| |
Introduction
Microsoft .NET Alerts gives businesses a powerful new communication
tool that allows them to reach customers and employees in ways
that are relevant and actionable. .NET Alerts is an opt-in service
in which users sign up to receive alerts from a specific provider,
so that they can quickly be notified of important events and
act on that information. |
| |
| For example, rather than simply
sending a customer an email message that could sit in an inbox
for days, a .NET Alerts provider can send a simple XML message
to the .NET Alerts service. This service then intelligently
routes that message to a user's desktop, cellular phone, mobile
device, or email address - all based on the user's preferences.
The user can then click on that alert and be directed back to
the provider's site. |
| |
 |
| |
| An alert is a
short instant message that content or service providers (referred
to as .NET Alerts providers) can send to people who opt to receive
them. The alert is routed based on the user's preferences and
can be delivered to computer desktops, mobile devices, and any
e-mail address. .NET Alerts offers online safety features, convenience,
and user controls. Its subscription mirroring process helps
to protect users from unwanted messages by checking for content
to which they have not subscribed. Microsoft .NET Passport is
an authentication method that helps protect your privacy, as
described in the .NET Passport Privacy Statement. It makes the
registration process efficient. Rather than entering personal
information many times, .NET Passport users can quickly sign
up for alerts on a provider site. Finally, .NET Alerts helps
to give users control over how and when they receive alerts.
The service is exposed through the Alerts tab of Microsoft Windows
Messenger and MSN Messenger. Users can receive alerts on either
Messenger client, a mobile device, or e-mail. |
| |
| |
| How .NET Alerts Work |
| |
| |
| A user needs a .NET Passport
account to sign up for .NET Alerts. Once they log in, users
are directed to a subscription page that enables them to configure
their Alerts to be delivered to selected devices and apply rules
about how they're received. For instance, you can specify that
you'll receive .NET Alerts through MSN or Windows Messenger
if you're online, and through your cell phone if you're not.
|
| |
| When configuring device options,
the user actually runs Web pages from the Microsoft .NET Alerts
Web site, so the look is consistent. However, the Web page is
branded with the provider's company logo, so it appears to the
user as if he or she is still on the provider's Web site. After
users select device options, they're directed back to the provider's
Web servers, where they select the type of information the Alerts
will provide (See the below figure). Users can change the way
they receive Alerts, or discontinue them at any point. The Subscription
Mirroring Protocol handles this entire process. |
| |
| Other part in .NET
Alerts is sending alerts, that has to done by implementing your
own logic for generating and sending alerts when some events
is happening in your application or you can use SQL Server 2000
Notification services. SQL Server 2000 Notification services
enables you to send personalized messages. Notification Services
and .NET Alerts are complementary technologies. You can use
Notification Services to generate messages, then pass them to
a routing service such as the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
(SMTP) or .NET Alerts. If all you want to do is enable users
to sign up for e-mails, Notification Services is a great product
for streamlining this process. .NET alerts has few API for sending
alerts. |
| |
| |
| Implementing
.NET Alerts |
| |
 |
| |
| Above Implementation
flow diagram lists all the step you need to take to implement
.NET Alerts. Capacity planning is a critical part of the process,
and Microsoft requires you to complete a capacity-planning worksheet
before becoming a provider. This involves estimating the total
number of users, the number of Alerts sent per week, and so
on. You complete a separate worksheet for each distinct Alert
you plan to send out. |
| |
| As mentioned in Implementation
diagram, first you need to download the .NET Alerts SDK. The
Microsoft .NET Alerts Software Development Kit (SDK) provides
several components that help you implement .NET Alerts. It can
be downloaded from this place: |
| http://microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=ABCA770F-BC2A-4F11-8036-3040EDC6DB78&displaylang=en |
| |
| |
| To Register Your Application
|
| |
| Next thing which
you need to register your application with netservicesmanager
. Here are steps of registering our application: |
| |
| 1. |
Sign in to the .NET Services
Manager at https://www.netservicesmanager.com.
|
| 2. |
You will be prompted for
contact information the first time you sign in to the
site. |
| 3. |
From the Home page, select
Create an application. |
| 4. |
On the Create Application
page, in the Application Name field, type an application
name to identify your implementation. |
| 5. |
You can choose to either
create a new application or base one on a previously created
application. If you create an application based on an
existing application, information from the existing application
is used to populate the information fields. |
| 6. |
On the Select Services page,
from the Services box, select .NET Alerts,
and click Continue. |
| 7. |
On the Capacity Planning
page, add one or more capacity planning scenarios, and
then click Continue. |
| 8. |
On the General .NET Alerts
Information page, complete the required fields, and then
click Continue. |
| 9. |
On the Localized Site Information
page, enter site information for each language you plan
to support, and then click Submit. |
|
| |
| After you complete
these steps, your application is in a pending state and must
be reviewed. You can expect a response to your capacity planning
information within three business days. |
| |
| If there are no
problems, you will be approved for access to the PREP environment
and can download your PREP key (InstallSDKKey.exe) from the
.NET Services Manager. After downloading the PREP key, you should
install it in your machine. |
| |
| The InstallSDKKey.exe
is a command-line utility that can be used to manage a Microsoft
.NET Alerts provider's credentials on systems running Microsoft
Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP, or Microsoft Windows .NET
Server. The credentials are embedded in the InstallSDKKey.exe
file. Upon registration, .NET Alerts providers receive this
file customized with their credentials. The utility encrypts
and writes a .NET Alerts provider's credentials to the Windows
registry of computers that are using the .NET Alerts client
library. The library retrieves credentials from the registry
as they are required, eliminating the need for them to be specified
elsewhere. |
| |
| You must return
to the .NET Services Manager to request a compliance review
of your site and roll your site into Production. |
| |
| |
| Subscription Mirroring Protocol |
| |
| The Microsoft .NET Alerts Subscription
Mirroring Protocol defines the way in which a .NET Alerts provider
interacts with the .NET Alerts service to create or modify subscriptions
on behalf of a user. When a user subscribes to an alert from
your Web site, the user is authenticated by the Microsoft .NET
Passport system and silently redirected to the .NET Alerts subscription
mirroring service. The subscription is registered in the .NET
Alerts subscribers database and the user is silently directed
back to your site. This redirection to your site includes status
information indicating whether the operation was successful.
If the call is successful, you record subscription data in your
own subscribers database. |
| |
| The following outlines a typical
process flow for creating a subscription: |
| |
| 1.
|
A user on your site clicks
an Alert Me icon to subscribe to your alerts. |
| |
 |
| 2.
|
Using HTTP, you redirect
the user to the Microsoft .NET Alerts subscription mirroring
page. You include several parameters in the redirection
URL, including an authentication token.. |
| 3.
|
The Microsoft .NET Alerts
Web site displays a page that enables the user to specify
delivery settings for the new subscription. Although this
page is on the Microsoft .NET Alerts Web site, it includes
branding for your site as specified by your cobranding
template. |
| |
 |
| 4.
|
After the user chooses delivery
settings for the subscription, a confirmation page is
displayed indicating that the subscription was successfully
created, and that the delivery settings have been recorded.
This page, like the delivery settings page, is cobranded.
|
| 5.
|
The user is redirected back
to your site, to a return URL that you specify in the
initial subscription mirroring call. The return call includes
status information indicating whether the call was successful.
|
| 6.
|
If the subscription mirroring
call was successful, make a record in your subscribers
database for the new subscription |
|
| |
| |
| Send Alerts To Subscribers |
| |
| The Microsoft .NET Alerts client
library provides a convenient means for content providers to
send alerts to subscribers. By using the objects provided in
this library, you can create alerts (as abstracted objects)
and submit them to the .NET Alerts routing engine for distribution.
|
| |
| S.No |
Object
Name |
Description |
| 1. |
NotificationTransport |
Provides a high-performance
HTTP transport service for alerts. |
| 2. |
MsnNotification |
Provides an abstraction of
an alert. |
| 3. |
NotificationsUtility |
Provides general support
functions for the .NET Alerts client library. |
|
| |
| Here is the code snippet for
sending alerts from ASP.NET Web Page in VB.NET |
| |
Dim transport As NotificationTransportClass
transport =
New NotificationTransportClass()
transport.DestinationUrl
= "http://nrouter.microsoft-ppe.com/nrouter/nrouter.dll"
Dim username
As String = Nothing
Dim password
As String = Nothing
Dim WaitForCompletion
As Integer = 1
Dim Token As
Integer
Token = System.Convert.ToInt32(1)
' Get all the
events that have not been sent
'Dim eventSet
As SqlDataReader = alertSubscriptions.GetQueuedNotifications()
Dim alert As
New MsnNotificationClass()
alert.MessageID
= "0"
Dim Context
As System.Web.HttpContext = System.Web.HttpContext.Current
alert.SiteURL
= "http://" + Context.Request.ServerVariables("SERVER_NAME")
+ Context.Request.ApplicationPath
' The relative
path to the action URL page, including two custom parameters,
param1 and param2.
' Note that
the ampersand is XML-encoded.
alert.ActionURL
= "WebForm1.aspx"
' Specifies
the user PUID as an argument to the subscription URL.
alert.SubscribeURL
= "WebForm1.aspx"
alert.BodyIcon
= "car.png"
alert.BodyLanguage
= "1033"
alert.Priority
= "1"
'PUID is passport
hexadecimal id which is got through querystring
Dim PUID As
String = Request.QueryString("PUID")
PUID = "0x"
+ PUID.Substring(0, 8) + ":0x" + PUID.Substring(8,
8)
' Spin through
the queued up notifications and attempt to send them
alert.ID = 1
alert.ToPID
= PUID
alert.SiteID
= 41086
alert.Body =
"<TEXT>" + "You got a alert"
+ "</TEXT>"
'alert.ActionURL
= eventSet("ActionURL").ToString()
Try
transport.SendNotification(WaitForCompletion,
username, password, alert, Token)
Catch ex As
COMException ' Non-COM exceptions will propagate to Main().
'
Wait a second to allow transient network problems to resolve.
Thread.Sleep(1000)
Try
transport.SendNotification(WaitForCompletion,
username, password, alert,Token)
Catch
ex2 As COMException ' Non-COM exceptions will propagate
to Main().
Thread.Sleep(1000)
Try
transport.SendNotification(WaitForCompletion,
username, password, alert,Token)
Catch
hr As COMException ' Non-COM exceptions will propagate
to Main().
'
Custom error codes by the .NET Alerts SDK match 0x81fdxxxx.
Dim
msg As String
Dim
ErrorMessage As String
If
Not ((hr.ErrorCode And &HFFFF0000) = &H81FD0000)
Then
'msg
= [String].Format("A COM error occurred while calling
SendNotification:0x{0}
{1}", hr.ErrorCode.ToString("x"), hr.Message)
Else
ErrorMessage
= "An unexpected error occurred." End Select 'end
switch
End
If
msg
= String.Format("A COM error occurred while calling
SendNotification:
0x{0}{1}", hr.ErrorCode.ToString("x"),
ErrorMessage)
End
Try
End
Try
End Try
|
|
| |
| |
| Configure Messenger To Use
The PREP Environment |
| |
| The Messenger Login server is
stored in a registry key. To configure the client computer to
use the PREP Messenger environment when a user signs in to Windows
Messenger or MSN Messenger, update the value of the following
string: |
| |
|
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MessengerService\Server
|
| |
| Specify the sign-in server name
for the Messenger PREP environment. The name for the sign-in
server is provided to you in an e-mail after you register a
.NET Alerts application with the .NET Services Manager. |
| |
| |
- Saravana
Kumar
Microsoft Community Star
www.extremeexperts.com |
| |
