Ribbons and Badges are a great way to recognize and reward your community users for their engagement and participation in your community.

Out-of-the-box Ribbons and Badges

Most Higher Logic community sites are implemented with a set of "out-of-the-box" ribbons and badges to simplify getting a community gamification program up and running.

NOTE: Every community implementation is customized and unique; so, your site might differ from what's described below.

The ribbons and badges that might be "pre-loaded" in your community are listed below. In addition to these, you can create and manage your own ribbons and badges as described in Create Ribbons and Badges.

All ribbons and badges can be managed on the Ribbons and Badges page in the Admin interface, as described in this article.

Access your Ribbons and Badges

To access your Ribbons and Badges:

1. In the Admin Toolbar, click Admin.

2. Navigate to Engagement > Ribbons and Badges.

The Ribbons and Badges page displays your ribbons and badges and associated information in several columns.

TIP: This page does not indicate whether a ribbon or badge has been "given" to community users. It is, by design, a "list and management" page only. See Ribbons and Badges Reports for information on ribbon and badge assignments in the community.

Management options

On the Ribbons and Badges page, you can:

• customize what displays in the list and how, and
• use the action buttons to manage your ribbons and badges. 

Manage the list display

The default display of the list is by the sort order that has been configured for the ribbons and badges. In the list, this is represented by the Order column.

NOTE: You cannot adjust the left-to-right order of the columns.

• Sorting - click any column heading to sort on that column; click again to reverse the sort order. An up arrow or down arrow indicates which column is sorted on and the sort order; as shown in the Order column in the image above.
• Columns - click the columns count below the list to add and remove columns in the current view.
• Column width - hover between two columns and when the width-adjustment icon displays, click and drag (left or right) to the preferred width.
• Search - click the magnifying glass icon to open the Search field. Refer to Search & Filter the list, below, for details on this feature.
• Filter - click the filter icon to open the Filter dialog. Refer to Search & Filter the list, below, for details on this feature.

Action buttons

There are several action buttons across the top of the page.

• The plus sign icon to the right of the page title is the "create" button.
  • See Create Ribbons and Badges for instructions on how to create ribbons and badges.
• The Edit, Copy, and Delete buttons are inactive.
  • You must select a row in order to "activate" these buttons; then you can perform one of the actions on the selected ribbon or badge.
  • Refer to the next section for information on how to manage ribbons and badges.
• The Manage Images and Manage Categories button are always activated.
  • The Manage Images button opens a new page in the current browser tab. Refer to Manage Images, below, for information.
  • The Manage Categories button opens an overlay dialog. Refer to Manage Categories, below, for information.

NOTE: Higher Logic recommends that you have Categories and Images in place and ready to go before you create ribbons and/or badges, so that they are available to you during those creation processes.

Edit, copy, and delete actions

You can edit, copy, and delete your site's ribbons and badges on the Ribbons and Badges page.

To manage your ribbons and badges:

1. Navigate to Engagement > Ribbons and Badges.

TIP: The Edit, Copy, and Delete buttons are not enabled. You must select a ribbon or a badge in the list in order to enable them.

2. Click the ribbon or badge that you want to manage.

The buttons are now enabled and you can click:

• Edit to manage the settings, properties, and/or image of the selected ribbon or badge. See Create Ribbons and Badges for descriptions of the settings fields.
• Copy to make an exact replica of the ribbon or badge.
  • The copy is indicated by "- Copy" in the Description column.
  • You can edit the copy to customize its settings, properties, and/or image. See Create Ribbons and Badges for descriptions of the settings fields.
• Delete, followed by Delete in the confirmation popup.
  • The ribbon or badge is immediately and irrevocably deleted.

NOTE: When a ribbon or a badge is deleted, it is immediately removed from the all of the places in the community (profiles, threads, widgets) where it had displayed.

Manage Categories

This section describes how to create, edit, and delete Categories for your ribbons and badges.

TIP: Higher Logic recommends creating the Categories before creating your ribbons and badges. This saves having to "double-back" to the ribbons and badges in order to associate them to a Category.

Categories provide two benefits:

• You can categorize ribbons and badges to simplify finding and managing those that have something in common. For example, sort on the Categories column on the list page to group the list by Category.
• You can configure the Digital Ribbons and Badges widget to show ribbons and badges of a specific category only, in order to control what displays to your users in the widget.

To view and manage your Categories:

1. Click the Ribbon Categories button at the top of the page to open the Manage Categories dialog.

2. On the dialog, you can:

• Click (+) Add and specify a name in the field that appears to create a Category.
• Click into a field to edit (i.e., change the name of) that Category.
• Click (-) next to a Category to delete the Category.

NOTE: The Category is immediately and irrevocably deleted; there is not a confirmation prompt. Refer to Deleted Category notes, below, for important information.

3. Click Save.

Review the list page to verify any actions that you took.

Now, when you create and edit ribbons and badges, you can associate them to the Category.

Deleted Category notes

IMPORTANT: Due to the following behaviors, Higher Logic recommends caution when deleting a Category.

Ribbons and badges that are associated to a deleted Category are not affected by the deletion. Categories are purely an "admin/back-end" function; so, the associated ribbons and badges remain intact and continue to display for whomever they were assigned in the community.

However, the Category column on the list page is now blank for those ribbons and badges.

If you create a Category with the same name as the now-deleted Category, the ribbons and badges that were formerly associated with the Category are not automatically associated with the new Category, despite it having the same name.

If you want to associate any ribbons and/or badges with the new (same-named) Category, you have to individually edit those ribbons and badges and manually associate them to the Category.

Manage Images

This section describes how to upload, edit, and delete images for your ribbons and badges.

TIP: Higher Logic recommends uploading the images that you want to use for your ribbons and badges before creating the ribbons and badges. This saves having to "double-back" to the ribbons and badges in order to add images to them.

Images notes and recommendations

Before you upload an image, review the following information; make any necessary adjustments to your image.

• The recommended size for Ribbons is 200px wide by 40px tall.
• The recommended size for Badges is 200px wide by 200px tall.

NOTE: Images that are larger than these dimensions will be automatically re-sized.

• The supported image-file types include: JPG, PNG, and GIF.

Access the image-management page

To upload, edit, and delete images:

1. Navigate to Engagement > Ribbons and Badges.
2. Click the Manage Images button.

The image-management page opens in the current tab. Refer to the sections that follow to learn how to upload, edit, and delete images.

NOTE: The Back to List button in the upper right of the image-management page functions as a "cancel" button. If you click it at any time while on the page, any work you've done is lost and you are returned to the Ribbons and Badges list page.

Upload an image

In the Upload New Ribbons & Badges Background Image section, you can upload images which will then be available when creating and editing ribbons and badges.

1. Click Choose File and browse your device to select the image that you want to upload. The name of the image now displays next to the Choose File button.
2. Optionally, give the image a name that clearly indicates what it is or how it's used.
3. Click Upload.

A confirmation message briefly displays at the top of the page.

4. Optionally, repeat these steps to upload additional images.
5. When you are ready, click Save at the bottom of the page.

The images that are uploaded in your account are not viewable or accessible to be managed. However, all uploaded images are selectable from the Image dropdown when creating and editing ribbons and badges and the Uploaded Image option is selected on the Add/Edit page, as shown below.

Edit a Ribbon's or a Badge's image

In the Edit Ribbons & Badges Background Image section, you can edit the image of a ribbon or a badge. Editing is limited to:

• changing the name of the image and
• replacing the image.

The current image displays in the Image to Update field and its name populates the Image Name field.

To edit an image:

1. Click the Image to Update dropdown and select the image that you want to edit.

NOTE: This list defaults to listing the ribbons and badges alphabetically, so you might have to scroll down to find the ribbon or badge that you want to edit.

2. With the ribbon or badge selected, you can:

• Click into the Image Name field to change the name and/or
• Click Choose File and browse your device to select the replacement image.

3. Click Save.

Review the list page to verify your edits.

Delete an image

To delete an image:

1. Click the Image to Update dropdown and select the image that you want to delete.
2. Verify that the intended image displays in the Image to Update dropdown and that its name populates the Image Name field.
3. At the bottom of the page, click Delete.

NOTE: The image is immediately and irrevocably deleted; there is not a confirmation prompt. A "success" message briefly displays at the top of the page.

Search & Filter the list

At the top right of the page, you can use:

• the search feature to quickly find ribbons or badges and
• the filter feature to refine the list.

TIP: If you have a lot of ribbons and badges, you can use the search and filter features together to really refine the list.

Search

Click the magnifying glass icon to expand the search field.

• The search field is not case sensitive.
• The list automatically updates with each typed character and displays all matching records.
• The search queries the Name, Categories, and Description fields.
• Click the X to clear the search field and restore the original list.

Filter

Click the filter icon to open the filter overlay dialog.

1. Accept the Type default of both types or click the dropdown to filter on either Badge or Ribbon.
2. Accept the Category default of all Categories or click the dropdown to select (only) one Category to filter on.
3. Click Apply.

The list automatically updates to display only those ribbons and/or badges that align with the filtering.

TIP: When a filter is applied to the list, the filter icon will be solid orange.

To clear the filtering:

1. Click the filter icon.
2. Click Clear Filter and then click Apply.

The filter icon returns to its default state and the original full list is restored.