Dashboard announcements block

block_dashboardannouncements is a Moodle dashboard block that lets authorised staff publish announcements to selected audiences and optionally queue notification or email delivery through cron.

Features

• Shows up to 10 relevant published announcements in the dashboard block


• Provides a full View all page for announcements visible to the current user


• Supports one target mode per announcement:
  
  
  
  • all users
  
  
  • users enrolled in courses within selected course categories
  
  
  • users in selected cohorts
  
  
  • users whose custom profile field matches a configured operator and value
  
  
  
  


• Queues optional delivery by Moodle notifications, email, or both


• Tracks admin-only management statistics:
  
  
  
  • target audience summary
  
  
  • first-send targeted snapshot count
  
  
  • unique successful notified count
  
  
  
  

Supported Moodle versions

This plugin currently declares support for Moodle 4.0+ via version.php ($plugin->requires = 2022041900).

Manual verification against maintained Moodle versions is still required before publishing a release.

Installation

1. Place the plugin in blocks/dashboardannouncements.


2. Visit the site administration notifications page to complete installation.


3. Add the block to the dashboard or another supported page layout.


4. Grant block/dashboardannouncements:manage to the roles that should create and manage announcements.

No Composer or external build step is required.

Configuration and usage

• Create and manage announcements at /blocks/dashboardannouncements/manage.php.


• Create or edit announcements with title, message, date window, target audience, and delivery mode.


• Run Moodle cron to process queued delivery jobs.

Dependencies

This plugin depends only on Moodle core APIs.

It does not require any additional plugins or third-party subscription services.

Privacy

The plugin stores announcement content, queue metadata, and per-user delivery log rows in Moodle database tables. A Privacy API metadata provider is included in classes/privacy/provider.php.

Limitations

• Runtime verification has not been performed in this workspace because no local Moodle/PHP runtime is available here.


• Cross-database and automated precheck validation still need to be run by a human maintainer before publishing.

Support

• Source repository URL: add your public repository URL before publishing


• Issue tracker URL: add your public issue tracker URL before publishing


• Documentation URL: add your Moodle Docs or public documentation URL before publishing

Manual publishing checklist

Before submitting to the Moodle plugins directory, manually verify:

1. Installation and upgrade on supported Moodle versions


2. Cross-database behaviour on MySQL and PostgreSQL


3. Cron delivery processing for notification and email channels


4. Audience resolution for category, cohort, and profile field targeting


5. Access control for block visibility, management, and direct URL access

Dashboard announcements enables site managers to publish time-bound announcements to specific audiences and present them in a clear, modern dashboard experience. Announcements support audience targeting by all users, course categories, cohorts, and user field rules, plus optional attachments and optional popup display at login.
For users, the block shows compact announcement cards with direct navigation to full details. The View All page supports filtering, sorting, and pagination for efficient browsing.
For managers, dedicated create/edit/manage screens provide grouped form sections, readable status indicators, audience summaries, delivery counts, and archive actions.
Delivery can be queued via Moodle messaging, with per-announcement administrative statistics and privacy metadata support included.