Announcements Module (Beta)

Overview

The Resource Center (formerly the Guide Center) houses additional in-context help, like knowledge base articles or onboarding in-app Guides, that you can make readily available to your end users. To do this, Resource Center is made up of several modules of your choosing:

• Guides List
• Onboarding
• Announcements (Beta)
• Sandbox
• Integrations

This article covers the Announcements Module of the Resource Center. This module allows you to create in-app messages that are available within your Resource Center. You will see a notification count indicator for new messages. Messages types could consist of Product Release Notes, Company Event notifications or even System Maintenance, or anything else related to your business as you need.

Requirements

User Permission

To access and customize your Resource Center, you will need Administrator(Admin) Permission to your Pendo subscription. Once you have Admin access, you will see the “Resource Center” option under Guides in your navigation bar.

Agent

This feature requires Agent version 2.18.4 or higher. Learn how to upgrade your Agent version manually.

Add the Module

Building a New Resource Center

To create a brand new Resource Center, click on the “+ Create Resource Center” button on the page.

Choose the “Announcements” module (1) and click on “Add Modules” (2).

Next, you should see a preview of your Draft state that shows you the “Home View” (or the main Resource Center menu that your end users will see) and your “Announcements” Module.

Adding a Module to an Existing Resource Center

While in your Draft state, hover of the “Home View” preview to see the “Add Module” button.

Then, you should see the Modules chooser to select the “Announcements” module (1):

Then, Click on “Add Modules” (2) to see it added in your preview:

Hover over the module preview to navigate to the “Announcements” Module Details Page and create your first Announcements Guide.

Module Details Page

Similar to other Resource Center modules, you will see a similar interface to manage your module. For the Announcements Module, you will see the following options:

1. Change your module name by clicking on the header
2. Delete your module, Manage your module in app (designer), and create a new Announcement
3. See and manage any existing Announcements (Content Section)
4. Segment section so you can make your module visible to just a specific group of users

Create a New Announcement

To start, click on the “Create New Announcement.”

Then, just like creating a Guide in Visual Design Studio, choose your desired Announcements layout:

Once you choose your layout, you will land on your Announcement Details Page in a new tab.

Edit your Announcement by opening it in the Visual Designer. To do this, choose from one of these options:

1. Click on “Manage In My App” in the Content section
2. Hover over your Announcement preview to reveal the “Manage In My App” option

Also like the Guide creation experience, you will be prompted to enter your app’s URL. Click on the “Launch Designer” button when ready.

Designer Interface Overview

Once the Visual Designer opens, you will see all the similar user interface:

1. At the top, Action Bar including: Save as Layout, Exit & Save buttons, move Action Bar up or down
2. Floating and movable edit options (Editing your Announcements container will be the default edit options when you open your Announcement in the designer)
3. In the bottom right-hand side, you will see a preview of your Announcement in your Resource Center.

Edit Your Announcement

Your editing experience is also similar to creating a Guide in the Visual Design Studio. Each announcement is made up of Building Blocks. The following Building Blocks are available for Announcements:

• Text
• Button
• Multi Button
• Image
• YouTube Video
• Date
• Custom Code

Learn more in the Building Blocks article.

You can access the Building Blocks menu by placing your cursor inside a Guide and clicking on the blue horizontal line that appears. It will look like this:

If you want to edit any existing elements that are already in your selected layout, hover over the element to reveal the “Edit” icon and click on it.

Edit your Announcement as you desire and save your changes once you’re satisfied with your edits.

Stage or Test Your Announcement

Before you make your Announcement Public to your users, stage or test it to see how your users might experience it. To do this, make sure to segment your Announcement to yourself. You can achieve this by creating a rule with VisitorID equals yourself (“Yourself” refers to your actual VisitorID that’s setup in Pendo. For some, it’s email address and others might have randomized alpha-numeric set of characters).

If you have a staging environment setup, change the Announcement status to “Staged.” 

Publish Your Announcement

If you’re satisfied with your Announcement after you tested it, navigate back to the Details Page to re-adjust the segment to the correct audience.

To publish your Guide, you have two options to choose from:

• Publish your Guide now by updating the Guide status to Public.

• Schedule when your Guide will go live (and, if needed, when it will no longer be active).

Managing Announcements

Once you’re done with your Announcement, you will see it listed under “Content” in your Announcements Module details page.

From there, you will be able to click on the name of your Announcement to enter the individual Details Page again.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I add my existing “What’s New” Guides?

Coming Soon! Announcements were formerly known as “What’s New” Guides in our Classic Designer. If you have existing What’s New Guides, you will be able to add them from your Announcements Module Details Page soon.

Can I add multiple Announcements Modules to My Resource Center?

Yes. Like other Resource Center modules, you can add multiple Announcements type modules and segment each module as desired.

Can I style an individual announcement via CSS?

Yes. You can add a custom code block to style or code as you need.

Can I localize my Announcements?

Yes. If you have localization enabled, you will be able to localize your Announcement just like a Visual Design Studio Guide. However, if you have media (ie. links, images, or even custom code) in your announcement, you won’t be able to localize those elements at this time.

What if I have a module with no content?

If you have a module with no content and push the updates to production, the module will not display to your end users.

Do I need to disable my old Guide Center before enabling the Resource Center?

Yes. Be sure to disable the Guide Center first before pushing the Resource Center to Production. Pushing the new Resource Center doesn’t disable the Guide Center automatically. However, you will be able to edit the Resource Center in "Draft" or "Staging" states so you can prepare for the switch as you need.

How do I disable the Guide Center from Production domains?

To disable the Guide Center, first navigate to the in-app Classic designer and click on “Global Settings” at the top-right. In the new menu, click on “Guide Center” and perform the following steps:

1. Disable all of the sections shown
2. Click “Save” at the bottom
3. Re-open the “Global Settings” and click on “Copy to Production.”

Related Articles

Learn more about Resource Center:

• Overview
• Styling the Look
• How to create a Resource Center for each of your Web Applications