News & Announcements Gadget

The News & Announcements gadget is a large‑format display for sharing company news, updates, and announcements on your signage. Each announcement is built from three text elements — a topic, a headline, and a summary — with independent font, color, and size control for each. Content enters the screen with your choice of animated effect, and you can optionally add an image and a scannable QR code.

For static, one‑off announcements you can type your content directly into the gadget. For rotating or centrally‑managed content, you can bind the gadget to a Data Table and drive every announcement from a spreadsheet‑style table in the CMS — no need to edit the gadget each time the message changes.

Adding the gadget

1. Open the template where you want the announcement to appear and add a new Gadget zone (or edit an existing one).
2. From the gadget picker, select News & Announcements.
3. Configure the content and styling using the preferences described below.
4. Save the template. The gadget sizes itself to the zone automatically.

Content settings

These fields hold the text and media for a single announcement. All three text fields are required and ship with sample defaults so the gadget always renders something.

Styling

Each text element has its own Style preference so you can independently set the font family, color, and size. Styles are configured through the standard Revel Digital style picker.

The gadget background is transparent, so whatever sits behind it in your template — a solid color zone, a background image, or video — shows through. Choose text colors with enough contrast against that background.

Tip: The defaults are tuned for a white/light text look on a dark background. If your template background is light, update the three text styles to a darker color.

Entry animation

Content animates onto the screen each time the gadget loads. The Animation preference offers a full range of effects powered by Animate.css, grouped roughly into:

• Fades — Fade In, Fade In Up (default), Fade In Down, Fade In Left, Fade In Right
• Slides — Slide In Up / Down / Left / Right
• Zooms — Zoom In, Bounce In (and directional Bounce In variants)
• Rotates & flips — Rotate In, Flip In X, Flip In Y
• Attention‑seekers — Bounce, Pulse, Flash, Tada, Wobble, Jello, Rubber Band, Shake, Swing, Heart Beat, and more

The default is Fade In Up, which gives a clean, subtle entrance suitable for most environments. The more energetic attention‑seekers are best reserved for content you want to actively draw the eye.

Adding a QR code

To let viewers take an action from their phone, enable a QR code:

1. Toggle Show QR Code on.
2. Enter the destination in QR Code Text or URL — this can be a full URL (e.g. a link to the full article or an event registration page) or any plain text you want encoded.

The QR Code Text or URL field only appears once Show QR Code is enabled.

Dynamic content with Data Tables

Instead of typing content into the gadget, you can bind it to a Data Table and drive announcements from a centrally managed, spreadsheet‑style table in the CMS. This is ideal when:

• The same announcement content is shared across multiple displays.
• Content changes frequently and you don't want to edit templates each time.
• Non‑technical staff need to update messaging without touching signage layouts.

Because Data Tables update in real time and push straight to your players, edits appear on screen without republishing the template. Tables can be edited in the CMS, via the API, through Scheduled Tasks/AI, or from the Slack AI Assistant — see the Data Tables article for the full workflow.

Setting it up

1. Create a Data Table with the columns below (see the Data Tables article to get started).
2. In the gadget, select your table under the Datatable Binding preference.

Column mapping

The gadget reads the following columns from the bound table and maps them to the on‑screen elements:

Column names should match exactly as shown above. The image column accepts a media URL, and populating qr_code produces a QR code just as the manual QR Code Text or URL field does.

Tips & best practices

• Keep headlines short. The headline renders at a large size (82px by default); long headlines may wrap awkwardly on smaller zones. Aim for a punchy, scannable message.
• Mind your contrast. The transparent background means readability depends entirely on what's behind the gadget. Preview against your actual template background.
• Use Data Tables for anything that changes. If an announcement will be updated more than once, a Data Table saves you from re‑editing the template every time.
• Pair a QR code with a call to action. A QR code works best when the summary tells viewers why they should scan it (e.g. "Scan to register").

Questions or issues with the News & Announcements gadget? Contact Revel Digital support.