Please contact a web administrator to add notification functionality to your website if you don't currently have this feature.


One way you can call out special events or updates for your department's website is by utilizing the Site Notifications feature. These linked notifications appear in your website's banner, below page titles. This is a site-wide update, so notifications appear on all pages.


Before you start

  • If you do not have a page to link to for this notification, please consider adding an alert or a callout in your home page content, instead.
  • These are meant to be short notifications, no long sentences.
  • Only ONE notification can appear at a time. Cascade will prioritize the first notification you create, and will not reveal any other notifications until the first notification expires.
  • This is NOT a set-and-forget feature! You must manually publish your entire site to display new notifications, and also after notifications expire (remove it from the page). So, you may want to set up tasks/reminders for yourself in Cascade to remind you to publish the site after a notification expires.
  • Stay organized and keep Cascade clutter-free: Consider reusing old notifications or deleting them after they expire


Adding a new notification

  • Click the pink plus + at the top of the screen to add content. 
  • Select Site Notification.


Editing notification content

Start Date: The date you want to start SHOWING the notification. This is NOT an event date.

  • This will default to TODAY'S date. If you want your notification to appear at a later date, select a different date with the date chooser.
  • If you select a different date for the notification to start running, you may need to set a reminder to publish your site on that date, as well.

End Date: The date you want to REMOVE the notification from your site. This is NOT an event date. 

  • Note: After the notification reaches its end date, it will expire. This hides the asset from your site, but it still exists within Cascade if you choose to use it again in the future.
  • If your notification is about an event, choose the day AFTER your event for the End Date.

Notification type:

  • CMUnow article: Feature a (recent) CMUnow news story related to your department that your users might be interested in
    • You may not have access to choose the page/article you want to feature. If you need this, a web administrator can assist getting this added.
  • Date/Event: Notifications for an upcoming event or a dated notification promoting a deadline. 
    • Note: Please keep adding your department's upcoming events to 25Live so it can appear in the campus calendar. Do not use these notifications as an alternative to adding events there.
    • Event Date field appears if this is selected. Simply choose the start date of your event. You can use the description in the notification to mention multi-date events if needed.
  • Update/Announcement: A simple update or an announcement for your users to be aware of

Notification title: Title of your notification

Notification description: Short description about your notification.

Link type:

  • Internal: Select a page you want this notification to link to
  • External: Paste the URL you want this notification to link to


Activating and deactivating your notification

After entering all details click Submit. This adds the notification to Cascade (inside _site-assets > notifications folder). Once the notification Start Date is reached, Cascade will activate the notification. It will deactivate the notification once the End Date is reached. 


Then, you will need to manually Publish your entire site so each page on your site is aware of the activated/deactivated notification.


Notification icons/styles within your site's banner

Here is a preview of what each notification type looks like 


CMUnow Article

Date/Event


Update/Announcement