The Finance & Administration team manages the Emergencies plugin, which displays an alert banner at the top of every single page on the University of Southern Maine public website. Learn how to update an existing Post, revert a published Post to draft status, and create a new Post.
How-to
What do you need help with?
- Emergencies plugin overview and guidelines
- Update an existing Emergencies plugin Post
- Revert a published Emergencies plugin Post to draft status
- Create a new Emergencies plugin Post
Plugin overview and guidelines
Website visitors cannot dismiss the alert banners (called Posts in the editing environment for the Emergencies plugin) and will encounter them on every page they view. Keeping usability and accessibility best practices in mind, alert banner messages must be brief — this is particularly important for mobile users who have a much smaller viewport than desktop or laptop computer screens.
To communicate any necessary details beyond the character limits noted in the following table, each banner must link to a page with more details. The recommended default link is the Weather Delays, Cancellations, or Closures page. It's not necessary to include https://usm.maine.edu in the URL; you can find the relative URL below.
| Banner element |
Content guidelines |
| Post title |
50 characters (7 – 10 words) |
| Body text |
120 – 126 characters (18 – 24 words) |
| Relative URL for the Weather Delays, Cancellations, or Closures page |
/weather-delays-cancellations-or-closures/ |
To help make 4:30 a.m. updates easier, there are existing Posts in the Emergencies plugin — intended to be updated and reused repeatedly — for all-day closures and delayed starts due to inclement weather. Additional existing Posts include power outages and afternoon cancellations due to inclement weather.
Existing Posts for the situations noted above cover each of the following combinations of affected campuses:
- All three (Portland, Gorham, and Lewiston)
- Lewiston only
- Gorham only
- Portland only
- Gorham and Portland
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Update an existing Post
Step 1
Begin by logging into WordPress and navigating to the University Alerts subsite Dashboard via the My Sites menu in the upper left corner of your screen. From the University Alerts Dashboard, choose the Emergencies plugin link from the left-hand menu.
Alternatively, you can go directly to the Emergencies plugin (you will be prompted to log in to WordPress if you're not already logged in).
Step 2
At the top of your screen, look for the Screen Options tab and click to expand the menu.
Step 3
In the last row of text in the open tab screen, click the radio button next to Extended view, then click the Apply button to save the change.
INFO: If you don't like the Extended view for this or other subsites, you can switch back to Compact view at any time by revisiting the Screen Options tab from any subsite.
Step 4
With the Extended view option enabled (steps 2 & 3 above), you can see the full text for each alert banner message. Find the one you need to update and click the Edit link below the Post title. If you don't have the Extended view option enabled, hover your mouse over the Post title to access the row of hidden links.
Step 5
Update the Post to bring it up to date for today's alert banner.
- Change the date in the Title field to the appropriate date for this alert
- Include the day of the week to help reduce the amount of thinking required of website visitors
- Spell out the day of the week and the month for those whose first language is not English
- If needed, change the time in the Body field to the appropriate time for this alert
- Check the Active box
Review your Post for accuracy and then click the Publish button.
WARNING: If you don't check the Active box, the Emergencies plugin alert banner will not appear on the website.
Step 6
To check your work, hover your mouse over the University Alerts subsite title in the upper left corner of your screen and click the Visit Site link that appears in the dropdown menu (or open it in a new tab by right-clicking or using cmd+click on a Mac).
Step 7
Review your Post for any errors (spelling, date, typos, etc.). Click the included hyperlink to verify that it works and sends you to the correct webpage. If you need to make additional edits, go back to step 5 and then click the Update button to publish the changes. Once you confirm everything live on the website is correct, you're done!
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Revert a published Post to draft status
Emergencies plugin Posts cannot be scheduled to unpublish (or revert to draft status) in WordPress; this is a manual process.
Steps 1 – 3
Complete steps 1 – 3 from the Update an existing Post section above.
Alternatively, you can go directly to the Emergencies plugin (you will be prompted to log in to WordPress if you're not already logged in).
Step 4
With the Extended view option enabled (steps 2 & 3 above), you can see the full text for each alert banner message. Find the one you need to revert to a Draft (it's probably the first one in the list) and click the Quick Edit link below the Post title. If you don't have the Extended view option enabled, hover your mouse over the Post title to access the row of hidden links.
Step 5
Click on the Status dropdown field (to the right of the Title field) and change the selection from Published to Draft. Then, click the Update button (below the Password field) to save the change. WordPress may take several seconds to complete this action. Please be patient!
Step 6
Look for the Draft text indicator at the end of the Post title that you just updated. If you don't see the word Draft, refresh your browser page and/or repeat step 5.
Step 7
Double-check the front end of the website to confirm the Emergencies plugin alert banner is gone. Hover your mouse over the University of Southern Maine link in the upper left of your screen and click on the Visit Site link that appears in the dropdown menu (or open it in a new tab with a right-click or cmd+click on a Mac).
Step 8
If the Emergencies plugin alert banner is gone, you're done! If the alert banner is still visible, go back to step 5 and try again.
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Create a new Post
Steps 1 – 3
Complete steps 1 – 3 from the Update an existing Post section above.
Alternatively, you can go directly to the Emergencies plugin (you will be prompted to log in to WordPress if you're not already logged in).
Step 4
Within the Emergencies plugin, click the Add Post link in the sidebar menu on the left-hand side of your screen.
Step 5
In the Title field, enter a brief heading for your Post (≤ 50 characters or 7 – 10 words). After the heading, add an em dash (with one space on either side), then add the day of the week, month, date, and year of the notification (following the Chicago Manual of Style).
Enter a brief message (120 – 126 characters or 18 – 24 words) in the rich text body field that summarizes the emergency alert, and include a hyperlink (with descriptive text) to a page with more detailed information (e.g., Get the details about campus closures).
Click the Save Draft button often to prevent any loss of your work.
- If you're planning ahead and don't need to publish the alert banner right now, you can exit the edit screen after saving a draft of your Post.
- If you're planning ahead and do know when the alert banner needs to go live, you can schedule the post to publish at any time and date in the future.
Step 6
After you save your Post draft for the first time, update the slug to remove the date from the permalink. This ensures the Post will be evergreen and not tied to a specific date, which can confuse a search engine.
To do this, click the Edit button next to the Permalink field. Delete the characters at the end of the slug that make up the date details. Then click the OK button to save the change. Click the Save Draft button to finalize the update.
Step 7
Review your Post for accuracy. When you're ready, check the Active box and then click the Publish button.
WARNING: If you don't check the Active box, the Emergencies plugin alert banner will not appear on the website.
Step 8
To check your work, hover your mouse over the University Alerts subsite title in the upper left corner of your screen and click the Visit Site link that appears in the dropdown menu (or open it in a new tab by right-clicking or using cmd+click on a Mac).
Step 9
Review your Post for any errors (spelling, date, typos, etc.). Click the included hyperlink to verify that it works and sends you to the correct webpage. If you need to make additional edits, go back to step 5 and then click the Update button to publish the changes. Once you confirm everything live on the website is correct, you're done!
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