Creating and managing flash messages

What is a flash message ?

A flash message is a message sent by the local administrator. It will automatically be displayed as a banner, in the upper part of the Timeline. Local administrator can select which profiles will be able to see the flash message on their homepage. It is very convenient to broadcast important or urgent news. It is possible to add a link redirecting to another web page.

Before you create a flash message, make sure you’ve selected the school (or head structure) that you want to send a message to.

Creating a new message

Under the Flash message tab, you can create a new flash message by clicking on the Create a message button.

In the form that appears, enter the following information:

• Title: This information will not appear in the flash message and is for your reference only. The title will let you quickly identify the message from the list of sent messages;
• Start date: By clicking on the icon, you can enter a later date and program a flash message in advance;
• End date: The flash message will be displayed until this date at midnight;
• Profiles: Under this tab, you can select which users will see your message the next time they sign in. Profiles that are not selected will not see the message. You can publish several messages at the same time and send them either to a single profile group or multiple profile groups. However, we recommend not sending more than two messages at once so they don't lose their impact and to avoid making the interface appear crowded.

• Language: You can publish versions of your message in several languages if you have users that have selected a different language option for the platform. To do so, you don't have to rewrite your flash message. Just click on the language you want and write your message in box at the bottom of the screen. It will be automatically sent to the right platforms in the right languages.

• Banner color: You can select a specific banner color for your message.
• Notification: Use this option if you want users to receive a notification whenever you publish a flash message. Please note! You can only send a notification if the flash message is being published immediately or during the same day. If you schedule the flash message to be published at a later date, you will not be able to select the “Email notification” option. 
• Message preview: Preview your message before publishing it.

Once you’ve finished, you can click on “Upload” to confirm your flash message.

Special cases

If you are an administrator of a head structure (an entity overseeing several schools or sub-structures), when creating a flash message for the head structure, you can select which schools you would like to receive the message by clicking on Manage and selecting the relevant schools  from the list.

You will only be able to select schools or structures for which you are an administrator.

Edit, duplicate, or delete a flash message

The flash messages you create are displayed in a table. You can filter these messages by their publication status: All, Pending, Upcoming (start date after current date), and Obsolete (end date after current date).

When you select a message in the table, three new buttons will appear in the upper right-hand corner of the table under the Create a message button. These three buttons let you Delete a flash message, Duplicate it, or Edit it.