Readme: o-message

o-message is a messaging component used for alerting, informing or making calls to action.

o-message uses Sass and Javascript to show and hide a message component.

It can be initialised declaratively if markup is provided on the page, or it can be initialised imperatively when using the manual build process.

Usage

Check out how to include Origami components in your project to get started with o-message.

Message Types

o-message provides three types of messages: alert, notice, and action.

• An alert message should be used as feedback to a users interaction with a product (e.g. payment declined warning). Unlike other messages, alert messages have an icon.
• A notice message should be used to provide information or warnings about a product. (e.g. beta version of a product).
• An action message should be used as a static call to action, usually within or below main content, that is not necessarily a response to a user's interaction with a product (e.g. requesting feedback in general).

You can find a demo for each of the messages above in the Origami registry.

A default message is designed to span across a page in whatever container it is placed in.
An 'inner' message is meant to sit within a smaller container, as it stacks information, instead.

In addition to layout, messages can accept another variation: state.
However, not every message accepts every state, or every layout, and not every message works for every brand. Please check the table below against the needs of your product. If you need a message that is not available to you, please get in touch with the Origami team.

Markup

All messages have the same markup. What will style them differently are the following modifiers:

• type: one of o-message--action, o-message--alert, o-message--notice
• state: one of o-message--success, o-message--neutral, o-message--error, o-message--feedback, o-message--warning, o-message--warning-light, o-message--inform, o-message--inform-inverse
• layout: currently only o-message--inner

Note: as mentioned in the description of the message types, not all states will work for all message types. In addition to that, the layout modifier only applies to alert and notice type messages.

This example illustrates the basic markup for a successful alert message:

<div class="o-message o-message--alert o-message--success" data-o-component="o-message">
    <div class="o-message__container">
        <div class="o-message__content">
            <p class="o-message__content-main">
                <span class="o-message__content-highlight">Oops.</span>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

You can add more information about the message with the following markup:

<div class="o-message o-message--alert o-message--success" data-o-component="o-message">
    <div class="o-message__container">
        <div class="o-message__content">
            <p class="o-message__content-main">
                <span class="o-message__content-highlight">Oops.</span>
+                <span class="o-message__content-detail">
+                    Something went wrong!
+                    The quick brown fox did not jump over the lazy dogs.
+                </span>
            </p>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

And you can also add actions, such as a button and/or a link to your message:

<div class="o-message o-message--alert o-message--success" data-o-component="o-message">
    <div class="o-message__container">
        <div class="o-message__content">
            <p class="o-message__content-main">
                <span class="o-message__content-highlight">Oops.</span>
                <span class="o-message__content-detail">
                    Something went wrong!
                    The quick brown fox did not jump over the lazy dogs.
                </span>
            </p>
+            <div class="o-message__actions">
+                <a href="#" class="o-message__actions__primary">Button</a>
+                <a href="#" class="o-message__actions__secondary">Text link</a>
+            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

If you have applied the o-message--inner modifier to your message, you can add additional, entirely optional, content:

-<div class="o-message o-message--alert o-message--error" data-o-component="o-message">
+<div class="o-message o-message--alert o-message--inner o-message--error" data-o-component="o-message">
    <div class="o-message__container">
        <div class="o-message__content">
            <p class="o-message__content-main">
                <span class="o-message__content-highlight">Oops.</span>
                <span class="o-message__content-detail">
                    Something went wrong!
                    The quick brown fox did not jump over the lazy dogs.
                </span>
            </p>
+            <p class="o-message__content-additional">
+                Did you know that that sentence uses all of the letters in the alphabet at least once?
+            </p>
            <div class="o-message__actions">
                <a href="#" class="o-message__actions__primary">Button</a>
                <a href="#" class="o-message__actions__secondary">Text link</a>
            </div>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

For any message, you can highlight any portion of copy within a paragraph by using the markup like this:

<div class="o-message o-message--alert o-message--success" data-o-component="o-message">
    <div class="o-message__container">
        <div class="o-message__content">
            <p class="o-message__content-main">
                The quick brown fox did <span class="o-message__content-highlight">not</span> jump over the lazy dogs.
            </p>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

Sass users may create custom messages with a highlight colour. This is useful to highlight key words in the message. To apply the highlight colour to message copy use the class o-message__content-highlight-color.

<div class="o-message o-message--alert o-message--success" data-o-component="o-message">
    <div class="o-message__container">
        <div class="o-message__content">
                <p class="o-message__content-main">
                    <span class="o-message__content-highlight">
                        Hurray<span class="o-message__content-highlight-color">thing</span>happened
                    </span>
                    The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs!
                </p>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

For action messages only, you can centralise the text with a specific class (.o-message__content--center-align):

<div class="o-message o-message--action o-message--inform" data-o-component="o-message">
    <div class="o-message__container">
-        <div class="o-message__content">
+        <div class="o-message__content o-message__content--center-align">
            <p class="o-message__content-main">
                This will be a call to action. Feedback, please.
            </p>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

JavaScript

No code will run automatically unless you are using the Build Service. You must either construct an o-message object or fire an o.DOMContentLoaded event, which o-message listens for.

Construction

If you have set up your message declaratively, use the following to initialise your message.

import Message from '@financial-times/o-message';
Message.init();

Message will initialise its element with a close button by default. With a declaratively set up message, this can be avoided by adding data-o-message-close="false" to the message element.

If you're setting up a message without existing DOM elements, Message will construct an element for you. As long as your markup contains an element with the data attribute data-o-component=o-message, you can initialise a message with specific options.

import Message from '@financial-times/o-message';
const importantMessage = new Message(null, {
    type: 'alert',
    state: 'error',
    content: {
        highlight: 'Something has gone wrong.',
        detail: 'The quick brown fox did not jump over the lazy dogs.'
    }
});

Options

o-message allows for several configuration options that will change the type of message and its visual styling.

The only required options are listed in the example above. These are:

• type: String. The o-message variant. The available variants are 'action', 'alert' and 'notice'.
• state: String. All messages require a state, and you must supply one that combines with the type of message you've chosen, as listed in the message types
• content.detail: String. The detail about the nature of a message.

The following options are not required, and all have a default value:

• autoOpen: Boolean. Whether to open the message automatically, defaults to true.
• parentElement: String. This determines the element that the message will be appended to. If none is declared, it will automatically append to the body, or an element with the data attribute data-o-component=o-message, defaults to null.
• content: Object. Holds the following values for text properties:
  • highlight: String. The highlighted text in a message. Defaults to null
  • additionalInfo: String. More information about the message – only applies to a message with an inner layout. Defaults to null
• actions: Object. Holds the following values for text properties:
  • primary: Object. Holds the following values for button properties:
    • text: String. text value of the button. Defaults to null
    • url: String. The URL the button links to. Defaults to null
    • openInNewWindow: Boolean. Decides if the action should open with target="_blank. Defaults to false
  • secondary: Object. Holds the following values for link properties:
    • text: String. text value of the link. Defaults to null
    • url: String. The URL the link links to. Defaults to null
    • openInNewWindow: Boolean. Decides if the action should open with target="_blank. Defaults to false
• close: Boolean. Whether or not to display the close button. Defaults to true.

For example, to configure the close icon to not display:

import Message from 'o-message';
const importantMessage = new Message(null, {
    type: 'alert',
    state: 'error',
    content: {
-        highlight: 'Something has gone wrong.',
+        highlight: 'Something has gone very wrong.',
        detail: 'The quick brown fox did not jump over the lazy dogs.'
    },
+    close: false
});

Sass

You can include all styles and variations for every message type by calling:

@include oMessage();

You can also be more specific about which message styles and variations you would like to output by using an $opts map:

@include oMessage($opts: (
    'types': ('action', 'notice'),
    'states': ('inform', 'warning'),
    'layouts': ('inner')
));

Options include:

Custom Message

To create a new message with a unique look call oMessageAddSate. The mixin accepts three arguments:

• name: The name of your state. This is used for the modifier class output o-message--{name}.
• opts: A map of options for your state. Note colours may be an o-colors colour name or a hex value:
  • foreground-color: The colour used for message text, and the button where a highlight colour has not been given.
  • background-color: The background colour used for the message.
  • icon: The o-icons icon name to show in an alert message. Required only for your state to support an alert message type.
  • button-type (optional): The type of o-buttons button the message should have. One of primary or secondary (defaults to secondary).
  • highlight-color (optional): The highlight colour is used for the message button. It can also be used to highlight message copy with the CSS class o-message__content-highlight-color.
• types: A list of message types your state supports, one or more of (alert, notice, action).

// Outputs CSS for a custom message state called "pikachu"
// Outputs a modifier class `o-message--pikachu`
@include oMessageAddState(
    $name: 'pikachu', // the custom state is named "pikachu"
    $opts: (
    'background-color': 'slate', // slate message
    'foreground-color': 'white', // white text
    'highlight-color': 'lemon', // lemon highlights with `o-message__content-highlight-color` and a lemon button
    'button-type': 'primary', // a primary o-buttons button`o-message__content-highlight` highlight copy
    'icon': 'user', // show a 'user' o-icons icon if used as an alert
), $types: ('notice', 'alert')); // this state should work with notice and alert message types

Migration

Contact

If you have any questions or comments about this component, or need help using it, please either raise an issue, visit #origami-support or email Origami Support.

Licence

This software is published by the Financial Times under the MIT licence.