Alert Plus Web Part for SharePoint Installation Configuration Using Alert Plus Use Cases Licensing and Activation.

Transcription

1 Alert Plus Web Part for SharePoint 2010 Installation Configuration Using Alert Plus Use Cases Licensing and Activation Installation About the Setup Program Upgrading to Alert Plus R3.0 Installing the Alert Plus Web Part Manually Activating the Alert Plus and/or Alert Subscriber Web Parts for a Site Collection Manually Installing or Uninstalling the Alert Plus or Alert Subscriber Web Parts Uninstalling Alert Plus Locating the Error Log File(s) About the Setup Program Before installing the product, read the Installing the Product section of the Online Documentation and review KB.12464: Best Practices for Installing Bamboo Products. To access the Setup program: 1. Download the self-extracting product EXE from the storefront and save it to a local folder on the SharePoint server. 2. Double-click the product EXE file to extract the contents of the product download. 3. The Setup program will automatically start. To start the Setup program manually, double-click the Setup.bat file in the root of the folder where the product files were extracted. The Setup program may look different for different product versions. See examples below of the two Setup programs that are currently in use. Both versions of the Setup program work the same way. Note: The minimum screen resolution to view the Setup program is 1024x768. The Setup program contains links to each product component under the Components header on the left. Click on any of these links to view a description of the component on the right. The component description contains important information about where to install the component and the required permissions for the installation account. Read this information carefully before proceeding. Each product may have several components, which fall into the following categories: Prerequisites: Some products include prequisite components that must be installed before the Bamboo product core components. Not all products will have prerequisites. Examples of prerequisites include the Shared Assemblies Library, Microsoft AJAX Extensions, and Bamboo AJAX Config. Core Components: The product will include one or more core components that are required for the Bamboo product to work.

2 Optional Items: Optional items provide additional features or functionality but are not required to use the Bamboo product. Not all products will have optional items. Examples of optional items include the MashPoint Runtime Components and sample ASP.NET applications. Licensing: All products will include the Bamboo Web License Manager or Bamboo License Manager. Licensing is required to activate a product license. It is not required during 30-day product trials. Help: The Setup program also contains links to the Online Documentation and the Installation and Licensing Quick Start Guide. Links to other product-related resources, like the Bamboo Knowledge Base, may also be included. After reviewing the installation location and required installation permissions for a component, click the Install button at the bottom of the Setup screen to install it. If the product includes multiple components, click the Install button for each component. Click the Home icon to return to the Setup main page. About the extracted product files: The extracted product files include the file Setup.bat, which launches the Setup program, and may also include the following folders: \[Product].wsp: Contains the solution deployment file for this product. There may be more than one product WSP folder, depending on the product. \docs: Contains the Installation and Licensing Quick Start Guide. \msi : Contains installation executables for this product. \res: Contains files required by the Setup program. There may be other folders, depending on the requirements for the product. Upgrading to Alert Plus R3.0 To upgrade Alert Plus, follow the steps outlined below. To migrate Alert Plus from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010, read KB.12642: How to Migrate Alert Plus From SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint To upgrade Alert Plus: 1. Double-click the product EXE file. 2. Select the component you want to upgrade, then click the Install button. 3. Click Next to perform the system checks. 4. Click Next after the system checks have completed, then select the Repair/Upgrade option and click Next. 5. After the component has been upgraded successfully, click Finish. Installing the Product Read all of the following information before installing the product: Recommendations for a Successful Installation Installation Location Required Installation Permissions Installation Instructions Recommendations for a Successful Installation Follow these guidelines to ensure a successful installation: 1. Back up your system. 2. Make sure that your system meets the requirements listed in the System Requirements section. 3. Review KB.12464: Best Practices for Installing Bamboo Products before installing any product. 4. Review the Installation Location and Required Installation Permissions for each product before installing it. 5. Stop the World Wide Web Publishing Service before installation. 6. If you are upgrading the product from a SharePoint 2007 version to a SharePoint 2010 version, read KB.12630: Migrating Bamboo Products from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint TOP

3 Installation Location If you are installing a Bamboo product in a SharePoint farm environment, make sure to start the installation on the correct server. The required installation location is listed in the Setup program in the description for each component. Most Bamboo products must be installed on one Web front-end (WFE) server in the SharePoint farm where the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Web Application service is running. Check Central Administration > System Settings for a list of servers running this service. The product will automatically be deployed to all other WFE servers in your farm. TOP Required Installation Permissions Required installation permissions are listed in the Setup program in the description for each component. For most Bamboo products, the installation account must have the following permissions: Member of the local server Administrators group Member of the SharePoint Farm Administrators group Site collection administrator (for automatic feature activation) TOP Installation Instructions 1. If the Setup program is not already running, double-click the Setup.bat file in the root of the product folder to launch it. 2. Select the product component in the Setup program. Verify the installation location and required permissions and then click Install. 3. Click Next to begin the installation. Verify that the system checks pass successfully, then read and accept the End-User License Agreement. 4. In the Deployment Targets screen, select the Web application(s) where you want to install the product. Leave the Automatically activate features option checked to activate product features during installation. Click Next to begin installation. Note: If you prefer to activate product features manually after installation, uncheck the Automatically activate features option, then read Manually Activating the Product Features in the Online Documentation. 5. When installation is complete, review the summary screen to confirm that the product installed successfully. Click Close. TOP Installing the Alert Plus Subscriber Web Part The Alert Plus Subscriber Web Part is an optional component of the Alert Plus system. It provides users a list of the alerts they are currently subscribed to. This Web Part is intended for portal end users. When placed on a page, it passes the current user's login ID and an Alert Plus Configuration List path to the Alert Plus Subscriber Web Service. This service processes the user ID and returns a list of all alerts the user is currently subscribed to in that Alert Plus Configuration List. The installation instructions for this Web Part are similar to the instructions for the Alert Plus Web Part. You need access to the server and your account must have the appropriate administrative privileges to install applications. This Web Part is not licensed. To install the Alert Plus Subscriber Web Part, launch the Alert Plus Setup program and click the Alert Plus Subscriber Web Part system component. Next, click on the Install button. The setup program will check your server to determine whether you are running WSS 3.0/MOSS 2007 or SharePoint Foundation 2010, or SharePoint Server 2010 in order to launch the appropriate msi based installer. The Alert Plus Subscriber Web Part installation will now begin. For installation on WSS 3.0, MOSS 2007, SharePoint Foundation 2010, or SharePoint Server 2010 do the following: 1. Click Next to begin the installation.

4 2. The setup wizard performs a system check prior to the installation. All the system checks must be completed successfully in order to proceed with the installation. After the checks have completed, click Next. 3. Select the web application(s) where you want to install the product. Select the Automatically activate features check box to automatically activate this feature for all site collections within the selected Web Application, then click Next. WARNING: You must be logged in to the SharePoint server with a Site Collection Administrator account to automatically activate this feature. NOTE: If you want to manually activate this feature, you must activate the feature in the Site Collection Administration settings (see Manually Activating the Alert Plus and/or Alert Subscriber Web Parts for a Site Collection).

5 4. Click Next. 5. Click Close to complete the installation. Manually Activating the Product Feature for a Site Collection Product feature activations can be done automatically at the site collection level when the product is installed. There are several reasons why you may need to manually activate (or deactivate) Bamboo product features: You opted out of automatic feature activation during installation.

6 You add a new site collection and want to add Bamboo features to it. You want to remove Bamboo product features from an existing site collection. To manually activate (or deactivate) Bamboo product features, follow the instructions below. Note: You must be a SharePoint site collection administrator to activate or deactivate features. Site collection administrators are assigned in SharePoint Central Administration. 1. From the top-level site in the site collection, go to Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Collection Administration > Site Collection Features. 2. Locate the Bamboo product feature. Click Activate to activate it for the entire site collection, or click Deactivate to deactivate it. Manually Installing or Uninstalling the Alert Plus Web Part Use the following stsadm.exe command lines to manually install and uninstall the Bamboo Alert Plus Web Part from the Command Prompt. Stsadm.exe is located in: <drive>:\program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\14\bin\ Manually Install the Alert Plus Web Part 1. Add the solution to the SharePoint Solution Store:

7 stsadm.exe -o addsolution -filename C:\HW05.R3.SP2010.SL\Bamboo.AlertPlusWebPart.wsp\cab\Bamboo.AlertPlus.wsp NOTE: The -filename path is the path where the product download ZIP file exists on the SharePoint server. 2. Deploy the solution for a Web Application: Stsadm.exe -o deploysolution -name Bamboo.AlertPlus.wsp -immediate -url allowgacdeployment -allowcaspolicies 3. Execute the job: (If you have multiple web frontends, then you must run the following on each frontend server.) stsadm.exe -o execadmsvcjobs Manually Uninstall the Alert Plus Web Part 1. Retract the solution from a Web Application: stsadm.exe -o retractsolution -name Bamboo.AlertPlus.wsp -immediate -url 2. Execute the job: (If you have multiple web frontends, then you must run the following on each frontend server.) stsadm.exe -o execadmsvcjobs 3. Delete the solution from the SharePoint Solution Store (only after the solution is retracted from all web applications, and the retract job is executed on each web frontend): stsadm.exe -o deletesolution -name Bamboo.AlertPlus.wsp Manually Installing or Uninstalling the Alert Subscriber Web Part Use the following stsadm.exe command lines to manually install and uninstall the Bamboo Alert Plus Web Part from the Command Prompt. Stsadm.exe is located in: < drive>:\program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\14\bin\ Manually Install the Alert Plus Subscriber Web Part 1. Add the solution to the SharePoint Solution Store: stsadm.exe -o addsolution -filename C:\HW05.R2.4.SL\ Bamboo.AlertSubscriberWebPart.wsp\cab\Bamboo.AlertSubscriberWebPart.wsp NOTE: The -filename path is the path where the product download ZIP file exists on the SharePoint server. 2. Deploy the solution for a Web Application: Stsadm.exe -o deploysolution -name Bamboo.AlertSubscriberWebPart.wsp -immediate -url - allowgacdeployment -allowcaspolicies 3. Execute the job: (If you have multiple web frontends, then you must run the following on each frontend server.) stsadm.exe -o execadmsvcjobs Manually Uninstall the Alert Plus Subscriber Web Part 1. Retract the solution from a Web Application: stsadm.exe -o retractsolution -name Bamboo.AlertSubscriberWebPart.wsp -immediate -url 2. Execute the job: (If you have multiple web frontends, then you must run the following on each frontend server.) stsadm.exe -o execadmsvcjobs 3. Delete the solution from the SharePoint Solution Store (only after the solution is retracted from all web applications, and the retract job is executed on each web frontend): stsadm.exe -o deletesolution -name Bamboo.AlertSubscriber.wsp

8 Uninstalling the Product 1. Delete the Web Part from all pages within each Web Application where the product is installed. 2. Double-click the product EXE file. 3. From the Setup program, click the product component button under the Components section, and then click Install. 4. The program performs the system checks again. Once that has successfully completed, the program prompts you to Repair/Upgrade, Remove, Install New. Select Remove, and click Next. Locating the Error Log File(s) If you encounter any errors in the process of using this Web Part, refer to the error logs located in <drive>:\windows\temp\bamboosolutions\bsc_bamboo_%processid.log on the SharePoint server. Configuration Adding the Web Part to a Page Configuring the Alert Plus Web Part and Alert Plus Subscriber Web Part Modifying the Alert Plus List View Customizing the Language Settings About Interfacing with the Bamboo List Rollup Web Part Adding the Web Part to a Page in SharePoint 2010 After the product is installed, it is available in the Virtual Server Gallery. Users with the Designer or Full Control permission levels can add the Web Part to web site pages. To add the Web Part to a page: 1. From a web site page, click Site Actions in the upper left corner, then select Edit Page. 2. Click Add a Web Part in the area on the page where you want to add the Web Part.

9 3. Select a category, select a Web Part (use the arrows at the bottom of the Web Part area to scroll through all Web Parts available in the selected category), read about the Web Part and choose to add it to a different area of the page if needed, then click Add. 4. Click the Stop Editing button in the ribbon to stop editing the page. Then select the Browse tab at the top left of the page to see the page as other users will view it. Configuring the Alert Plus Web Part

10 To configure the Bamboo Alert Plus Web Part: 1. Select Modify Shared Web Part from the menu accessed at the upper right corner of the Web Part. This menu is only accessible by users with authority to modify the page. 2. The tool pane for the Alert Plus Web Part is displayed on the right side of the screen (see below). See the Bamboo Alert Plus section to configure the following properties: Select the Site Group(s) that can create and view alerts. Select site group(s) that can create and edit alerts. For site groups that have the full control permission level, the group is automatically selected and disabled. If a user does not belong to the selected group(s) indicated in the property settings, then the Web Part is disabled and does not allow the user to view or edit alerts. Select the Site Group(s) that can use the Admin Options tab. Select site group(s) that can view the Admin Options tab in the user interface. For site groups that have the full control permission level, the group is automatically selected and disabled. If a user does not belong to the selected group(s) indicated in the property settings, then the Web Part is disabled and does not allow the user to view or edit alerts. Tab Strip Skin. Select the skin to be used for the Alert Plus tabs. The default seletion is Light Blue. Select a Language. Select a language from the drop-down menu to translate the Web Part user interface and tool pane settings. You can also create your own translation or modify the default files available in the drop-down menu. See Customizing the Language Setting for more information. NOTE: The translation options for French, German and Spanish are currently all still in English. You must customize the files directly to translate the Web Part user interface to the language you require. See Customizing the Language Setting for more information. 3. Save your configuration settings by clicking Apply, and then OK. Configuring the Alert Plus Subscriber Web Part 1. Select Modify Shared Web Part from the menu accessed at the upper right corner of the Web Part. This menu is only accessible by users with authority to modify the page. 2. The configuration page for the Bamboo Alert Plus Subscriber Web Part is displayed on the right side of the screen (see Figure 3).

11 Language. Select a language from the Language drop-down menu to translate the Web Part user interface and tool pane settings. You can also create your own translation or modify the default files available in the drop-down menu. See Customizing the Language Setting for more information. NOTE: The translation options for French, German and Spanish are currently all still in English. You must customize the files directly to translate the Web Part user interface to the language you require. See Customizing the Language Settings for more information. Modifying the Alert Plus List View The Alert Plus Web Part item list is based on the Alert+ Configuration List. The default view of this list is called Alert+ Configuration ListView. You can modify this view to show or hide columns, set sorting, filter the list, etc. Most of the functions available to a regular SharePoint list view are available for the Alert Plus Web Part, except Group By. Customizing the Language Setting There are 8 language files included with the install of this Web Part. They are: 1033.English.xml 1036.French.xml 1031.German.xml 1034.Spanish.xml Help.English.xml Help.French.xml Help.German.xml Help.Spanish.xml These files are located in the wpresources folder. For MOSS 2007, this folder may be located under the following path: \\servername\c$\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\virtualdirectories\80\wpresources\bamboo.alertplus The French, German and Spanish files have not yet been translated as they are still in English. You will need to edit these files directly to provide your own translation of the Web Part user interface and tool pane text. To make sure that these files are not overwritten upon upgrading the Web Part with future releases, you can copy the default file for the language you want, copy this file to the wpresource folder and rename it (For example: CompanyName.1036.French.xml). If you do not rename the files you modify, these files will be overwritten when upgrades for the Web Part are installed. The installation program will not remove or overwrite the translation file you've created if it is named differently from the default resource files provided by Bamboo Solutions Corporation. However, upgrades of this Web Part may require that you modify this custom translation file to include new resource strings that are added in future product upgrades. The product will display the missing resource string IDs after an upgrade installation is completed. In addition, there is another set of resource files for each language resource file called Help.Language.XML that includes only Help text that you can access from the Support screen of this Web Part. This file can be edited to customize the language of this Help text; however, you should not change the name of these files as they are linked to the respective main Web Part and tool pane user interface strings. This means that when you select the 1031.German.xml file for the language setting in the tool pane, the Help.German.xml file is automatically selected as the help file for the Support screen. If you are upgrading this Web Part, make sure you make a copy of any of these files you have modified before upgrading, then update your backup copy with any upgrade changes (i.e. new text strings, or updates to existing strings) to the new Help.Language.xml provided in the upgrade.

12 About Interfacing with the Bamboo List Rollup Web Part To setup alerts on Data Views created by the Bamboo List Rollup Web Part, you must have the Alert Plus Web Part version or higher and the List Rollup Web Part version or higher. Please note that Alert Plus Web Part versions prior to version are not compatible with List Rollup Web Part version Using Alert Plus Alert Plus Performance Considerations List Rollup Data View Performance Considerations Default Alert View Event Tab Recipient(s) Tab Mail Format Tab Admin Options Tab Support Page Alert Plus Performance Considerations Alert Plus Performance Tuning As a general rule, Alert Plus does not require any special performance tuning after installation, although the requirements of some organizations may require additional considerations to be taken. This section is intended to provide those users with some configuration guidance. In particular, the section related to the Bamboo List Rollup Data View tuning will provide specific recommendations to achieve best performance when rolling up large amounts of data to feed Alert Plus. Distributed Architecture The Alert Plus product is designed to scale with your needs through its capability to be configured in a distributed architecture. If there are multiple Web Front End Servers, the Timer Job Services are automatically distributed across the servers to improve performance. List Rollup Performance Tuning Alert Plus version 2.2 and later releases contain support for defining alerts that use Bamboo List Rollup version 3.0 Data Views as the source for alert triggers. This is a powerful capability as now a rollup of Tasks Lists throughout an entire site collection can be alert-enabled through the configuration of a single Alert Plus Alert. In order to achieve this functionality, Alert Plus and List Rollup must work together to query the entire set of Lists contained within the rollup. While the number of List Items is a component of the response time of each rollup request, the largest factor affecting performance is the number of Lists contained in the rollup. While data caching is utilized by List Rollup to achieve a performance boost, it is not enough in some environments to achieve the necessary response times. It is suggested than any user who wants to roll up 15 or more lists into a List Rollup Data View consumed by Alert Plus should use a custom schedule for the alert to decrease the frequency at which it runs. Please refer to the Custom Alert Schedules section below for details on how to make this adjustment. The following items are recommended best practices for reducing the number of alerts a user might receive when alerting on rollups with large amounts of data (for rollups created with List Rollup Schema Designer or List Rollup - Classic Edition). Do not select "As Soon As Possible" for the alert frequency. It is recommended that you use either "Every Hour" or "Every day" instead. You should use the Summary option so only one with multiple alerts from the same alert job is sent to the user. If alerting on a Data View created with the List Rollup Classic Edition, users should enable the Item Cache for List Rollup - Classic Edition rollups. An Item Exists Alert Trigger Recommendation If you are using the "An Item Exists" alert trigger, it is recommended that you set the Follow Up Days in the Admin Options tab to 1 day or greater to avoid users receiving too many alert s at once.

13 Custom Alert Schedules The Alert Plus Web Part user interface contains a tab titled "Admin Options" that allows users to define a custom run schedule for each alert. Access to this tab is controlled through the Web Part tool pane. For users of groups that have permission to view the tab, each alert can be given a custom schedule dictating when and how frequently it should run. In this section of the document, we will concentrate on how to use the custom schedule capability to improve performance. Please consult the Admin Option Tab section of this document for details on using this tab. All Alert Plus Alerts run on a default schedule. This default schedule is based on the user setting in the "Event" tab for the Frequency drop-down list. The values of "As Soon As Possible", "Every Hour", "Every Day" and "Every Week" all correspond to unique default schedules. The "As Soon As Possible" setting runs alerts on the default schedule of every 2 minutes, for 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. The schedule for these types of alerts will be the ones most likely to impact performance due to the high run frequency. By defining a custom schedule with the "Admin Options" tab, you can increase the alerting interval for these type of alerts on an individual basis to achieve best performance and still meet your alerting business requirements. Decreasing one or more of these "As Soon As Possible" alerts to run on a 5, 8, or 10 minute interval will significantly reduce system loading. List Rollup - Classic Edition Data View Performance Considerations Alert Plus version 2.2 and later releases contain support for defining alerts that use Bamboo List Rollup version 3.0 Data Views as the source for alert triggers. This is a powerful capability as now a rollup of Tasks Lists throughout an entire site collection can be alert-enabled through the configuration of a single Alert Plus Alert. In order to achieve this functionality, Alert Plus and List Rollup must work together to query the entire set of Lists contained within the rollup. While the number of List Items is a component of the response time of each rollup request, the largest factor affecting performance is the number of Lists contained in the rollup. While data caching is utilized by List Rollup to achieve a performance boost, it is not enough in some environments to achieve the necessary response times. It is suggested than any user who wants to roll up 15 or more lists into a List Rollup Data View consumed by Alert Plus should use a custom schedule for the alert to decrease the frequency at which it runs. Please refer to the Custom Alert Schedules section in the Alert Plus Performance Consideration topic for details on how to make this adjustment. Default Alert View The image below shows the Alert Plus Web Part default page view. As alerts are configured with the UI, they are added to the Web Part alert view. The sample list shown below contains two alerts. The column values not only describe the alert and who created it, but the Alert Status, Last Run Date, and Last Run Status also allow you to see the current status of the alert processing for each alert. The Alert List DataView Path column provides the location of the List Rollup Data View or Schema defined in the alert when applicable. Click the column headers to sort the list by that column. Alert Plus Default Alert View You can create a new alert by clicking the New Item button on the Alert Plus toolbar or you can view or edit an existing alert by clicking on the alert title or moving your cursor over the title, clicking the drop-down arrow, and selecting Edit Item. You can also copy or delete an alert. If you copy an alert, a copy of that alert is created with "Copy of" in front of the title of the alert copied, and the Alert Status for the copied alert is set to "Disable". Click the Support button on the Alert Plus toolbar to access the Support page. Event Tab

14 The Alert Title field allows you to name your new alert. The Status options control whether the alert is enabled or disabled. This indicates to the Alert Plus Notification Engine Services whether to process this alert or not. First, you must select the source of items to alert on. You can select a SharePoint List or Library, the Bamboo List Rollup - Classic Edition, or a Bamboo List Rollup Schema. If you select SharePoint List or Library, the Show Lists in the following site drop-down box is automatically populated with the current site and all sites beneath the current site. If you want to use a list from a site above the current site or in another Site Collection, you can enter the static site URL (only static URLs are supported) for that site in the Which SharePoint site stores the Alert List? box, and then click Add. From the Show Lists in the following site drop-down box, select the site that contains the list you want. If you select the Bamboo List Rollup - Classic Edition or the Bamboo List Rollup Schema, you must provide the page URL for the page where the List Rollup Data View Web Part resides or the site URL where the List Rollup Schema resides. Then click Add to load the data views or schemas in the Which List contains the items to alert on? drop-down box. The Event Tab is used to configure the criteria for an alert. The primary setting on this tab is the Alert List setting (labeled Which list contains the items to alert on?). Select a SharePoint List from the drop-down. This List is the one that contains the information that needs to be monitored. The current site Lists are shown in the drop-down by default. NOTE: To setup alerts on Data Views created by the Bamboo List Rollup Web Part - Classic Edition, you must have the Alert Plus Web Part version or higher and the List Rollup Web Part version or higher. To set up alerts on Schemas created with the List Rollup Schema Designer Web Part, you must have Alert Plus 3.0 or higher and List Rollup 5.0 or higher. Please note that Alert Plus Web Part versions prior to version are not compatible with List Rollup Web Part version The Alert Event setting (labeled What triggers the alert?) allows users to send an alert when an item in the list is deleted, an item in the list is created, an item in the list is modified, an item in the list is created or modified, an item exists, or a specific column in the list changes. Most of these options are self-explanatory for the most part. The only options in this drop-down that require clarification are the An item exists and A specific column in the list changes option. The "An item exists" option means that the event that triggers the alert is passive and does not require an item in the Alert List to be modified or created. Any items matching the alert criteria (that exists) generates an alert. Be sure to set some filtering in the What items in the list generate an alert? section. If you leave the All Items option selected there, then every item in the list will generate an alert with the 'An item exists' option. To address the possibility of users receiving too many alerts for the same existing items, you can use the Follow-up Wait Days option on the Admin Options tab. See the Admin Options Tab for more information. The A specific column in the list changes option is only available for alerting on SharePoint Lists or Libraries. It allows you to create a CAML query where you can send an alert when the value of a column changes. To use this option, click the drop-down box in the first Field Name column in the Criteria Builder. Notice there is a duplicate column for each column in the list that has "/Old" appended at the end of the column name. These "/Old" columns retain the last value of the column for each item before it was changed to a new value. So to set up an alert that sends out a notification when the Status column is equal to "Deferred" or "Waiting for someone else" when the Status has been changed, the Criteria Builder and CAML query would look like the following:

15 When you want to set a specific column value for a conditional statement, you can type the value directly into the second Field Name drop-down box as illustrated below. NOTE: You can use the "/Old" token in the Mail Format tab to include the old status as well as the new. An example of that text can be found in the Mail Format Tab topic. In addition for this trigger (and all other triggers that allow a CAML query), if you select a Date column in the first Field Name column in the Criteria Builder, then two additional comparision operators are available in the Comparison drop-down box: Is Approaching in and Has past by. These two operators allow you to enter a number of days in the second Field Name column to indicate whether the date in the selected Date column is coming due in (i.e. Is approaching in X days) or is past due by (i.e. Has past by X days) the number of days entered. For example, if you selected 'Is Approaching in 3 days', each time the Alert Plus timer job runs, the Alert List column is within 3 days of the current date (i.e. [Today]), and the alert frequency is set to "every day", Alert Plus will send out three notifications - one for each day. Some examples are shown below. NOTE: The number of days entered for these two comparison operators are calendar days, so weekend days are included. Example: Is Approaching in

16 Example: Has past by The timing of s is controlled by the Frequency (How often are s sent?) setting. The options that can be specified are As Soon As Possible, Every Hour, Every Day, and Every Week. To refine these default frequency options, then please see the Admin Options Tab topic for instructions. In addition, you can select the Combine multiple alerts into summary notification check box to have all the alerts generated by this alert sent in a summary . This is sent with the subject and message in the following format: NOTE: Combining multiple alerts into a summary notification is most useful when used for alert frequencies Every Hour and As soon As Possible. However, only the alert notifications generated by the alert configured to combine notifications are combined in a summary notification. If there is another alert configured to combine notifications those alerts are not included in any other alert summary notifications. The alert generates the summary notification for its alert notifications only.

17 The What items in the list generate an alert? section allows you to define the subset of items in the Alert List that generate alerts. You can select to alert on all items, the items contained in the SharePoint List View, or create an advanced query-based filter (i.e. the Some Items (Advanced) option). The query-based filter option allows for you to set conditional column criteria for the alerts to handle scenarios like: Alert me when the Status column is Completed. Alert me when a Task assigned to me is within 5 days of its due date. Send me alerts when Tasks assigned to me are modified or created. Very advanced users can simply type this conditional query into the CAML Query text box. Users who do not know CAML can click on the Show Criteria Builder check box to display a set of search controls that build the CAML query for you. The following image shows you the features of building a query. Important items to note when selecting columns in the Criteria Builder: If you choose a People or Group column type and want to alert a particular person, you must type the name of the person in the second Field Name drop-down box. If want to use [Me] or enter an account that is not listed, copy the criteria to CAML Query field and update it manually in the CAML Query field. A Date and Time column type automatically displays a Calendar control. To enter [Today] as a variable, copy the criteria to

18 CAML Query field and update it manually in the CAML Query field. If you select a Choice column type, the defined choices for that column is available for selection from the second Field Name drop-down box. A Yes/No column type is defined in the CAML query as '0' (zero) representing 'No' and '1' representing 'Yes'. Recipient(s) Tab Clicking the Recipient(s) tab displays the options available to control who receives the s for the new alert. There are a number of options for the Recipient Type (labeled "Who should the alert s be sent to?") that include: Send to me - is sent to the individual that created the alert based on the address stored in their SharePoint User Profile Send to a Fixed Set of Users or Addresses - A static list of SharePoint user profiles or addresses can be entered as recipients. Send to a Sharepoint Contacts List - Messages are sent to a group of individuals identified by the selected Contacts List and optional Contacts List View. The user addresses are assumed to be contained in the Contacts List " Address" column, thus this column is required in the selected Contacts List and List View for this option. The image above shows this option. If this column has been deleted and a new column created in its place, then you must make sure that the new column is named " Address" in order for Alert Plus to be able to resolve the address. The Where is the Contacts List? drop-down box is automatically populated with the current site and all sites beneath the current site. Do one of the following: If you want to use a list from a site above the current site or in another Site Collection, you can enter the static site URL (only static URLs are supported) for that site in the What SharePoint site stores the Alert List? box, and then click Add. If you are selecting a Contacts List from the current site or a site beneath the current site, then select the site that contains the Contacts List you want from the Where is the Contacts List? drop-down box. Select a Contacts List Name. Only lists of type 'Contacts' are available for selection. Select a Contacts List View to filter the contacts list to alert only a specific subset of contacts. The selected List View must at least contain the Address column. Send to members of a SharePoint Site or Cross-site group - All s are sent to the individuals identified by a selected SharePoint Site or Cross-site group. The address is resolved by matching the group member(s) user ids to their SharePoint User Profile. Only individual users listed in SharePoint Groups are supported. If an Active Directory Security Group is listed in the SharePoint Group, we are unable to read that group to send alerts to the users within it. Lookup an Address in the Alert List - This option allows you to select a column in the Alert List that defines the alert recipient. You must then specify whether the column is configured to contain the address as text, looks up to the SharePoint User Profile database (in the case that it is a People or Group column type) or looks up to a Contacts list. If the column is a lookup to a Contacts List, see the Send to a SharePoint Contacts List option above for more information on what is required. Lookup an Address in another List (Advanced) - This advanced option allows you to create your own lookup within Alert Plus instead of directly within the Alert List itself. You can create a lookup to a list on the local site or another site within the Site Collection. If you want to use a list from a site above the current site or in another Site Collection, you can enter the

19 static site URL (only static URLs are supported) for that site in the What SharePoint site stores the Alert List? box, and then click Add. If you are selecting a Lookup List from the current site or a site beneath the current site, then select the site that contains the Lookup List you want from the Where is the Lookup List? drop-down box. Once selected, the Linked Lookup List drop-down list becomes populated with all the lists located at the specified site URL. After selecting the lookup list, select the column in the lookup list that will be mapped to a column in the Alert list (i.e. Column to map to Alert List field). This column must be a Single Line of Text column type. Then select the column to map to in the Alert list (i.e. Alert List Column field). This column must also be a Single Line of Text column type. Now you are ready to specify how the address is resolved. First, select the column in the Lookup list that contains the e- mail address (i.e. Linked List column that identifies the recipient field). Then specify whether the address source for this column is configured to contain the address as text (i.e. Column Values) or this column looks up addresses in the SharePoint User Profile database (i.e. Address Source field). Mail Format Tab The Mail Format tab is where you author the subject and body of the alert s sent for the new alert. Use the Subject and

20 Message fields to build your message. The rich edit controls give you the ability to beautify your alert messages rather than just have them sent as raw text (HTML enabled client application required). The message can be completely tailored to the individual alerts unlike built-in SharePoint alerts that share the same hard to edit template xml. If the selected Event Type is when "An item is modified or created", then an additional message format tab appears allowing you to customized the alert messages for each specific event. The following table explains which message templates are available for each alert trigger: Trigger An item in the list is deleted An item in the list is created An item in the list is modified An item in the list is created or modified An item exists A specific column in the list changes Available Message Templates On Item Deletion On Item Creation On Item Modification On Item Creation, On Item Modification On Alert On Specific Column Changes You are not limited to only static text. The use of special tokens in the message body or subject can provide links back to the Alert List or Alert List Site. They can also display meta-data from the Item that generated the alert. The Help sub-tab of the Mail Format tab provides a quick online reference to the correct formatting of tokens. The general format is as follows: Enter the token {sitelink} to have a link to the Alert List site inserted into the message or subject. The {itemlink} token inserts a link to the Item that generated the alert. The {subject} token inserts the notification subject line text. You can only use this token in the message body. The free form token {ColumnName} inserts Item field values (meta-data) from the alert item in to the message. For example, to display the Item title, enter the token {Title}. The column name you enter must match the display name of the SharePoint column name (not the internal name) as this is a case-sensitive token. You can also include the value of a column before it was updated and what it was updated to by including text like the following: The status of this item has changed from {Status/Old} to {Status}. The message body editor allows you to create rich text notifications. Some of the features of this editor include: Spell Check: Mispelled words are highlighted in yellow. Insert a symbol: Insert a symbol from the list provided. These are the only symbols available. Image Manager: When you click the Image Manager button, the Image Manager pops up.

21 Notice in the image above that the Image URL box already shows an image URL path that points to the Bamboo Alert Plus Picture Library. This library is automatically created on the site where Alert Plus is added to a page and stores all images for use with Alert Plus. This allows you to upload images to this library from the Image Manager - without having to create the library yourself, add images to the library, view the image, copy the image URL and then navigate back to the Mail Format tab and insert the image URL. Now you can upload and insert pics into alert s all from the Image Manager. The Options tab gives you finer control over how the token links are included in the . There are two options on this tab: External Host Path and Custom Item Link. The External Host Path field allows you to specify the root host path to be used in all message links. For example, if you have corporate users that work outside the local intranet, then you can specify the public host path for the SharePoint server. That way, when users click on the links in the alerts they receive, they can be routed through the correct server. All internal and external users receive the link containing the external host path setting. The Custom Item Link setting allows you to control how the URL to the SharePoint Item is constructed for the {itemlink} token. By default, the system uses the SharePoint default display URL for an item. To change this, enter the full path to the item in the Custom Item Link field. You can still use the tokens in the custom link setting to create a dynamic link. For example, a valid entry for this setting might be: The {id} token will be replaced with the real item id when the link is inserted into the message. Admin Options Tab

22 Access to the Admin Options tab is controlled through the Web Part Tool Pane properties. Users that are allowed to see the tab can refine the default run schedules for alerts and control the frequency of s. There are two settings on this tab. The first, Follow-up Wait Days, is used to specify the number of days the system should wait between sending s generated for the same alert item when the What Triggers the alert? field on the Event tab is set to An Item Exists. The default period is one day. This means that the system will wait one day between the time it sends an and the next time an is sent for the same alert item. This prevents users from being inundated with continuous s for the same alert item. The field can be used to specify a value greater than one to increase the wait time, or it can be set to zero to tell the system to continuously send s regardless of when the last alert was sent. The other setting on the Admin Options tab allows users to override the default run schedule for the Alert Plus Service. If a user selects the Use Custom Schedule check box, then they can configure a custom schedule for that alert. This allows the granularity of the alert processing to either be increased of decreased. It also allows for a window to be set to specify the time of day that processing should take place. The Start Time and End Time controls determine the run period. The Frequency Value and Frequency Unit control determine how frequently during the run period that alerts are processed. The default processing schedule used by Alert Plus is determined by the Frequency ("How often are s sent?") setting specified in the Event Tab. These are the options that are used unless they are overridden from the Admin Options tab. Frequency Setting As Soon As Possible Every Hour Every Day Every Week Support Page Alert Processing Schedule Every 2 minutes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Every 1 hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Once each day at 6:00 AM Once each week on specified day at 6:00 AM Accessing the Support Page The Support page provides information about the Alert Plus system configuration to assist customers with troubleshooting their Alert Plus setup. This page includes options for testing the most common communication problems for Web Services and servers, as well as a link to view error logs. The Support page can be accessed from the Support link on the Action bar of the Alert Plus Web

23 Part. Alert Plus Registration The Alert Plus Registration section allows you to enter a site URL, then click Check Registration to test whether the Alert Plus Web Part is registered for that site. When the Support page is loaded, it automatically checks to see if Alert Plus is registered on the current site. Alert Plus Event Handlers Click View to see the event handlers used by Alert Plus. Review the Reg Info column to determine the registered events for each alert. If no events are listed for an alert, try editing and saving the alert again. From the Registration Info box, click View to view the XML code for the Web Part registration. This information is helpful to our Support staff if you continue to experience a problem with the Web Part. Alert Plus Support Click Send to test the configured settings for Alert Plus and display the results in the Test Result box. Test Result The Test Result box shows the results from the Alert Plus Support test. The results are cleared each time the Web Part Page is loaded, or you can click Clear to clear the results. Use Cases UC1.Alert on a Tasks List, and send alerts for every task to the assigned person UC2.Send a Task alert to a project team UC3.Setting up an Alert for a Document Library or Discussion UC4.Subscribe to a Subset of Items in the List UC5.Setting up a Tasks List with an escalation of reminder alerts to the Task assignee UC6.Determine Which Alerts You Are Subscribed To UC7.How to remove an employee from alert processing UC8.Set up an alert for a Bamboo List Rollup Data View Use Case FAQs UC1. Alert on a Tasks List, and send alerts for every task to the assigned person As a project manager, you have set up a Tasks List for the team to work on their assignments. Every time a Tasks List item is created or updated, you want to send an alert message to the person to whom the task is assigned. This use case uses the standard SharePoint Tasks List with the Assigned To field defined as a lookup field to the SharePoint User Profile where the address is stored. The Alert field selections for Use Case 1 are: Alert List - What list contains the items to alert on? Event Type - What triggers the alert? Frequency - How often are s sent? Item Criteria - What items in the list generate an alert? Who should the alert s be sent to? Where is the address to lookup stored? Which user lookup column in the Alert List should be used to find the recipient? Tasks An item is created or modified As Soon As Possible All Items Lookup an Address in the Alert List In SharePoint User Profiles Assigned To Figure 12: Standard SharePoint Tasks list with Assigned To as the lookup field