RRZE Notices

Display important notices on the WordPress dashboard.
Target notices to specific user roles and let each user dismiss them individually. Supports both single site and Multisite networks.

Documentation

https://www.wp.rrze.fau.de/plugins/benutzer-und-zugriffsverwaltung/rrze-notices/

Features

• Three notice types: Info, Warning, and Critical
• Modal confirmation for critical notices — blocks the admin area with an overlay until the user acknowledges the message
• Role-based visibility — target all users, specific roles, or standard roles for network-wide notices
• Per-user dismissal via AJAX — each user can hide a notice independently
• Network-wide notices visible across all sites (super admins only)
• Optional event date display (start and end) shown on the notice
• Automatic expiration via a configurable display period (visible-until date)
• Admin bar badge showing the current notice count with a dropdown list
• Read-only overview of active network notices for site admins

How It Works

RRZE Notices adds a custom post type called "Notice" to the WordPress admin. Each notice has a title, a short message, a type (Info, Warning, or Critical), an optional expiration date, and visibility settings that control which user roles can see it.

Notices appear as colored bars at the top of the WordPress dashboard. Users can dismiss them individually. A badge in the admin bar shows how many active notices are available.

Critical notices can optionally require confirmation. When enabled, the notice appears as a full-screen modal overlay that blocks the entire admin area until the user clicks "Acknowledged". This is useful for urgent messages that must not be overlooked.

Event dates and expiration dates use the WordPress timezone configured for the current site. An event date can have an empty time; it is stored as local midnight and displayed as a date only. The visible-until field requires both a date and a time. Opening and closing an empty time input does not select a time.

On a Multisite network the plugin must be activated network-wide. A super admin enables it and chooses whether site admins may create their own notices. Super admins can additionally mark a notice as network-wide so it appears on every site in the network.

Requirements

• WordPress 6.5 or later
• PHP 8.2 or later

Installation

Install and update via RRZE Updater or download the latest release from the GitHub repository.

1. Network-activate the plugin on your Multisite installation.
2. Go to Network Admin > Settings > RRZE Notices.
3. Set "Notices is enabled" and choose the access level.
4. Save changes.

The plugin menu ("Notices") now appears on each site for authorized users.

Roles and Permissions

The access level is configured in the network settings. It maps to the WordPress capability manage_options (site admins) or manage_network_options (super admins only).

Multisite

RRZE Notices is designed for WordPress Multisite. It can be activated on a single site, but the network settings page and network-wide notices are only available on Multisite installations.

• Network settings (enable, access level) are stored as a single network option (rrze_notices_site) and can only be changed by super admins in Network Admin.
• Local notices are regular posts of the notice custom post type, stored on the site where they are created. They are visible only on that site.
• Network-wide notices are created on one site and displayed on all other public sites in the network. Only super admins can create them. A lightweight index in the network option stores which notices are network-wide; the actual content is read from the originating site via switch_to_blog().
• Expiration is handled by an hourly cron job that sets expired notices to a custom expired post status and removes them from the network index.
• Uninstall removes all notice posts, user dismissal metadata, the network option, and the cron event.

Accessibility

• Dashboard notices use semantic HTML with WordPress-native notice markup.
• Dismiss buttons are keyboard-operable and use the standard WordPress dismiss pattern.
• Notice types are distinguished by border color and a text label, not by color alone.
• The admin bar dropdown is navigable with keyboard.
• Modal notices use role="alertdialog" with aria-modal="true", a keyboard focus trap, and a visible confirmation button.

External Dependencies

• CMB2 (bundled in vendor/) — metabox framework for the notice editor fields. Will be replaced by native metaboxes in a future release.
• No external services, CDNs, or remote API calls.

Cookies and Browser Storage

This plugin does not set cookies, use browser local/session storage, or load external tracking resources.

Hooks

The plugin provides one filter for extending the HTML allowlist used in notice content:

apply_filters('rrze_notices_allowed_html', array $allowed);

This filter receives the wp_kses-compatible tag/attribute array and must return one in the same format.

Support and Feedback

• Issues: https://github.com/RRZE-Webteam/rrze-notices/issues
• Contact: RRZE Webteam (webmaster@fau.de)

Development checks

Run the PHP regression checks with php tests/regression.php. From a local WordPress installation, run wp --skip-plugins --skip-themes eval-file tests/datetime-integration.php to test actual CMB2 save/render cycles. The integration check uses in-memory metadata and does not save posts or change site options.

Notice datetime fields use their own CMB2 type and store absolute Unix timestamps. notice_visible_until_gmt remains the expiration key used by existing consumers; the editor uses that value when opening legacy notices. Earlier event timestamps may have been saved with or without another plugin's timezone filter, so their original intended local time cannot be inferred reliably. Existing event dates should be reviewed; no blanket offset migration is performed.

License

GPLv3 or later

Maintainer

RRZE Webteam (webmaster@fau.de)