Getting started

How to configure and use the Alerts app for SharePoint Online by Accelerator 365

The Alerts app from Accelerator 365 displays important notifications to your users. Display alerts in a web part on any part of your SharePoint page or prominently inject an alert above the navigation across entire SharePoint sites.

Jump to

• Recommended setup considerations
• Configuring the app for the first time
  
• Create an alert
• Display an alert:
  1. In a web part
  2. In the Viva Connections Dashboard
  3. Across your site

Recommended setup considerations

The Alerts app stores its data in SharePoint lists. This includes data such as the alerts that have been created, in addition to the users that have dismissed a particular alert (see the Technical details page for further information). These lists, referred to as the "data source", can be created via the web part property pane and do not require manual setup.

We recommend creating the data source on the same site as where the app will be displayed if possible. In some rare scenarios, you may wish to create a single data source and display it on multiple pages, across multiple sites.

Configuring the app for the first time

The Alerts package contains two web parts - Alerts Directory and Alerts. First, you will need to configure the Alerts Directory.

1. If you are not already in edit mode on your page, select Edit on the top right of the page.
2. Add the Alerts Directory web part to your page.
3. Select the Edit web part button located on the web part toolbar to open the properties pane.
4. Select create data source from the first section in the property pane.
   
   

   Note: you will first need to select a site for the data to live. This could be any site but if you choose to select a site different from the current site please ensure that potential users have read access.

5. You can optionally enable audience targeting to promote alerts to specific audiences across your site.

Create an alert

Once the Alerts Directory web part has been configured, you will then have the option to create an alert.

1. As a user with edit permissions to the Alerts Directory, select the Add alert button that appears on the web part.
   
   

   Note: the page does not need to be in edit mode.

2. A panel with a form will appear on the right side of the page. Here you can:
   1. Write an alert message with basic rich text formatting, such as bold, italics, underline, and hyperlinks.
   2. Select from 5 alert types. Alert types are based on 5 pre-set colours.
   3. Display an icon with your alert from our icon library.
   4. Enable/disable the advanced options for an alert to:
      1. Collapse into a single line
      2. Scheduled to appear and disappear at a set date and time
      3. Or be dismissed by users
   5. Select the audiences to target your alert to.
      
      

      Note: this option requires the enable audience targeting feature to have been enabled on the Alerts Directory web part.

3. Create your alert by selecting the Save option.

Display an alert

There are 3 options to choose from when displaying an alert:

1. In a web part

1. If you are not already in edit mode on your page, select Edit on the top right of the page.
2. Add the Alerts web part to your page.
3. Click on the Configure button on the web part. The web part properties pane will appear.
4. Connect to the data source site you created in the Alerts Directory web part.
5. An optional setting in the web part properties pane allows you to hide the web part if there are no alerts to display. Enable or disable this option based on your preference.
6. Publish the page for users to view your alert.

2. In the Viva Connections Dashboard

1. Navigate to your Viva Connections Dashboard page and select Edit on the top right of the page.
2. Add the Alerts card to your page.
3. Select the Edit card button located on the card toolbar to open the properties pane.
4. In the properties pane, you can:
   1. Choose from the medium and large card size
   2. Enter a title for the card
   3. Connect to the data source site you created in the Alerts Directory web part.
   4. Select the audiences to target your card to.
      
      

      Note: this audience targeting applies to the card. If you wish to audience target specific alerts, this should be done in the Alerts Directory web part.

   5. Publish the dashboard page for users to view your alert via the Dashboard for Viva Connections web part.

3. Across your site

1. Click the Settings icon on the SharePoint suite bar and navigate to Site contents.
2. In Site contents, a configuration panel for the Alerts extension will appear at the foot of the page. Click on Configure button
3. A property pane will appear, allowing you to connect the Alerts extension to your Alerts Directory to display alerts across SharePoint sites.
   
   You will need to insert a JSON string in the pre-defined format below, replacing the bold items with the SharePoint domain and the site where your Alerts source is located.
   
   JSON format
   

   {
    "default":{
    "sourceSiteUrl":"https://yourdomain.sharepoint.com/sites/yoursite"
    },
    "overrides":[
    {
    "sites":[]
    }
    ]
   }

   Tip: an optional configuration option allows you to set 'overrides'. Overrides can be used for instances where specific SharePoint sites will need to display alerts from a different Alerts source than the default set in this JSON.

4. Your JSON will be validated to ensure it is correctly formatted. Click on the Save button to apply the SharePoint properties for Alerts.