README

# Research Computing OpenOnDemand Message

IMPORTANT: This README file may NOT receive a `.md` suffix in the current OOD version (1.6). All files with `.md` are picked up by OOD as announcement banners.

Note: the rules below are based on [OOD 1.6](https://osc.github.io/ood-documentation/release-1.6/customization.html). We might have to review the rules when we upgrade to newer version of OOD.

In order to track all the announcements we have made, we create this repo to track all the changes. In the repo, there are two files:

- motd
- announcement.md

### motd
This will add Message of the Day section in OOD Dashboard.
In OOD, you can have motd in different format and we have set it to `MOTD_FORMAT="markdown"`. Therefore, you can have markdown syntax in this file.

### announcement
This will add an announcement message that appears at the top of the OOD Dashboard.

We currently have the file end with `.md` so it will be converted using a markdown converter.

If the announcement file has the extension `yml` and is a yaml file it is first rendered using ERB and then the resulting file is parsed as YAML. The valid keys are:
| YAML key | Description                                  |Note                                                                     |
| -------- | -------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|   type   | warning, info, success, or danger            | this is the Bootstrap alert style                                       |
|   msg    | string containing markdown formatted message | if this is a blank string (only whitespace), the alert will not display |

Because it is rendered via ERB you can do some interesting things, like stop showing the announcement past a specified date:
```yaml
type: warning
msg: |
  <% if Time.now < Time.new(2018, 9, 24, 12, 0, 0) %>
  A **Ruby Partial Downtime** for 4 hours on Monday, September 24 from 8:00am to 12:00pm
  will prevent SSH login to Ruby nodes and and Ruby VDI sessions.
  <% end %>
```

#### Announcement Style

- Each separate announcement topic must have a title using level 4 headers (`####`)
- At the end of each announcement topic write `*Posted: <date>*`.
- Announcements should also be posted in the [Docs News Page](https://docs.rc.uab.edu/news/), generally with more detail there, summarized very briefly here.
- Cross-link to the relevant Docs News post.

Examples:

```
#### Maintenance Window

Cheaha will be impacted by a maintenance window Jul 16, 2025, through Jul 22, 2025. Read more on our docs at our [News Page](link).
<br><p style="text-align: right">*Posted: 2025-05-13*</p>

#### Research Computing Customer Survey

We invite you to complete our brief [Research Computing Survey](link) by Friday, May 16 to share your experience and suggestions—it takes less than 5 minutes. 
<br><p style="text-align: right">*Posted: 2025-05-05*</p>
```