(Click to enlarge)

I think we used to have this idea but concluded a simple template edit could serve as a workaround.

I suppose we could make an option for the closed site message to show even when the site is open, as a bulletin. That's a nice clean solution.

I've also thought it would be nice to easily put a short important message at the top. Nice solution

Quoting feedback from user:
"On my site I plan on making a lot of announcements and unfortunately I haven't discovered a way to make a mass announcement on all the pages of the site so that people are aware of the announcement. My suggestion is to utilize the preview feature by adding a bar on the header of each page that can be color coded dependent upon the urgency of the announcement. Users can then hover over that bar to see a preview of the announcement. Once they've done that... the announcement bar can then be clicked off and it disappears until the next announcement is made."

Sounds like a good idea start, but if it's going to be a bar at the top, it may get in the way of the header image and the advertising banners. Hence that's why I suggested announcements go under the header, banner, and menu, but above the rest of the content. But the color coding is a nice idea and so is clicking them off.

I hacked together an announcement banner using the Activities addon back in late v8 but it broke in v9 and I never took the time to fix it. http://ocportal.com/forum/topicview/misc/developing/-hacked-hacking.htm?post_id=96338#post_96338

It was an invaluable site tool for bringing important info immediately to my members.

It would be nice to have an option to be able to show announcements to: members only, guests only, or both members and guests.

I'm looking forward to seeing this become reality, and because I find it invaluable (for me anyway) when I'm working again, I'll sponsor any remaining balance. (But, please don't wait for me because I don't know how long I'll be out of work.)

Thanks sholzy

Thanks for the sponsorship Jason! :)

Now this is sponsored I've given it more thought and re-read over comments.

I don't think we should tie to the closed-site messaging like I originally suggested as that's a bit convoluted. In v10+ we can have as many config options as we want, no need to try and re-use them.
We'll have 5 new options:
- site_message (message to show, mention it supports Comcode)
- site_message_start_datetime (start date/time)
- site_message_end_datetime (end date/time)
- site_message_status_level (list: inform/notice/warn)
- site_message_usergroup_select (a Selectcode string for filtering by usergroup, provide examples in the description for filtering by members only or by guests only)

We'll update the news tutorial to mention the new options and that you could put a link in the site message to a news article using Comcode, to elaborate on the message.

I want us to be able to support multiple messages, but doing a proper admin management module for it would be serious bloat.
So I'd like site_message to support JSON, which I'll document as an advanced thing in the News tutorial.
Example:
[code="JavaScript"]
{
"messages": [
{
"site_message": "First message",
"site_message_start_datetime": "2017-04-23T18:25:43.511Z",
"site_message_end_datetime": "2017-04-24T18:25:43.511Z",
"site_message_status_level": "inform",
"site_message_usergroup_select": null
},
{
"site_message": "Second message",
"site_message_start_datetime": "2017-04-26T18:25:43.511Z",
"site_message_end_datetime": "2017-04-27T18:25:43.511Z",
"site_message_status_level": "inform",
"site_message_usergroup_select": null
}
]
}
[/code]

Implemented in https://github.com/ocproducts/composr/commit/654be88d6e024e3f6052d68eeff9dad620a238ec

"you'd add a news article then you'd like to it"

Thanks KingBast