Navigation and organisation selection

The top bar is 56 pixels high. Below a large screen it starts with a menu button (Toggle menu) that opens the navigation menu. Next come the Sentinel logo (with the name from a small tablet up) and the organisation menu. The logo and name are one button. Select it and a pop-up headed Leave the dashboard? asks you to confirm: it says this takes you out of the dashboard to the public Sentinel Connector website, and that any changes you have not saved will be lost. Select Go to website to open the website home page in the same tab, or Cancel, the close button or Escape (or select outside the pop-up) to stay where you are. Nothing leaves the page until you confirm. On a phone only the logo shows, and it works the same way. The Beta badge is not part of this button. Every signed-in role can use it. The organisation menu is in the top bar, after the Sentinel logo, on every screen size. Its button shows the selected organisation's initials, its name (shortened when it is long) and an up-down arrow; on a phone it shows the initials only. Screen readers announce it as the organisation name followed by "organisation menu". Use it to select an organisation, open Organisation settings (which opens Settings → General), use Invite when you administer the organisation, or create an organisation when the server confirms your billing ownership allows it. The menu lists your organisations and marks the selected one as current, even when you belong to only one. If ownership or a required billing-account choice prevents creation, the menu can show the server's reason instead of Create organisation. While permission is loading or cannot be checked, the creation action stays hidden; retry after the connection recovers. Your own profile, appearance, chart colours and Sign out are in the account menu, and the tour is in the Help button, not the organisation menu. The sidebar and navigation menu do not repeat the organisation menu. Only an administrator of the selected organisation sees Invite; it opens Members with the invite dialog already open. Every member sees Organisation settings; a member who is not an administrator sees the details there without the controls that change them. The organisation menu is the only place to switch organisation. Every member who has at least one organisation also sees Manage organisations, whatever their role and however many organisations they belong to. It opens the Organisations page, where you can pick your default organisation and, where your plan offers it, select Upgrade to Agency. A person with no organisations does not see it. Use the message bell to open Messages.

The sidebar is a dark navy panel. It groups its links under these headings, which work as accordions:

• Monitor: Home, Sites and Reports. This group is open when you sign in. Sites shows a number badge when some sites need a person: it counts the sites whose status is not secure, not supported, or has a sync issue. There is no badge when the count is zero, or while support status is switched off.
• Activity: Connector log (the Communication Logs page) and Audit log (the Audit log page).

The old Records and Organisation groups are gone. The Organisations and Users count badges are gone too. Members and Connector keys (the old API keys page) are now pages inside Settings, and the organisation list is the Manage organisations item in the organisation menu.

Settings is not in a group. It is one link of its own, with no pages listed under it, at the foot of the sidebar, above the Sentinel version and the LinkedIn and Reddit links. Appearance, Feedback and Help are no longer at the foot of the sidebar: Help is a button in the top bar, Appearance is in the account menu, and Send feedback is in the Help panel.

Only Monitor starts open. The other groups, such as Activity, start closed. Select a group heading (a button with a chevron) to open or close it. Only one group stays open: opening a group closes the others. A closed group that holds the page you are on opens by itself. If you close that group yourself, a small dot beside its heading shows that the current page is inside it. The phone navigation menu uses the same accordions. The collapsed or expanded state of the sidebar is remembered in this browser. Use the panel button labelled Collapse sidebar (or Expand sidebar) at the bottom right of the sidebar, on the same line as the version, to shrink it to icons. Each icon shows its name in a tooltip. The Monitor pages stay as icons. Every other group (such as Activity) is one icon button that opens its pages in a small menu. Settings sits at the bottom and is a single icon link to the Settings page. The bottom of the sidebar also shows the Sentinel product version, for example v1.0.0. Quote it when you contact Support. The LinkedIn and Reddit logos sit below it; each opens in a new tab.

Select Settings to open the Settings area. Opening it takes you to the first page you may use, which is General for every member of the selected organisation. Settings has its own menu down the left side, under a heading with the organisation's name and whether you are an Administrator or a Member there. On a phone the same menu is a grid of buttons above the page. The menu lists only the pages you may open. Its headings and pages are:

• Organisation: General for every member, Members for every member, and Notifications for an administrator of the selected organisation.
• Connections: Integrations for every member, and Connector keys for an organisation admin or site manager of the selected organisation.
• Billing: Overview, Upgrade (it reads Plans on a new first-site-free account, because there is no Free plan to upgrade from), Payment methods and Invoices. These are for an administrator who can read billing for the selected organisation, when billing is switched on. They can stay visible while that check is still loading, and are hidden once it says this administrator cannot read billing.
• Data and privacy: for every member of the selected organisation.

An ordinary member (user, viewer or site manager) sees General, Members, Integrations and Data and privacy. With no organisation selected, the page says Select an organisation to see its settings. The menu only hides what you could not use; each page and the server still check your role. The pages are described in Settings pages.

The old addresses still work and take you to the new page, keeping anything after the address: /app/organizations/users opens Members, /app/api-keys opens Connector keys, and /app/settings#notifications opens Notifications for an administrator (anyone else lands on General). The selected organisation's own details address (/app/organizations/ followed by its id) opens General. The same address with ?action=invite opens Members. Another organisation's details page, for an organisation you belong to but have not selected, still opens as before.

The selected organisation controls the main monitoring pages. Save or cancel an open form before switching organisations. An unfinished form can block the switch. A link to a site in another accessible organisation can change the selection to that site's organisation. If it cannot, save or discard pending work and retry.

Messages has its own All my organisations filter. Audit log has its own account or organisation scope. These pages explain their scope separately.

Use the search controls on Sites, Modules, Logs, Users, or Help to search that page. The top bar has a Search button that finds settings pages, help articles and sites anywhere in the dashboard; see Search below. Use the monitoring panels and service notices to check current conditions.

Home was called Dashboard. Its page is Home, with the heading Home. Old links to /app/dashboard still work: they open Home and keep any query or section link on the address.

Top bar and account menu

The right side of the top bar has four controls: Search, Help, the message bell for Messages, and your account menu. On a phone Search and Help show as icons only. Hover over or focus the bell to see a tooltip.

Search

Select Search in the top bar, or press Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac) on any dashboard page. A search window opens with the hint "Search settings, help and sites". Results come in three sections, in this order:

• Settings: the Settings pages you may open. It matches the page name and its group, for example "Members" or "Billing Invoices". Pages for administrators only, such as Notifications, never show for a member. Billing pages show only to people who can see billing.
• Help articles: articles from the knowledge base. They show only while the knowledge base is on for you, and only after you type two letters.
• Sites: sites of the organisation you have selected, matched on name or address, up to five. Choose the organisation first; with no organisation selected there are no sites. It lists only sites you can already open.

Use the arrow keys to move, press Enter or select a result to open it, and press Escape to close the window. Every signed-in role can use it. What you type stays in the window and is not put in the page address.

Before you type anything, the window shows Recent: your last five choices. They are kept in this browser only, for your account. A recent site shows only while its own organisation is selected. A recent settings page shows only while you can still open it. Recent help articles show only while the knowledge base is on.

If nothing fits, the window says "Nothing matches." While it looks, it says "Searching…". If sites cannot be searched, it says so and offers Try again. If help articles cannot be searched, it says "Help articles could not be searched."

Help button

The Help button (a question-mark icon, with the word Help on a wider screen) is in the top bar, on every dashboard page and on a phone. A small dot on it means there is news you have not opened. Select it to open the Help panel. On a wide screen it is a panel of about 360 pixels under the button. On a phone it is a sheet at the bottom of the screen. Press Escape or select the close button to close it; focus returns to the Help button. From top to bottom, the panel holds the parts below. Each part follows its own switch, and a part that is off is left out.

• Ask the assistant, first, with its shortcut (Ctrl+/, or Cmd+/ on a Mac). Under it, Can share this page names the page you are on. It closes the panel and opens the assistant panel (see Ask the assistant); the assistant still asks before it sees the page. It shows only where the assistant is available to you. The assistant has no button of its own in the top bar; the shortcut still works.
• Search help, settings and sites: opens the same search as Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac), described above. It is always there. Pressing Ctrl+K or Ctrl+/ while the panel is open closes it and opens the search or the assistant.
• For this page: up to three knowledge base articles that match the area you are in (a site, reports, modules, settings, tickets or the dashboard). It shows only while the knowledge base is available, and it is left out when no article matches. Select an article to read it.
• A Support group, shown only while Support tickets are available (see Support): My tickets, which opens Support and shows how many tickets are still open (for example "2 open": every ticket not yet resolved or closed), Get help, which opens Get help, and New ticket, which opens the ticket form. Send feedback opens a new support ticket with Feedback or idea chosen. It shows only while the beta is on and Support tickets are switched on. See Beta, feedback and releases. The group is hidden when none of its rows is available.
• A Learn group with User guide, which opens this guide in a new tab, Knowledge base, which opens the knowledge base home while it is available, Take the tour, which starts the dashboard tour again (see Dashboard tour), and What's new, which shows the Sentinel version and a dot while there is news you have not opened.
• A last line, "Sentinel Connector" with the version number.

The Search, User guide, Take the tour and What's new rows are always there. Every role and plan can use the Help button. The old Help menu row Browse tickets is now My tickets.

The account menu is the round button with your initials and a small arrow, at the far right. Screen readers announce it as "Account menu for" followed by your name. It is the same for every signed-in role, and no plan is required. It contains, in order:

• Your name and email address.
• My profile: opens Profile.
• Appearance: three icon buttons, System, Light and Dark; the current one is marked. System follows your device's light or dark setting and changes when the device does. The choice is saved in this browser only, so another browser or device keeps its own. If you have never chosen one, the dashboard follows the device. The Sentinel logo changes colour to match.
• Chart colours: a list of two rows, Red, amber, green and Colour-blind safe. Each row shows three coloured dots in that palette's own colours (nothing outstanding, maintenance, security) and a tick on the one you use. Red, amber, green was called Traffic light and Colour-blind safe was called Okabe-Ito. See Colour palette under Dashboard: review the fleet.
• Animations: On (the default) or Paused. Paused stops the Sentinel logo mark, which also shows when a page is loading, and the pulsing status dots from moving. While the mark is still, the word Loading… or a short line of text shows that the page is working. The choice is kept in this browser only and is not saved to your account, so set it again on another browser or device.
• Sign out (in red): ends your session and returns you to the sign-in screen.

Take a tour and Homepage are no longer in the account menu. Take the tour from the Help button. The Sentinel logo in the top bar still leads to the public website, after the Leave the dashboard? confirmation described above.

The current animations choice is highlighted, and the chart colours row you use has a tick. Choosing a row or an animations option applies it straight away and closes the menu. Press Escape or select outside the menu to close it without a change. Administrators in the admin console also see Switch to customer view.

What's new

The Sentinel version at the foot of the sidebar, with a small info icon, opens What's new, as does What's new in the Help panel. Hovering over the version shows What's new in Sentinel. It lists Sentinel's production releases by date, newest first, with New, Improved and Fixed items. It opens only when you select it, and fills the screen on a phone. A small dot beside the version, and on the Help button, means there is news you have not opened in this browser; opening the list clears it. Items about a product your organisation does not have are hidden. Every role and plan can open it. On the collapsed sidebar, select the version number. The admin console shows the version as plain text.

On a phone, open the navigation menu (the menu button at the top left) to reach the same groups and pages as the desktop sidebar, including Reports, the Activity pages and Settings, whose own menu then shows as a grid of buttons above the page. Search sites and Help are icons in the top bar. A tab bar at the bottom of the screen has Home, Sites and Settings. The organisation menu stays in the top bar. Profile controls your date format and your own time zone.

The organisation menu stays in the top bar. Profile controls your date format and your own time zone.

Switch product

When your organisation has two or more TrueCMS products it can open, a Switch product button (a grid icon) appears in the top bar, after the organisation menu, on screens wider than a phone or small tablet. Open it to see the Products list. Choose a product to open its own dashboard with the same account. The organisation you have selected carries across. The product you are in is marked as current.

Products your organisation's plan does not include are listed under Not on your organisation's plan. They are shown for information and cannot be opened. If your organisation has only one product, the button does not appear. Every member sees it, whatever their role. It depends on your organisation's products, not on your role.

On arrival, the other dashboard switches to the organisation you came from only if you are a member of it. Otherwise it keeps your current organisation. If the organisation looks wrong, use the organisation menu to select the right one.

Platform notices

Sentinel can show a notice at the top of every dashboard page, below the top bar and above the page content. Notices are messages from Sentinel to all customers, for example about an outage, planned maintenance or product news. Every signed-in user sees them, whatever their role or plan. They do not appear on the public website, the sign-in page or the admin console.

Each notice shows its level name, an icon, a bold title and a short text. Line breaks in the text are kept. A notice can also have a link. A link to a dashboard page opens in the dashboard. A link to another website opens in a new tab and shows an external-link icon. If the link has no text, it reads Read more. The levels, from most to least urgent, are:

• Emergency: an outage happening now. Solid red.
• Warning: maintenance or degraded service. Amber.
• Notification: product news. Blue, with a megaphone icon.
• Notice: general information. A neutral card.

Notices are listed by level in that order. Within a level, the newest comes first. Up to three show. If there are more, select Show N more notices (N is the number left) to see the rest, then Show fewer notices to fold them away.

To hide a notice, select its close button (an X, named Close notice: followed by the title). Sentinel remembers this for you: the notice stays hidden on all your devices and after you reload the page. Other people still see it. If closing fails, the notice comes back and the message Could not close the notice followed by its title and Try again. appears. Select the close button again. If Sentinel has just changed the notice to always show, the message says the notice can no longer be closed, and the close button goes.

Some notices are always shown. They have no close button and stay until their end time, or until Sentinel ends them.

New notices appear, and ended notices disappear, within about a minute without reloading the page. The dashboard checks every 60 seconds while the window has focus, and again when you change page. If no notice is showing, there is nothing active for you.

Customers cannot create or edit notices. Only Sentinel platform administrators manage them.