Email Alert Template Issue - List Alerts (Alert Me) emails not using customized XML alert template

Question

We have recently customized the XML alerts template (AlertTemplates.xml) for our site collection in SharePoint 2010 to exclude specific fields in the email when users who have subscribed using the "Alert Me" feature. We have renamed the
custom alerts XML file and loaded the custom template in the following directory (%ProgramFiles%\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web server extensions\14\TEMPLATE\XML) and restarted IIS.  Once users subscribe to the alerts using the list "alert me"
function they received the customized email as intended.
We needed to auto-subscribe users to the email alerts so what we did was use a powershell script to add users to the alert subscriptions using the script shown below:
Import-Csv D:\Temp\filename.csv | ForEach-Object{
$webUrl=$_.WebUrl
$listTitle=$_.List
$alertTitle=$_.AlertTitle
$subscribedUser=$_.SubscribedUser
$alertType=$_.AlertType
$deliveryChannel=$_.DeliveryChannel
$eventType=$_.EventType
$frequency=$_.Frequency
$oldAlertID=$_.ID
$web=Get-SPWeb $webUrl
$testAlert = $web.Alerts | WHERE { $_.ID -eq $oldAlertID }
IF ($testAlert) {
$web.Alerts.Delete([GUID]$oldAlertID)
Write-Host Old alert $oldAlertID deleted. -Foregroundcolor Cyan
$list=$web.Lists.TryGetList($listTitle)
$user = $web.EnsureUser($subscribedUser)
$newAlert = $user.Alerts.Add()
$newAlert.Title = $alertTitle
$newAlert.AlertType=[Microsoft.SharePoint.SPAlertType]::$alertType
$newAlert.List = $list
$newAlert.DeliveryChannels = [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPAlertDeliveryChannels]::$deliveryChannel
$newAlert.EventType = [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPEventType]::$eventType
$newAlert.AlertFrequency = [Microsoft.SharePoint.SPAlertFrequency]::$frequency
if($frequency -ne "Immediate"){
$AlertTime=$_.AlertTime
$newAlert.AlertTime=$AlertTime
$newAlert.Update()
Write-Host Created $newAlert.Title for $subscribedUser . -Foregroundcolor Cyan
} ELSE {
Write-Host Alert $alertTitle for $subscribedUser already done. Moving on. -Foregroundcolor Magenta
When we ran the script and added the users and restarted the service, all users who were auto-subscribed via this method get the email without the customizations that were done in teh custom alert template.  All users who manually subscribed on their
own to the list using the "Alert Me" function would get the customized email.
Does anyone know why users who manually subscribe to the alerts get the customized email, and users who were auto-subscribed using the powershell script do not get the customized email and get the standard generic email template?

Answer 1

Hi  ,
According to your code, it create a new alert using SPUser.Alerts.Add() method. For this method, it will create a new alert based on the predefined alert template by default.
If you only assigned the custom alert template to the list, users who manually subscribe to the alerts get the customized email, but users who were auto-subscribed using the PowerShell script get the standard
generic email template.
For your issue, you can set the new alert ‘s alert template:
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/1b19c12f-fc37-48cf-8b59-6c09f095dc23/custom-alert-email-templates-issue-list-alerts-emails-not-using-customized-xml-alert-template?forum=sharepointgeneralprevious
Here is a good blog you can have a look:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sharepointdeveloperdocs/archive/2007/12/07/customizing-alert-notifications-and-alert-templates-in-windows-sharepoint-services-3-0.aspx
Thanks,
Eric
Forum Support
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Eric Tao
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