Overview
Using Confluence, you leave some personal information in the system: names, e-mails, and so on … Users have to know exactly what the data is used for and have to agree with a privacy policy agreement. The company has to keep track of it as well. So we’ve built this module for that purpose. You have also the possibility to create multiple announcements, in relation to other subjects. Enable your admins to inform users of upcoming events, or other information that affects projects, all without any coding!
Read our guide and find out how to easily create announcements, agreements, and other privacy notifications in Confluence step-by-step.
Notifications & Announcements Dashboard
Open the Confluence administration section using the settings button at the right top corner and choose any item in the dropdown menu. After that, you will see the sidebar – find the Notifications & Announcements module and click on it. Now, you’ll see the Notifications & Announcements Dashboard. It is the main page where an admin can manage all announcements.
How to create an announcement
You can create an announcement with a template. To do so, pick one of two predefined templates (Private Policy or Cookie Policy). Alternatively, you can create a new announcement by clicking the Create button. After that, you’ll see the Configuration page. The configuration of a new announcement consists of two tabs: General and Additional configuration.
Let’s take a look at it in detail.
General configuration
Here is an overview of which General configuration parameters you can set:
Name | Default Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
Status | Disabled | Set the announcement status. Select the Enable mark when the announcement settings are finished. |
Name | Empty | Enter the name of the announcement. It’s an internal name that will be visible for administrators only. |
Type | Required | Choose the type of the announcement: Required or Optional. Required means users will not have any options and will be able to click just one button, for example “Yes“, “Accept“ etc. Optional means users can accept or decline your policy, agreement or any other notification. |
Title | Empty | Enter the title of the announcement. The title will be visible for all users. |
Content type | Custom | Select one of the content types: Custom or Get from a page. Custom means you will enter the text of your message in the Main text field and this message will be visible for users. Use a toolbar for text formatting: set the text type, size, selecting by bold, italics, underlined etc. Get from a page means you will enter the ID of the page in the Page id field, and content from this page will be shown for users as an announcement. |
Additional configuration
Here is an overview of which Additional configuration parameters you can set:
Name | Default Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
Display type | Dialog in the screen center | Define the visualization of the announcement, whether it will be the window in the screen center, or banner in the footer (for cookie notifications mostly). |
Window size | Medium | Choose the suitable window size:
You can see examples when you set the cursor at the “i“ sign. |
Pin to footer | Disabled | Check the checkbox if you need the announcement to be always pinned at the footer of Confluence. |
Allow user’s feedback | Disabled | Check the checkbox when you need to get some short feedback from users. |
Text for accept button | Accept | Define the text that users will see when clicking on the accept button, for example “Accept“ or “Yes“. |
Text for decline button | Decline | Define the text that users will see when clicking on the decline button, for example “Decline“ or “No“. |
Show for group | Empty | Define who will see the announcement: all users or a specified group only. If a group is selected, only users from this group will be able to see the announcement. Leave empty to show to all the users. |
Show announcement for | Only logged in users | Define who will see the announcement: authenticated users only or users who are not authenticated yet. |
Start date | Empty | Define when the announcement will start displaying. |
End date | Empty | Define when the announcement will stop displaying. |
Click on the Create button at the top of the page when all parameters are set, and you’ll see the Dashboard again.
How to create an announcement from a template
Navigate to the Notifications & Announcements Dashboard and click on the Create from template button. After that, choose one of the predefined templates from the dropdown menu.
We have two predefined templates for the most popular announcement types:
Privacy Policy template, an optional announcement with some predefined title and body. An administrator should change it before publishing! It is just an example.
Cookie Policy template, an optional announcement with some predefined title and body for most popular cookie policy examples. It will be shown at the bottom of the page.
You can change the parameters of these templates if it’s necessary.
Set the status Enabled and click on the Update button at the top of the page after all your changes.
Announcement Actions menu
Status quick definition
At your Dashboard, you see all your created announcements.
You can quickly enable or disable the announcement using settings in the Actions menu. For an enabled announcement, you will see the status Enabled highlighted in green. This announcement is active and displayed for users now.
You can check if the announcement is shown correctly. Open any ticket and see the announcement with the display type you have created.
Statistics
You can see the announcement accepting/declining statistics at the Dashboard in the Accepted/Declined column. More statistical details can be found in the Actions/Statistics menu. Click on it and see who accepted or rejected the announcement, their IP addresses, and when it happened. If you have checked the Feedback checkbox, you will also see the responses.
You can export the statistics report to CSV format with the Export button at the top of the page.
If you want to clear the statistics and display the announcement again for users after they have accepted or rejected it, find Clear Statistics in the Actions menu on the Dashboard and click it. This announcement will then be shown again for everyone who has already accepted or declined it.
You can delete this announcement if needed with the Actions menu/Delete option.
Use cases
Various policies and agreements to be shown to users:
Privacy policy,
Information security policy.
Notifications (including maintenance notifications):
Major changes in the application,
Upcoming maintenance,
Different news for different groups of users (divide audiences by selecting the “Show for group” option).