AX1502
You can use the Announcement component to display announcements to users in Axiom forms. This is typically included as part of a form-enabled Home file, to be used as either the Desktop Client Home file, or as the Web Client Forms home page.
The Announcement component is a self-contained solution for announcements. Using the component, you can display, create, edit, and delete announcements.
Enabling announcements
To enable use of announcements, you must have at least one form-enabled file with an Announcements component. When the form is rendered to users, this component enables both the display and management of announcements. You might have one Home file with one Announcements component, or several different files targeting different audiences.
All Announcements components in your system use the same announcements repository stored in the Axiom Software database. If you have one Announcements component in one file, and another in a different file, both components have access to the same announcements for display. If you add a new announcement using one component, that announcement is available to all components in the system.
Although every Announcement component has access to the same set of announcements, you can configure a particular component so that it only displays certain categories of announcements. This enables the ability to show different announcements to different sets of users. For example, you might have announcement categories of Budget and Capital, and configure product-specific Home files with Announcement components that only show the announcements for the applicable category. You could do the same thing with announcement categories of Finance and Dept Manager, to display announcements for role-specific Home files.
When you place an Announcement component on a form, you configure whether it displays all announcements, or only certain categories of announcements. For more information on configuring the Announcement component, see Announcements component for Axiom forms.
Viewing announcements
For end users to view announcements, they need access to a form-enabled file that contains the Announcements component. This could be their assigned Home file, or it could be some other Axiom form that is designed to communicate announcements to end users.
All users can see all announcements that the Announcement component is configured to display. There are no security permissions required to view announcements (other than access to a file with the Announcements component).
Announcements display as shown in the following screenshot. Announcements are sorted by date (within each category if categories are used), with the newest announcements displayed on top of the list. If the announcement has message text or if the title is too long to display in the row, the user can click view to see the full text of the announcement.
End users cannot perform any actions on announcements. End users cannot delete announcements or mark them as read. Announcements will continue to display in the component until they are deleted by an announcement administrator, or until the announcement's expiration date is reached.
Managing announcements
Administrators and users with the Administer Announcements security permission can add, edit, and delete announcements using the Announcement component. These users need access to a form-enabled file that contains the Announcements component. Although announcement administrators may already have access to a home page with an Announcements component, it is recommended to provide a separate "management" form specifically for the purpose of managing all announcements.
When a user has permission to administer announcements, the Announcement component provides additional controls. The user can click the plus icon in the top right corner to create new announcements, and they can edit or delete any announcement displayed in the component.
For more information, see Managing announcements.
