How to set System Messages

The System Message function has been improved in v4.1+ to allow for greater flexibility in when and how messages are displayed to users.

One such example is to send a global reminder to all drivers to ensure the cars are not returned with an empty tank, or updates to safe driving policies such as the use of mobile phones inside the vehicle.

Audience

In PoolCar, you can target specific users or roles with a System Message - we call this the Audience.

Options for the Audience include -

Every user
Users who are in the System Administrator role
Users who are in the Pool Manager role
Users who are in the Pool Officer role
Users who are in the Site Administrator role
A specific individual user

System Messages Activity Log

We also have a list-style report which itemises each individual user's acknowledgement to a System Message.

This is handy for when you need an evidence trail to prove that a particular user did in fact acknowledge a particular message.

Display Until

You can specify two ways that users are exposed to the message - (a) until a specific date, or (b) forever until they acknowledge the message.

Specific date - by selecting a date, your message will be displayed until midnight of this date. For example, if today was the 21st Jan and you specify display until the 21st Jan, the message would still be displayed today up until midnight (in your user's time zone).

User Acknowledgement - your message will be displayed forever, until the user acknowledges the message by clicking the supplied 'OK' button. When a message is acknowledged by a user, this is recorded in a separate log file which logs - (i) the username and (ii) the date/time of acknowledgement.

Display Where

You can specify three locations in which the message can be displayed:

On the 'New Booking' page (daily, weekly or monthly) on the left-hand side. You may already be familiar with this location for displaying system messages.
On the 'New Booking' page (daily, weekly or monthly) at the top of the page. This is new. Both locations (left and top) are enveloped in a blue-background rectangle.
On any page.

The last method (on any page) will always offer an OK button to acknowledge the message. Otherwise the message would display every time the user loads a page which could be a little annoying ;) In other words, if you specify a 'display until' date in conjunction with 'any page' the message will only be displayed up until that date, or when the user clicks 'OK', whichever occurs first.

The 'any page' method displays your message as a type of pop-up window called a "modal window." No page links can be clicked until the OK button is clicked.

Adding Links

To add a clickable link, click the Insert Link icon. A small window will appear prompting you for the web address (URL).

Please note that the link inserted into the editor window will be an internal link. i.e. when the user clicks the link, the use's browser will navigate away from the PoolCar site to the link clicked.

To make the link open in a new browser window/tab, make the link an external link. To do this, switch to HTML mode and add some HTML:

target="_blank"

As an example, a link to the Yahoo site that opens in a new browser window/tab would look like this:

<a href="http://www.yahoo.com" target="_blank">click here</a>

When you are done, click the HTML icon again to toggle back to WYSIWIG editor mode.

Things to Note

If you edit (update) an existing message, all users will receive the newly updated message even if they have previously acknowledged it (clicked the 'OK' button).
You can have multiple messages 'live' at the same time.

If you are unable to find an answer to your question in here please log a support request via the Smartrak Service Desk