How to Build a Divi Notification Box for COVID-19 Updates (FREE Download)

There is always a need for notification boxes on a website. They are helpful additions that supply important information to users where they can see it. Unfortunately, the growing COVID-19 epidemic has left many websites with the pressing need to keep their users updated. A notification box is a great way to do it.

Today, we are giving away a FREE Divi notification box section layout (complete with all the necessary code/functionality) for you to add to any of your Divi pages or templates.

Don’t worry, we’ll also show you how to build it from scratch and how to use it.

Let’s get started!

Sneak Peek

Here is a quick look at the Notification Box and how it functions.

Download the Divi Notification Box Section Layout for FREE

To lay your hands on the designs from this tutorial, you will first need to download it using the button below. To gain access to the download you will need to subscribe to our newsletter by using the form below. As a new subscriber, you will receive even more Divi goodness and a free Divi Layout pack every Monday! If you’re already on the list, simply enter your email address below and click download. You will not be “resubscribed” or receive extra emails.

To import the section layout to your Divi Library, navigate to the Divi Library.

Click the Import button.

In the portability popup, select the import tab and choose the download file from your computer.

Then click the import button.

Once done, the section layout will be available in the Divi Builder. Remember this is a section layout so you will need to add this layout to a page, post, or template when creating a new section in the builder.

See the bottom of the post for how to add the Notification Box Section Layout to a page or template

Let’s get to the tutorial, shall we?

Part 1: Adding a New Section Layout to the Divi Library

For this design, we are going to build the notification box as a section layout in the Divi Library first. That way, once the section layout is complete and saved, we can conveniently add the section layout from the Divi Libary to any Divi Page, Post, or Template. The idea is to have it ready in the library for every instance we need a notification box/section for the site.

Add Layout

To start, navigate to Divi > Divi Library.

Click the “Add New” button to add a new layout to the library.

In the Add New Layout popup, give the layout a name (ie. “Notice Section”) and choose the “Section” layout type.

Then click Submit.

Part 2: Designing the Notification Box Section Layout

Build On the Front End

This will deploy the layout editor which functions much like a normal page using the Divi Builder. Since we want to build the layout visually, click “Build On The Front End”.

Section Background and Padding

Open the section settings, and update the background and padding as follows:

• Gradient Background Left Color:
• Gradient Background Right Color:
• Padding: 0px top, 0px bottom

Section CSS ID

The notification box will need some custom CSS/JQuery to provide the clickable functionality to close the box/section. Add the following CSS ID to the section so that we can target it with code later.

Add Row and Row Width

Add a one-column row to the section.

Then update the row settings with a max-width as follows:

Add Text Module for Notification Text

Inside the row, add a new text module. This will be where we add the text content for the notification box.

Text Content

Update the body content with the text needed for the notification as follows:

<h2>COVID-19 Notice</h2>
Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Donec velit neque, auctor sit amet aliquam vel, ullamcorper sit amet ligula.

Text Design

Under the design tab, update the text style as follows:

• Text Font: Cabin
• Text Text Size: 18px
• Text Alignment: center
• Heading 2 Text Size: 46px (desktop), 38px (tablet), 28px (phone)
• Heading 2 Line Height: 1.3em

Add Two Column Row

Under the row with the text module, add a new two-column (1/2 – 1/2) row.

Row Width

Update the row with the following max-width:

Add CTA Button

This notification box will have a “Learn More” CTA Button on the left that can be used to redirect a user to another page with more info.

To create the button, add a new button module to column 1.

Button Content

Update the button text with “Learn More” and add the button link URL to redirect users to another page for more info.

Button Design

Update the following design options:

• Button Alignment: center
• Use Custom Styles For Button: YES
• Button Text Color: #ffffff
• Button Background Color: #f6ae55
• Button Border Width: 0px
• Button Font: Cabin
• Button Font Weight: Bold

In order to have the button span the full width of the column, add the following custom CSS to the main element:

display: block !important;

Add Close Button

In the right column of this notification box, we will have a “Got it!” button that collapses/closes the notification box out of view. For this button, we will keep most of the design of the previous button with the exception of the background and text color. We will also need to give this button a CSS ID to target it with code later.

Copy and Paste Button to Right Column

To jumpstart the design of the button, copy the button in column 1 and paste it into column 2.

Content

Update the button text.

Design

Then update the button text color and background color as follows:

• Button text Color: #121212
• Button Background Color: rgba(255,255,255,0.4)

Button CSS Class

For this button, add the following CSS Class to target the button later with code needed to collapse/close the notification box.

Creating the Notification Box Close Icon (“x”).

Add Row

In order to create the close icon at the top right of the notification box, a new one-column row.

Row Settings

Then update the row width and padding as follows:

• Width: 100%
• Max Width: 100%
• Padding: 0px top, 0px bottom

Add Blurb Module/Icon

Inside the row, add a new blurb module.

Content

Then delete the mock content in the Title and Body select to use the “x” icon for the blurb.

Blurb Settings for Close Icon

Under the design tab, update the following:

• Icon Color: #ffffff
• Use Icon Font Size: YES
• Icon Font Size: 40px
• Width: 40px
• Height: 40px

Icon Position

To position the icon at the top right of the box, open the Advanced tab, and update the following:

• Position: Absolute
• Location: top right
• Vertical Offset: 20px
• Horizontal Offset: 20px

Blurb/Icon CSS Class

Now add the same CSS Class to the blurb that you did for the “Got it!” Close button (both will be used to close the notification box).

Add Custom Code

For this notification box, we are going to add custom CSS/Javascript to do the following:

• Close the notification box when clicking either the close button or close icon.
• Close the notification box by sliding the box (and page content below it) upward out of view (a common trend with these kinds of boxes).
• Record the event in the user’s browser so that the popup doesn’t keep showing during the session after closing it.

To add the functionality, we are going to add the code to a code module. Go ahead and add a new code module under the close button module (or anywhere on the page really).

Then paste the following code into the code module content area:

<style>
  .close-notice {
    cursor: pointer;
  }
  #notice-section {
    display:none;
  }
  .et-fb-post-content #notice-section {
    display: block !important;
  }
</style>
<script>
function storageAvailable(type) {
  try {
      var storage = window[type],
          x = '__storage_test__';
      storage.setItem(x, x);
      storage.removeItem(x);
      return true;
  }
  catch(e) {
      return e instanceof DOMException && (
          // everything except Firefox
          e.code === 22 ||
          // Firefox
          e.code === 1014 ||
          // test name field too, because code might not be present
          // everything except Firefox
          e.name === 'QuotaExceededError' ||
          // Firefox
          e.name === 'NS_ERROR_DOM_QUOTA_REACHED') &&
          // acknowledge QuotaExceededError only if there's something already stored
          storage.length !== 0;
  }
}
jQuery(document).ready(function($) {
  var storageAvailable = window.storageAvailable('sessionStorage');
  $(".close-notice").click(function() {
    $("#notice-section").slideUp();
    if (storageAvailable) {
      sessionStorage.setItem('etNoticeState','hidden'); 
    }    
  });
  if (storageAvailable) {
    if ('hidden' !== sessionStorage.getItem('etNoticeState')){
      $("#notice-section").show();
    }
  } else {
    $("#notice-section").show();
  }
});
</script>

About the Code

In the style tags, you will notice that we are actually hiding the notification box/section initially with this…

#notice-section {display:none;} 

That way we can check to make sure the browser has the storage we need to record the item.

That same snippet will also hide the section in the Divi Builder (on the front end). To override that, we added another snippet to show the section in the Divi Builder so you can make edits visually.

.et-fb-post-content #notice-section {display:none;} 

The JS function “storageAvailable(type)” checks the browser for storage.

The jQuery snippet does everything else needed…

• Closes the section (#notice-section) when clicking the button and icon with the class “close-notice”.
• If the browser has session storage available, clicking either button to close the box hides the box during the rest of the user’s browser session which lasts as long as the browser is open.

Once done, make sure to save the Section Layout.

Adding the Notification Box (section layout) to a Page

To add the notification box section layout to a page using the Divi Builder, open a page in the Divi Builder and click the blue icon to add a new section to the page.

Open the Add From Library tab and select the notification box section layout from the list. We named it “Notice Section” for this example.

Make sure to place the section a the top of the page (or anywhere else you might want) and save the page.

Adding the Notification Box (section layout) to a Divi Theme Template

We can also add the notification box section layout to any page/post template, global header, or global footer. The process is the same as adding it to a regular Divi page.

To add it to a template, open the Divi Theme Builder.

Then click to edit the template area where you want to add the notification box section layout.

In the template layout editor, click to add a new section and select the saved section layout from the Divi library.

Save the template layout.

That’s it!

Final Result

Here is the final result of the notification box on a live page.

Final Thoughts

I hope this Divi Notification Box will come in handy. There really are so many wonderful uses for something like this. And even though the world is still coping with COVID-19, we look forward to many positive notifications in the near future.

I look forward to hearing from you in the comments.

Cheers!