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System Messages

How to display a system message at the top of your Stack Overflow for Teams Enterprise site.

Joel Bradley avatar
Written by Joel Bradley
Updated over 3 months ago

Tags | Messages |

Applies to: Enterprise

ADMIN PRIVILEGES REQUIRED

This documentation is for Stack Overflow Enterprise. Free, Basic, and Business users can access their documentation here. Find your plan.


Overview

A system message lets you put up a banner that shows at the top of every page of your private Stack Overflow for Teams Enterprise (SOE) site.

When to use a system message

System messages are helpful for displaying important messages to all of the users on your site. Here are a few common use cases:

  • Put up a system message to announce upcoming maintenance on the site.

  • Put up a warning or disclaimer message about the usage of the site.

  • To alert users of a new feature or policy on the site.

Manage system messages

To manage system messages, click Admin settings in the left-hand menu, then Custom messages. Under the Hide the system message when logged out checkbox, click System messages. You can also go directly to https://[your_site]/admin/messages/system.

Add a new message

On the system messages page, input the message into Message Text box. You can use certain basic HTML tags for formatting (see the "HTML support" section below). As you type and format your message, SOE will show a preview of your message at the top of the page.

Set Display this message for to a duration or specific end date and time. If you enter a date and time, use UTC format and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT, not your time zone). When you're done with the message, click Add message then confirm. SOE will display the system message for all users immediately.

Remove the active system message

After you add a message, the "Add a New Message" box disappears. Instead, you'll see the current (active) system message. To remove the system message before it expires, click its Remove link.

Reuse a past message

After a system message's duration or expiration date/time pass, SOE stops displaying it. SOE will then list the message with other old system messages in the "Past Messages" list. To reuse any past message, click its Re-use link. This places the message in the Message Text box, where you can edit it or resuse it as-is.

Hide system messages for logged-out users

By default, SOE will display the active system message for all users whether logged in or not. If you'd like only logged-in users to see the system message, check the Hide the system message when logged out checkbox at Admin settings -> Custom messages.

HTML support

System messages support a reduced set of HTML tags including:

  • blockquote

  • code

  • em

  • h1, h2, h3

  • dd, dt, dl, del

  • i

  • kbd

  • li, ol

  • pre

  • sub, sup, strong, strike

  • ul

  • br

  • hr

They also provide limited support for the following tags:

  • img

  • a

Avoid using illegal characters in the "href" or "src" attributes of the a and img tags. SOE will try to encode illegal characters, but will reject the tag if it fails.

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