SYSTEMS.  IF YOUR ENQUIRY IS REGARDING THE PHONE SYSTEM DO NOT LOG ANY FURTHER JOBS.</b>
</br>
</br>
Last Updated: 26 July 2007 13:45
  <{displaytemplate name="footer"}>

obviously you can place any kind of HTML or text here, but it works perfectly for our needs and could help others to.

Regards
Scott

[craigbrass]

I agree with this and a permanent solution would be good.