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Weave Site Alerts

WordPress plugin: shows a centrally managed emergency notice at the top of every page

by Weave Digital Studio · github.com/weavedigitalstudio/weave-site-alerts · website

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Install

Download source zip No release zip yet

This is the repository archive. It installs, but the folder name will carry the branch suffix and updates will not flow.

Install straight from GitHub with WP-CLI:

wp plugin install https://github.com/weavedigitalstudio/weave-site-alerts/archive/refs/heads/main.zip

Updates itself. It ships its own updater, so new versions appear under Dashboard → Updates.

Readme github.com/weavedigitalstudio/weave-site-alerts ↗

Shows an emergency notice across the top of every page of a client site when Weave switches one on centrally. The rest of the time it does nothing visible.

For example, when a client's phone system goes down and every one of their sites needs to say so at once. Works whatever the theme: Beaver Builder Theme, Themer, GeneratePress, Page Builder Framework or block themes.

How it works

The plugin adds one small deferred script to every public page.
The script asks the Weave alerts service, https://weave-alerts.pages.dev/v1/alert/<this-site's-host>, whether a notice is active.
If one is, the script draws it at the top of the page. If nothing is active, the answer is slow (5 seconds) or anything fails, nothing is drawn.

The notice is never part of the page itself, so it stays out of any page cache. Switching a notice on or off needs no cache purge on any site, and sites pick the change up within about two minutes.

The wording, phone numbers and which sites show what are all managed in the service, not in this plugin.

Installing

There is nothing to configure. Install and activate:

wp plugin install https://github.com/weavedigitalstudio/weave-site-alerts/releases/latest/download/weave-site-alerts.zip --activate

(or upload the zip from the latest release). Updates come through the normal WordPress updates screen from GitHub releases. The repository is public, so no token is needed.

The site must also be listed in the service's config for its group, under its host name without www.. A site that is not listed simply never shows anything.

What visitors see

A bar at the very top: amber with a warning icon for urgent notices, pale with an information icon for a calmer notice (planned maintenance, holiday hours), with the message, tap-to-call and email links, and a close button. Closing it hides that notice for the rest of the visit.
If the theme pins its header to the top of the screen, the notice pins above it and moves the header down, so neither covers the other.
During a phone outage, the notice can also point the page's own "call us" links at the backup number. Any phone number written inside those links, including icon links, shows the backup number. Words such as a branch name stay.
Screen readers get the notice as a labelled region at the start of the page.

Settings, for developers

Constant or filter	Default	Effect
`WEAVE_SITE_ALERTS_ENDPOINT`	`https://weave-alerts.pages.dev/v1/alert/`	Service address. The site key is appended.
`WEAVE_SITE_ALERTS_SITE`	home URL host, no `www.`	Which site's notice to show. Lets a staging or local copy show the live site's notice.
`weave_site_alerts_enabled`	`true`	Return false to switch the plugin off without deactivating it.
`weave_site_alerts_endpoint`	full URL	Change the final address.

Previewing

Add ?alert-preview to any page URL to also see notices still in preview on the service. Preview notices carry a "Preview" badge.

Caveats

perfmatters "Delay JavaScript" would hold the script back until the visitor scrolls or taps. If it is switched on, add weave-site-alerts to its exclusions.
A visitor with JavaScript switched off sees no notice.
The notice appears a moment after the page, so it is a small layout shift while a notice is on, and none otherwise.

Testing

tests/manual.md has the checklist used before a release.