Creating messages

Best way to create messages is to first create a template to define the structure and styles for your message in a reusable package.

To create a message:

• Go to Messages
• Click on Add new message
• Give your message a descriptive name
• Pick a placement (that you hopefully created already.)

Placement

Each message needs to have one or more placements, a configuration that tells on which page the message is displayed and a page element the message is attached to.

You can pick one or more placements (but you'll need at least one.) With multiple placements your message will be shown on each one of them.

Start and stop times

If you need to time the message to be visible only on certain time, enable start time, end time, or both. Click the date field to open a calendar which lets you choose a date. The time of day is selected using the hour and minute inputs.

Message content

With message content you have two options: using a Template or writing HTML, CSS, and JS specific for this message.

Using a template

• Pick a template (which again you hopefully created beforehand.)
• Fill in all the variables included in the template

Using HTML, CSS, and JS

You can create custom messages using HTML, CSS, and JS. You don't have to use all of them, a message can only have HTML or some JS code if you want.

Making the message show up only once

Some messages only need to be seen once. For example you might have a message about customer service being busy. There's no need to rub that into your customers' face on each page load.

You can make the message hide automatically by selecting 'Show message only on first page load'.

You can also have the message be visible until user closes it via a close button on the message. This option requires placing a link element with class 'close' to message HTML and rigging it to close the message.

Both options hide the message during the session (one continuous usage session of your site) and the message will reappear the next time the user comes to your site.

If you use a message template these settings are found in the template's settings.

Once you are ready save the message:

• Click Save changes to save... your changes

Showing the message on your website

By default each new message is hidden to allow you to edit them in your own pace. You can verify this by looking at the Status field in the top part of the message editing form - it should say "Message is not active".

If you want to preview the message and have a separate testing environment for your website, enable "preview mode" and click on Activate preview

When you are ready to display the message to the world, disable preview mode and click on Activate. The message should be visible in a couple seconds.

When you want to hide a message click on Deactivate