Alerts

Alerts are used to notify users about an emergency, significant update or sensitive issue.

The alert displays as a banner across the top of every page on a website, pushing the page content down. It continues to display on all pages until manually dismissed by the user, or archived in the CMS.

The alert content type can be used for 2 specific contexts:

• emergency warning alerts

• information alerts (for significant updates or sensitive issues).

Instead you could use:

• callout text formatting

• an introduction banner

• a primary or secondary campaign.

Only site administrators have access to this content type. If you want to add an alert to a website that is managed in the content.vic.gov.au CMS, please log a request with the SDP Content Team.

Emergency warning alerts

This alert should only be used when a statewide emergency is active, meaning the State Control Centre is in operation. 

This alert should only be activated at the request of the Department of Premier and Cabinet Senior Communications Executive (SCE) or the department SCE responsible for the emergency, such as the Department of Health SCE for Coronavirus alerts. 

The icon and colour used for the alert banner relates to the option selected as the "alert type" in the CMS. 

Information alerts 

An information alert can be added if necessary to alert users about:

• a significant, timely change that affects all content across the site, such as the caretaker period.

• health or statutory guidance

  • Example: The Shrine of Remembrance is closed to the public due to Coronavirus restrictions.

• potentially sensitive information

  • Example: The First Peoples – State Relations website contains images of people who have passed away.

Guidance for site administrators

How to create an alert

1. Click on or hover over Content

2. Select Add content

3. Select Alert.

Fill in the following fields:

• Title – this is the text that will be visible in the alert banner

• Alert type – this will decide the colour and icon used for the banner. Options available are:

  • emergency

  • fire

  • flood

  • heatwave

  • lightning

  • medical

  • pollution

  • traffic

  • notification – use this for information alerts

• URL – you can add a link to a webpage where more information is provided. This can be an internal or external link. 

• Link text – the text that will be hyperlinked with the URL provided above. 

• Site – the site/s the alert will display on.

Fields marked with a red asterisk are mandatory.

The alert content should:

• be short and succinct

• highlight the key message, with a link to more information if available

• use terms like 'warning', to align with emergency response language.

Once the alert has been published, it will appear across all pages tagged to the site you selected. It is recommended to only have one alert published at a time.

Find and manage alerts

Finding published alerts for a specific site:

1. In the CMS, select Structure > Taxonomy > Sites > List terms.

2. Find the site or site section you want to check and click Edit.

3. At the bottom of this page is a section called Site alerts and notifications, which will display any currently published alerts.

4. You can edit, delete, archive, clone or schedule an update for this alert from this section. 

Finding all alerts (published and unpublished):

• In the CMS, select Content.

• Search for an alert by filling in the title field and/or by choosing Alert in the Content type filter. 

• You can also filter by Site, Department/agency or Published status

• Click on an alert to edit, delete, archive, clone or schedule an update. 

Schedule an update

You can schedule an alert to be published or archived at a specific date or time by filling in the fields in the Scheduled updates tab. 

You can also schedule an updated revision of the alert to be published.