SharePoint 2010 Search Alerts

In this article we examine the Search Alerts feature of SharePoint.

What is Search Alert?

Search Alert is a feature by which the user query is saved. Later when a content matches the query, the user is informed about the content through email or RSS feed. The major search providers online have this feature.

SharePoint 2010 also provides the Search Alert feature.

Experimenting with Alert

You can try with the Search Alert feature.

1. Open the default site and use the search term which does not exist. For e.g.: Art of Living. Clearly your search result will be none as shown below.
   
   
    
2. Now click on the Email button which is highlighted above. You will get the following screen:
   
   

Enter the details and click the OK button. Your Search Alert is ready.

For testing the alert, create a list content with the Alert Keyword. You will be getting email notification for the same as daily summary / weekly summary based on the option you have selected. We can also add RSS feeds as an alternative for Email.

References

http://www.bainsight.com/blog-archive/Pages/5-12-2011.aspx

Summary

In this article we have explored the Search Alerts feature of SharePoint.

Reference:

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/40e97e/sharepoint-2010-search-alerts/

Configuring Alerts in SharePoint 2010

Introduction:

SharePoint 2010 provides the capability to subscribe the content through a feature called "Alerts". Alerts can be subscribed for at the four different levels of list, document library, list item and a document. In this article we will be seeing how to create an alert for a particular user subscribed for a document library.

Create an alert for Document Library:

• Click on the login credential which is visible in the top right corner; go to My Settings.
  
  
   
• Click on My Alerts.
  
  
   
• You can click on "Add Alert" to create a new alert.
  
  
   
• Choose a document library or list for which the alert should be subscribed.
  
  
   
• Click on Next.
• Modify the properties according to your requirement.
  
  
  
  
   
• Click on Ok.
• A new Alert is successfully added.
  
  

Alternative method:

• I am going to add an alert for the document library.
• Go to "Shared Documents".
• In the ribbon interface, Select Library Tools => Library => Alert Me
  
  
   
• Click on "Set alert on this library" to create a new alert.

Create an alert for Document:

• I am going to add an alert for the document.
• Go to "Shared Documents"; select the document for which the alert is to be set.
• In the ribbon interface , Select Library Tools => Library => Alert Me
  
  
   
• Click on "Set alert on this document" to create a new alert for the document.
   

User Alerts:

• Go to Site Actions => Site Settings => Site Administration =>User Alerts.
  
  
   
• Select the user from the drop down to show all the alerts created by that user and click on "Update".
  
  
  
   
• You will able to see all the alerts created by the user.
• To delete a particular alert, select the alert and click on "Delete Selected Alerts".

Reference:

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/uploadfile/anavijai/configuring-alerts-in-sharepoint-2010/

SharePoint 2010 - How Do Alerts Work?

In this article we can explore the underlying infrastructure of SharePoint Alerts. Let us analyze step-by-step what is happening in the background when we create an alert, an alert is triggered, email is sent etc.

What are Alerts?

SharePoint provides an excellent feature that notifies the users of changes of an item/library.

Uses can set alerts on:

• Library / List
• Document / Item

You can set alerts through the SharePoint user interface as in the following:



In order to see the preceding button, you need to set your Email Server in "Central Administration" > "System Settings" > "Configure outgoing e-mail settings".



Note: For receiving the emails triggered you can use a SharePoint Email Notification Tool like smtp4dev.

Create Alert

Now you are ready to create an alert & we can examine what happens in the database.



Open the database & you will see the following records in the ImmedSubscriptions table.



You will see that the ListId column is assigned a List GUID.

The table structure is as follows:



Note: You will see the database server & name through "Central Administration" > "Manage content databases" link.

If you have created a Summary Alert (daily or weekly) you will see the record was created inside SchedSubscriptions table.

The structure of the SchedSubscriptions table is:



Timer Job

Timer Jobs are responsible for building the Alert using a template & sending the Emails. We can see the timer job status through "Central Administration" > "Monitoring" > "Check job status" link.



Scrolling down, you will see the Timer Job for Immediate Alert.



You will see the Status of last execution there. In my case it has succeeded. Click on the link to see the settings as in the following:



In the preceding case the Timer Job is scheduled to run every 5 minutes. You can try clicking the Run Now button to trigger execution.

Alert Templates

The Timer Job creates the email content of the Alert Template file. We can modify the file, but copying & modifying is recommended. We can define a template in the list & library level.

The Alert template can be found in "14 hive" > "TEMPLATE" > "XML folder".



By default there are 2 templates - one for email & another for SMS. The alerttemplates.xml file contains around 10 thousand lines.

We can change the alert template through PowerShell & the STSADM commands.

References
http://bit.ly/10uiVpB 

Summary

In this article we have explored the activities & tables involved when working with SharePoint Alerts.
Reference:

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/40e97e/sharepoint-2010-how-alerts-works/