Introduction
A web notification is a short notice for the people who visit your company's own booking website — "Our Amsterdam branch is closed on 3 May", "Winter tyres fitted on every car from 1 November". You write it in RentVisie, and your website fetches it from RentVisie and shows it to visitors, typically as a banner across the top of the site.
You manage them on the screen headed Web notifications, with the line "Highlight important notifications for your web visitors." underneath. The screen is a single table with three columns — Active, Internal name and Title — a filter above each column, a New button, and a pencil icon and a bin icon at the end of every row.
This is not the same as the warning strip at the top of your own daily overview. That strip is a message from the software supplier to staff; this page is about messages from your company to your customers. For the staff strip, see Checking what's new and getting help.
You will use this when:
- a branch is closed for a public holiday or a refurbishment and customers need to know before they book
- you are running a promotion and want it in front of everyone who visits the site
- something affects every rental for a while — road works near the depot, a change to your opening hours
- the holiday is over and the notice has to come down
- you are checking what your website visitors can currently see
Terms used on this screen
| The screen says | It means |
|---|---|
| Web notification | A notice shown on your company's website |
| Active | Whether the notice is switched on |
| Internal name | A name for your own staff, so you can find the notice again |
| Title | The headline of the notice |
| Description | The text of the notice itself |
Use this screen for short, company-wide notices. Longer web text that belongs to one category or one location is written as a free-text web block instead — see free-text web blocks.
How to use
Configuration
There is nothing to switch on. Every notice you create belongs to your own company, and no other company on the system can see it.
Your website has to be built to fetch and show these notices. If you have never used this screen before and a notice you publish never appears, the website is the thing to check first — ask whoever built or maintains your website, or RentVisie support.
Before you start: this screen is only open to an admin account (the Company admin role). An ordinary employee account does not see the Web item in the menu at all. If you need a notice published and you cannot see Web, ask a colleague with an admin account.
Using the Web notifications screen
From the main menu, open Admin, then click Web. The screen headed Web notifications opens. (Back, at the top left, takes you to wherever you were before.)
1. Find a notice. The table lists every notice your company has, switched on or off. Click a column heading to sort by it. Use the dropdown under Active to see only the notices that are switched on (Yes) or off (No), or type into the search box under Internal name or Title.
2. Publish a new notice. Click New, above the table. A small window headed Edit Web Notification opens over the table, with these fields:
| Field | Starts as | What it does | What it accepts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active | Yes | Whether the notice is switched on | Yes or No |
| Internal name | Empty | Helps you and your colleagues find the notice in the table | Text, up to 200 characters |
| Title | Empty | The headline visitors see | Text, up to 200 characters |
| Description | Empty | The body of the notice | Text, up to 200 characters |
Fill in Title and Description and click Save. The window closes and the notice is in the table. Because Active already starts on Yes, the notice is live as soon as you save it. Cancel closes the window without creating anything.
3. Change a notice. Click the pencil icon at the end of its row. The same Edit Web Notification window opens, filled in. Change what you need and click Save. The website gets the new text; it does not keep a copy of the old one.
4. Take a notice down but keep it. Open it with the pencil icon, set Active to No, and click Save. It stays in the table, so you can switch it back on next year by setting Active to Yes again.
5. Delete a notice for good. Click the bin icon at the end of its row. The notice is deleted on that click — there is no Are you sure? question and no undo.
Key details
The 200-character limit. Title and Description each hold at most 200 characters, spaces included. That is about two short sentences for the description; the boxes stop taking text once you reach the limit. Write the essentials and point visitors to a page on your site for the rest.
For example, this description fits comfortably, at about 150 characters:
Our Amsterdam branch is closed on Saturday 3 May. Bookings for that day can be collected from our Utrecht branch at no extra charge. Questions? Call us.
A description that also lists opening hours for the whole week, the Utrecht address and a note about the €25 one-way fee would run to 300 characters and will not fit.
A notice has no start or end date. It is on from the moment you save it with Active set to Yes until someone sets it to No or deletes it. For a closure on 3 May, put a reminder in your own diary to take the notice down on 4 May.
The notice is in one language only. Whatever you type is sent to every visitor, whatever language they are browsing your website in. There is no translation for web notifications. On a site in several languages, write the notice in both — for example Dutch first, then English — keeping within the 200 characters.
Switching a notice off relies on your website. RentVisie passes every notice to your website together with its Active setting, and it is your website that leaves out the ones set to No. On a website built to use this screen that is what happens. If a notice you set to No is still showing, delete it — a deleted notice is not sent at all — and tell whoever maintains your website.
At most ten notices are sent. Your website receives up to ten of your notices, counting the ones switched off. With more than ten in the table, some notices — possibly a live one — are not sent. Keep the table short by deleting old notices you will not reuse.
Internal name is sent too. The Internal name travels to your website along with the rest of the notice, even though a normal website does not display it. Do not put anything in it you would not want a customer to read.
When visitors see the change. RentVisie passes the notice on the next time your website asks for it. How soon that happens depends on how your website is built — usually the next time a visitor loads a page.
What to do next
Open your own website in a browser and check that the notice appears the way you meant. For the other text your website shows, see free-text web blocks and frequently asked questions.
Q&A
Why can't I find Web in the Admin menu? The Web item only appears for an admin account (the Company admin role). Ask a colleague with an admin account to publish the notice, or to have your account changed — see Add an employee and set their permissions.
Why won't the Description box take any more text? It is full: Description holds at most 200 characters. Shorten the text, or move the detail to a page on your website and refer to it in the notice.
Why is a notice I set to No still on the website? Taking a notice down with Active depends on your website leaving out notices that are switched off. Delete the notice with the bin icon instead, then ask whoever maintains your website to check how it handles switched-off notices.
Why does a notice I just saved not appear on the website? Check three things:
| Check | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Active | The row in the table shows Yes |
| How many notices you have | More than ten in the table, counting the ones switched off, can push a live notice out — delete old ones |
| Your website | Reload the page. If the notice still does not show, your website may not be built to display notices; ask whoever maintains it |
Why is my notice in Dutch for visitors on the English version of the site? Web notifications have no translation. Every visitor gets the text exactly as you typed it. Write the notice in both languages within the 200 characters.
Can I schedule a notice to go live, or come down, on a set date? No. A notice is on while Active is Yes and off when you set it to No or delete it, and someone has to do that by hand on the day.
I deleted the wrong notice. Can I get it back? No. The bin icon deletes on the first click. Create the notice again with New.