Monday, May 03, 2010

Enabling SharePoint 2010 Alerts

In case you find that your SharePoint server does not offer you the ability to add alerts (e.g., from the ribbon), here are the steps to enable alerts in SharePoint 2010. The setup isn’t very hard, but it does require a couple of changes. In order to complete this setup, you need both administrative access to Windows and to SharePoint.

1. Install the SMTP feature on the SharePoint server. Once you have the server ready, you can set up Alerts from Central Administration.

image

- Adding the SMTP feature to the server

2. Go to Central Administration > System Settings > Configure outgoing e-mail settings and add in the appropriate details.

image

- Configuring the Outgoing E-Mail Settings in SharePoint 2010 Central Administration

3. After you have set things up, try using the ribbon to add an alert in a document library.

image

- Choosing to add an alert from the ribbon

image

- Configuring a SharePoint alert

After adding the alert, you’ll receive e-mail messages notifying you when your criteria have been met.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Do you know if in SharePoint 2010 you will be able to set an alert for a particular topic versus a whole blog post library?

Stephen Cawood said...

Anon, I don't see the option to specify that you want updates update a particular post. However, there are other options. Here's a breakdown:

Delivery Method
Specify how you want the alerts delivered.

Send me alerts by:

E-mail
Text Message (SMS)
Send URL in text message (SMS)

Change Type
Specify the type of changes that you want to be alerted to.

Only send me alerts when:

All changes
New items are added
Existing items are modified
Items are deleted

Send Alerts for These Changes
Specify whether to filter alerts based on specific criteria. You may also restrict your alerts to only include items that show in a particular view.

Send me an alert when:

Anything changes
Someone else changes an item
Someone else changes an item created by me
Someone else changes an item last modified by me
Someone changes an item that appears in the following view:

My Posts Archive

When to Send Alerts
Specify how frequently you want to be alerted. (mobile alert is only available for immediately send)

Send notification immediately
Send a daily summary
Send a weekly summary

Unknown said...

The first step of this process only only apply if you don't have another SMTP server available to route your email through. So, if you have exchange setup in your company, you can point SharePoint at that instead of adding SMTP to IIS.

twistedwisdom said...

Thank you. It was exactly what I was looking for yesterday. I was looking at the error from Approval Workflow stating that outgoing mail has failed. and I also was wondering why there is no alert option. It turns out they are the same issue and your blog solved the both issues.