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COUNCIL PORTAL GUIDE

How Hurunui Council & the Hanmer Service Centre get the most out of What's On Hanmer

This guide walks you through every tool available to council staff — from posting emergency alert banners that appear site-wide, to updating transfer-station hours, adding community events, and publishing local news. Service-centre staff can add public listings without needing vendor access.

Alert Banners — your most powerful tool

Alert banners appear instantly at the top of every page of the site — the home page, events, news, everywhere. They are the fastest way to reach residents and visitors with urgent or important information.

🚨
Red — Emergency
Flood, fire, road closure, boil-water
⚠️
Yellow — Warning
Reduced service, detour, weather watch
ℹ️
Green — Info
Planned works, holiday hours, reminders

How to post an alert

  1. 1Log in at whatson-hanmer.app/login with your council email.
  2. 2Open the Vendor Portal — you'll land on the Alerts tab automatically.
  3. 3Click "Post alert", choose a severity, write a clear headline + message, and set an expiry time.
  4. 4Click save. The banner is live across the whole site within seconds.
Tip: Keep the headline short (it's what people see before clicking). Put the full detail in the message body — it shows when the banner is expanded.

Live updates — keep the public informed as things change

Each alert has a "Post a live update" box. Use it to add new information as a situation develops — a timeline builds automatically, with each update time-stamped and colour-coded by the alert's severity at that moment.

Best practice: Post a live update whenever the situation changes — "Road now open to one lane", "Boil-water notice lifted", "Crews on site". The public sees the full escalation history at a glance.

Timed expiry, email reminders & renewal

Every alert has an expiry time you set when posting — the banner comes down automatically at that moment, but the record (with its live-update timeline) is kept for your reference.

  • • Email reminder: When an alert expires, you automatically receive an email with one-click renewal links (12, 24, 48 or 72 hours).
  • • One-click renewal: Click a link in the email and the original alert — message, live updates and all — is reinstated instantly for that duration.
  • • Manual edit: You can also change the expiry at any time from the Vendor Portal Alerts tab.
Testing? Please start every test alert headline with the word TEST(e.g. "TEST — Road closure drill"). This makes it easy to spot and delete test banners so they don't confuse the public. Remember to delete test alerts once you're done.
2

Update Transfer Station & Rubbish Info

The Council page shows residents transfer-station hours, kerbside collection days and recycling notes. Keep this current — it's one of the most-visited pages.

  1. 1In the Vendor Portal, open the Council tab.
  2. 2Edit transfer-station hours (one day per line), rubbish day, kerbside deadline and any notes.
  3. 3Save — the public Council page updates instantly.
Update these whenever seasonal hours change or holiday collections differ from the normal schedule.
3

Setting Up Your Vendor Portal Access

Council staff log in with their work Google account. If your account isn't linked to the council vendor yet, ask the site admin to add your email to the Staff Emailslist on the council vendor record — or use the vendor signup page if you're the first council user.

Once linked, the Vendor Portal opens to the Alerts tab by default — your most-used tool. All other tabs (Council, Events, News, Community, Listings) sit alongside it.

4

Add to the Community Calendar

Community events — markets, working bees, club meetings, public meetings — go in the Events listing. They appear on the home page, the events page, and the trip planner.

  1. 1In the Vendor Portal, open the Events tab and click Add event.
  2. 2Choose a category (markets, community, sports, family, etc.), set the date, time and venue.
  3. 3For repeating events, tick the days it runs and set a valid-from / valid-to range — no need to enter each week individually.
  4. 4Add an image if you have one; otherwise a relevant graphic is used automatically.
Service-centre staff: You don't need vendor access to add events. Anyone can post a public listing — just use the "Post a listing" button on the Events, Community or News pages and fill in the form. Choose the tab that matches the listing type.
5

Publish News About Hanmer

The News page is where local stories live. Council can publish updates, announcements, and community-interest articles directly — these also feed into the weekly newsletter.

  1. 1Open the News tab in the Vendor Portal and click Add article.
  2. 2Write a title, a short caption (shown in the list) and the full body for the detail page.
  3. 3Add an image and a published date. Save — it appears on the News page immediately.
Articles with a body take readers to a full story page; caption-only items are great for quick bulletins. The site also auto-crawls Hanmer news from the web, so your own posts sit alongside those.
6

Edit Your Council Listings

The council vendor record holds your public contact details, logo, and description. Keep these accurate — they appear on the directory, map, and council page.

  1. 1In the Vendor Portal, open the Profile tab.
  2. 2Update phone, email, website, address, logo and description.
  3. 3Save — changes reflect across the directory and map immediately.

For Service-Centre Staff

You don't need a login or vendor access to add public listings. From anywhere on the site, use the "+ Post a listing" button and pick the right tab for what you're adding:

  • Events — markets, community gatherings, club events
  • News — local stories and announcements
  • Community — community groups and activities

Listings are reviewed before going live. For emergency alerts, contact a council staff member with portal access.

Quick answers

whatson-hanmer.app