Boards – Notice Boards, Bulletin Boards

Overview

The Boards module (electronic notice board, bulletin board, shared announcement, company board) is used for quickly sharing short messages, announcements, and notes among employees directly within the application. It replaces the paper notice board in the hallway or at reception – instead of a note pinned to the board, colleagues see it as soon as they log in. A company can have any number of separate boards, for example for individual departments, sites, or topics, and can configure separately for each one who may only read the content, who may write to it, and who may delete entries. The module is suitable for operational announcements, commendations, changes to the canteen menu, safety notices, or any short message that a wider group of colleagues should see.

Key features of the Boards module

• Multiple separate boards, each with its own access settings
• Colored entries (notes) with a title, formatted content, and attachments
• Free dragging of notes around the board with the mouse
• Read confirmation by individual users, with an overview of who confirmed and when
• Comments and notes on individual entries
• Email notifications for new entries and new comments
• A recycle bin of deleted entries with the option to restore them
• Search by title, content, and the entry author's name

Access and settings

This chapter describes how to get to the Boards module, how the Boards module administrator configures individual boards – their name, note colours, and additional features – and what permission levels (Read, Write, Delete/Restore) are distinguished in the Boards module for each board separately.

How to get to the Boards module

Navigation path to the Boards module: Main menu → Boards. After opening the module, a panel with tabs for all the boards you have at least read access to is displayed at the top. The currently displayed board is highlighted in the panel. The application automatically opens the board you have marked as your default; if you have no default board set, it offers you a choice of boards. Next to the name of each board on the tab, a badge with the number of unread entries is shown – it is counted from the moment you last opened that board, and as soon as all entries have been read, the badge disappears. Next to the Boards heading, users with rights to administer the module are also shown a Settings link.

Settings of the Boards module

Configuration of the Boards module is available via the Settings link next to the heading on the module's main screen. In the settings you will find a list of all the company's boards, with columns for Name, permission levels, switches for additional features, and this is also where you create new boards and edit existing ones. This setting is available only to the application administrator or a user who has been entrusted with administering the Boards module – a regular user who only has the right to write to or delete a board's content cannot change these settings.

Procedure: Creating and editing a board

In the Boards module settings, click the Add bulletin board button – the "Create/Edit board" dialog opens. To edit an existing board, click the pencil icon on the corresponding row in the list of boards.

Tip: If you enter a name that is empty, too long, or contains disallowed characters, the message "Incorrectly entered name" is shown and the board cannot be saved until you correct the name.

Additional board feature settings

In the Boards module settings, you can turn the following options on or off separately for each individual board:

Settings: Assigning board permissions

In the Boards module settings, three access levels are set separately for each board – Read, Read/Write, and Read/Write/Delete/Restore. For each level you open the "Assign read/write/delete rights for the board" dialog and choose either "Everyone – including users added in the future" (opens that level to absolutely all company users), or select specific users and groups/positions from the checklists. Buttons "Select all users" / "Deselect all users" and similar buttons for groups are available. The Boards module does not use the supervisor relationship – permissions are always assigned only by an explicit selection of individuals or groups.

Note: Without an explicit assignment (neither "Everyone" nor specific users or groups), no regular user has access to that board.

Permissions and access rights to boards

Access to content in the Boards module is assessed separately for each board and has three cumulative permission levels:

Exception: if moving notes around the board is enabled on a board, everyone who can see that board can do this, regardless of their assigned permission level. Only the application administrator or a user who has been entrusted with administering the Boards module may manage boards themselves – creating them, deleting them, setting colours, and assigning permissions.

User interface

The following sections describe the layout of the Boards module's main screen – the tab panel with the individual boards, the control buttons above the entries, the available filters and search, and the structure of an individual entry (note), including the action icons in its footer.

Main screen of the Boards module

The main screen of the Boards module consists of a tab panel at the top (a switch between individual boards) and a card with the content of the selected board below it. In the card header you will find a search field and a row of buttons: Add entry to this board (creating a new entry, active only with the write right), Deleted (the recycle bin for that board, active only with the delete right), the checkbox Auto‑reload, the personal switch New and change notifications via email, and the checkbox Default board. Below this control row come the entries (notes) themselves, sorted from newest. If the board has moving enabled, notes can be grabbed by the pin icon or the arrows icon and freely moved around the board – their position is saved immediately; otherwise the notes are simply stacked below each other.

Filters and search in the Boards module

• Text search: searches the entry's title, its content, and the author's first and last name. Enter the search term and click the "Search" button or press Enter.
• Cancel search: this button is shown only when a search is active, and returns the view to all entries on the board.
• Switching between boards: clicking the name of another board on the top tab panel switches you to its content immediately.

Description of an entry (note) on a board

Each entry on a board, colloquially a "note", has a coloured background chosen by the author when writing it, a title, and content (the content can be formatted – bold, lists, etc.). If the entry has attachments, images are shown directly in the preview, other file types as download buttons. The footer of the note states the date and time of creation and the author's name. Action icons in the footer are shown only to users with the corresponding permission for that board: the pencil "Edit", the cross "Delete", the arrow "Move to another board" (only if there is more than one board the entry can be moved to), the speech‑bubble icon "Comments/notes" with the number of comments written so far (only if the board has comments enabled), and the checkmark icon for confirming reading (only if the board has read confirmation enabled).

Basic operations

In the Boards module, the basic operations include creating, editing, and deleting an entry on a board, working with the recycle bin of deleted entries, and moving an entry to another board. You will find the individual procedures in the following sections.

Procedure: Adding a new entry to a board

In the Boards module, you create a new entry (note) using this procedure:

1. Open the board you want to add the entry to, and click the Add entry to this board button (you need the write right for this).
2. Fill in the required Title field.
3. Choose a Colour – either any colour from the palette, or one of the predefined colours with a description, depending on how the board is configured.
4. Optionally fill in the Content and attach Attachments (by dragging them into the field or selecting files) – you can upload at most 60 files at once.
5. If moving entries is enabled on the board, you additionally choose in the Arrange field how the new note should be placed: "At the beginning – move all others down", or "At the end".
6. For a new entry you can check: Email all (sends an email even to users who have not turned on notifications for this board themselves, but who have access to it), Send email as BCC (recipients will not see each other's addresses), and Attachments also by email (attaches the files directly to the email, otherwise they remain only on the intranet).
7. Click Save.

After saving, an email with a summary of the entry (title, author, content, list of attachments) is sent to users with access to the board who have "New and change notifications via email" turned on, or to everyone with access if you checked "Email all".

Procedure: Editing an entry on a board

In the Boards module, you edit an existing entry by clicking the pencil icon on the given note (you need the write right for this). The same "Write/edit entry on a board" dialog opens as when creating one, but without the placement option and without the email switches, and it is pre‑filled with the current values of the title, colour, content, and attachments.

1. Make the required changes in the Title, Colour, or Content field.
2. Update the attachments as needed.
3. Click Save.

Warning: when editing an entry, the list of attachments is replaced as a whole – the attachments are saved exactly as they are in the attachment field at the moment of saving, not as an addition to the original ones. After saving, emails are sent the same way as for a new entry, just with a different subject ("Board entry changed…").

Entry statuses on a board

Each entry in the Boards module is at any given moment in one of the following states:

Procedure: Deleting an entry and working with the recycle bin

In the Boards module, you delete an entry by clicking the cross on the given note (requires the delete right) and confirming the question "Do you really want to delete this record?". The entry disappears from the board and moves to the recycle bin. Open the recycle bin using the Deleted button in the board's top bar – this is the general shared recycle bin screen, which works the same way as in the other modules of the application. In the recycle bin you can either restore the entry back among the active ones, or remove it permanently.

Procedure: Moving an entry to another board

You move an entry in the Boards module to another board as follows:

1. Click the arrow icon on the given entry.
2. In the "Move an entry to another bulletin board" dialog, select the destination board from the Board field – only boards on which the user has at least the write right are offered; the current board is not shown in the list.
3. Click Move.

If the destination board is set as "movable" (has moving of entries enabled), the moved entry is placed at its end. The move icon is shown only if there is more than one board the entry can be moved to.

Advanced features

Besides basic work with entries, the Boards module also offers more advanced features: comments and notes on individual entries, read confirmation, and automatic content refresh with email notifications.

Comments and notes on an entry

If a board has the Comments option enabled in the Boards module settings, a speech‑bubble icon with the number of comments so far is shown on each entry. Clicking it opens the "Comments on the bulletin board entry…" dialog, where you see the history of existing notes (date, author, text, attachments), and below it the "Add a note" form with a Note field and the option to attach files (at most 60 files, or a new document created directly in the editor). The Note text field is not required, so you can submit a comment with only an attachment and no text. After clicking Save, the note is saved and – if the board has "Comment alerts" enabled – an email is sent to the author of the original entry and everyone who has previously written something on it, except the person currently contributing.

Confirming that an entry has been read

If a board has the Confirmation of reading option enabled in the Boards module settings, a red checkmark icon with the tooltip "Confirmation of reading (once confirmed you will also see when who confirmed)" is shown on the entry. Clicking this icon confirms the entry as read – the icon turns green. Clicking the already green icon opens the "Confirmed reading" window with a list of who confirmed the entry and when (date, time, name). A confirmation cannot be undone.

Automatic content refresh and email notifications

The Boards module offers the Auto‑reload checkbox on the main screen – once turned on, a countdown is shown next to it, and approximately once a minute the board's content reloads itself automatically, so you see new entries from colleagues without manually refreshing the page. In addition, every user has their own personal New and change notifications via email switch for each board – if it is turned on, they receive emails about new and edited entries on that specific board. An email is also sent for a new comment, if the board has that enabled via the Comment alerts option in the settings. The module has no nightly or otherwise scheduled automatic task – all the automation (sending emails, recalculating the unread‑entries badge) happens exclusively as an immediate reaction to a user's action.

Integration with other modules

The Boards module is self‑contained and does not pass data to any other module of the application, nor does it take over any data from one in return – it serves purely for internal messages and notes within itself. The only element it shares with other parts of the application is the recycle bin screen for deleted entries ("Deleted"): it works the same way you know from other modules, but this is not a transfer of business data between modules, only a shared way of working with the recycle bin.

Troubleshooting

Here you will find answers to frequently asked questions about the Boards module, explanations of the messages you may encounter in connection with entries and boards, and a few tips on how to set up and use boards in your company as effectively as possible.

Frequently asked questions about the Boards module

Question: Why can't I save a new or edited board in the settings, and I see the message "Incorrectly entered name"?

Solution: The board's name is empty, too long (the limit is 128 characters), or contains disallowed characters. Enter a shorter, ordinary text without special characters.

Question: Why do I see the message "You do not have permission to perform this action"?

Solution: You tried to perform an action for which you currently do not have sufficient permission on that board – for example, moving an entry, confirming reading, or editing the board's settings. Check that you have the necessary right for that board, or contact the Boards module administrator.

Question: In the Boards module settings, I saw the message "Record not found" when trying to edit a board – why?

Solution: The board you are trying to edit has meanwhile been deleted, or does not belong to your company. Refresh the settings page and try the action again.

Question: Why couldn't I attach all the files to an entry or comment at once?

Solution: The Boards module allows uploading at most 60 files in one batch. The message "You can upload up to 60 files." is shown. Upload the remaining files in another batch.

Question: Why won't the form let me submit a new entry or a new board?

Solution: A required field was left empty – for an entry this is the Title, for a board in the settings it is the Name. Fill in the missing value and submit the form again.

Tips for working effectively with boards

• Tip: If you want to always keep a specific board in view, check "Default board" on it – next time it will open automatically in the Boards module.
• Tip: Colour‑coding notes (for example red for urgent, green for informational) helps colleagues get their bearings quickly – have fixed colours with a description set up in the board's settings instead of free choice.
• Tip: Before checking "Email all", consider whether it is not enough to rely on the personal "New and change notifications via email" switch for individual users – this way you avoid flooding the inboxes of colleagues who have no interest in that particular board.
• Tip: For boards with important operational instructions, turn on Confirmation of reading in the Boards module settings – this gives you an overview of who has actually read the notice.
• Tip: By turning on Auto‑reload on screens that are permanently open (for example at reception or in the production hall), you ensure that new entries appear without having to manually refresh the page.
• Note: If a board allows moving notes, all users who can see it can move them around the board, regardless of their assigned permission level – keep this in mind when deciding whether to turn on this option for a given board.