Announce changelog updates in the widget

Show announced changelog entries to your visitors as a What's new message in the Self-Service Widget. Announce each entry when you publish it, and choose whether announcements open automatically or only when your code asks for them.

Prerequisites

The only prerequisite is a changelog in your help center: the widget shows announced entries from your changelog, so create one first. See Create a changelog.

Announcements are on by default and need no setup option. They reach visitors who are identified and signed in with Ferndesk('identify'): anonymous visitors are never interrupted, and a brand-new signup has nothing waiting. See the Ferndesk SDK Reference for the optional announcement settings.

Announce an entry when you publish it

Announcing is a choice you make per entry, at publish time or right after. A quietly published entry still appears in the changelog feed, so announcing is only about the What's new message.

1. Open the changelog entry in the editor.

2. Click Publish changelog entry.

3. When asked Announce in the widget?, choose Yes, announce it to show the entry as a What's new message, or No, publish quietly to only add it to the changelog feed.

You can also change the choice after publishing: open the entry's settings and toggle Announce in the widget in the Announcement section, with the helper text "Shows a What's new prompt to signed-in widget users who haven't seen it yet."

Choose when announcements open

By default an eligible announcement opens automatically when a signed-in visitor loads the widget. Set changelogAnnouncementTrigger to manual to choose the moment yourself, for example after the visitor finishes a task in your app:

Ferndesk('init', {
  widgetId: 'YOUR_WIDGET_ID',
  changelogAnnouncementTrigger: 'manual'
})

In manual mode the widget still shows the unseen indicator for an eligible announcement, but does not open it. Call Ferndesk('showChangelogAnnouncement') when you want the announcement to appear:

Ferndesk('showChangelogAnnouncement')

The command opens only an announcement the visitor is eligible for and has not seen. Manual triggering changes when an announcement opens, not who qualifies: announcements still reach only signed-in visitors.

auto is the default, so installations that never set the option keep opening announcements automatically.

FAQ