Reformat the content and look of SharePoint alerts

Question

Is it possible to reformat (content and look) of an alert email sent by Sharepoint 2007? If yes, how do define the format and content?

Answer 1

There are two ways that you can customize SharePoint alerts:

1. By modifying the template file that defines alerts, and
2. By creating a class that implements IAlertNotifyHandler.

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Modifying Alerttemplates.xml

You can modify the alert templates that SharePoint uses by copying and modifying the Alerttemplates.xml found in <12 hive folder>\Template\XML.

Once you've modified the file, you can update the alert templates in SharePoint by executing the following command:

STSADM -o updatealerttemplates -url <site URL> -filename <path to your modified file>

For more information see:

• MSDN: Modifying the Appearance of Alerts
• MSDN: Alerts in Windows SharePoint Services

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Implementing IAlertNotifyHandler This gives you more fine-grained control over the contents of emails that are sent for alerts.

You create a class that implements IAlertNotifyHandler and override the OnNotification method.

For more information see these links:

• MSDN: Implementing Alert Handlers
• How To: Customizing alert emails using IAlertNotifyHandler