Creating a SharePoint Alert with different EventTypes

By Kit

I recently ran into a problem creating alerts in a web part for the current user. After the alert was added, no matter what I set the SPAlert’s EventType to, it always defaulted to All. I finally figured out a way around this problem thanks to a helpful post by erwin at sharepointology.

The workaround involves setting the eventtypeindex in the SPAlert Properties. Since I designed my web part to be configurable, an admin is able to specify the following web part properties

  • SPEventType WPPAlertEventType

    (Add, All, Delete, Discussion, Modify)

  • SPAlertFrequency WPPAlertFrequency

    (Daily, Immediate, Weekly)

  • int WPPAlertTimeHour

    (the hour of the day 0 – 23, only applies to Daily and Weekly alerts)

  • int WPPAlertTimeDayOfWeek

    (the day of the week 0 – 6, only applies to Weekly alerts)

  • bool WPPSendConfirmationEmail

    (whether or not to send the email saying that they were signed up for the alert)

Unfortunately, you can’t just convert WPPAlertEventType and put it in “eventtypeindex” because SPEventType’s enums were defined to have wacky binary values.

// Create an Alert for this List
SPAlert alert = currentUser.Alerts.Add();
alert.AlertType = SPAlertType.List;
alert.AlertTemplate = list.AlertTemplate;
alert.AlwaysNotify = false;

// DOESN'T WORK SETTING THE EVENT TYPE
//alert.EventType = (SPEventType)WPPAlertEventType;

// you must set the eventtypeindex property
switch (WPPAlertEventType)
{
     case SPEventType.All:
          alert.Properties["eventtypeindex"] = "0";
          break;
     case SPEventType.Add:
          alert.Properties["eventtypeindex"] = "1";
          break;
     case SPEventType.Modify:
          alert.Properties["eventtypeindex"] = "2";
          break;
     case SPEventType.Delete:
          alert.Properties["eventtypeindex"] = "3";
          break;
     case SPEventType.Discussion:
          alert.Properties["eventtypeindex"] = "4";
          break;
     default:
          break;
}

alert.AlertFrequency = WPPAlertFrequency;

// get the config for daily/weekly alerts

// the hours can be anything from 0 to 23
bool alertTimeHourIsValid = (WPPAlertTimeHour >= && WPPAlertTimeHour <= 23);
int alertTimeHour = alertTimeHourIsValid ? WPPAlertTimeHour : DEFAULT_WPPAlertTimeHour;

// the day of the week can be anything 0 to 6 (Sunday = 0 - Saturday = 6)
bool alertTimeDayOfWeekIsValid = (WPPAlertTimeDayOfWeek >= && WPPAlertTimeDayOfWeek <= 6);
int alertTimeDayOfWeek = alertTimeDayOfWeekIsValid ? WPPAlertTimeDayOfWeek : DEFAULT_WPPAlertTimeDayOfWeek;

switch (WPPAlertFrequency)
{
     case SPAlertFrequency.Daily:
          DateTime dailyAlertTime = new DateTime(DateTime.Today.Year, DateTime.Today.Month, DateTime.Today.Day, alertTimeHour, , );
          alert.AlertTime = dailyAlertTime;
          break;
     case SPAlertFrequency.Immediate:
          break;
     case SPAlertFrequency.Weekly:
          DateTime weeklyAlertTime = new DateTime(DateTime.Today.Year, DateTime.Today.Month, DateTime.Today.Day, alertTimeHour, , ); ;
          weeklyAlertTime = weeklyAlertTime.AddDays(alertTimeDayOfWeek - (double)weeklyAlertTime.DayOfWeek);
          alert.AlertTime = weeklyAlertTime;
          break;
     default:
          break;
}
alert.List = list;
alert.Title = string.Format("{0} ({1} {2})", list.Title, WPPAlertEventType, WPPAlertFrequency);
bool sendConfirmationEmail = WPPSendConfirmationEmail;
alert.Update(sendConfirmationEmail);

References: