The Ramblings of Two Microsoft .NET Developers, TFS, and Visual Studio ALM Guys --- "Yes, we are both named Ed."

Where is the Alerts Editor / Explorer in the TFS 2010 Power Tools?

February 25, 2010 10:58 AM | Comments [7] | by



I’ve had a few questions about the missing Alerts Editor node in Team Explorer after installing the TFS 2010 RC Power Tools so I thought I’d share with everyone.  First, Alerts Editor has been renamed to Alerts Explorer in the TFS 2010 Power Tools release.  Next, you’ll notice that in the TFS 2008 Power Tools, that a node existed underneath each Team Project shown below.

Alerts Editor in TFS 2008 Power Tools Visual Studio Team Explorer 

You’ll see that in the TFS 2010 Power Tools, it’s no longer available as a node under each team project but rather available from the context menu of the Team Project Collection node and named “Alerts Explorer.”

Alerts Explorer in TFS 2010 Power Tools Visual Studio Team Explorer

What is the Alerts Explorer?

There is a rich eventing & alerting system in TFS that allows end users to self-subscribe to alerts that meet different criteria.  These alerts can either be e-mail alerts or SOAP-based alerts to a web service URL.  (SOAP subscriptions can only be created by Team Foundation Server Administrators.)  By opening up the Alerts Explorer, you can see any of the subscriptions that you currently have created on the server.

Alerts Explorer in TFS 2010 Power Tools

Also, you can create new alerts based on some out of the box templates like “Work Items Assigned to Me” or “Failed Builds.”  This is a good starting off point for creating alerts and allows you to further customize the filter criteria to your specifications.

Tip:  As shown in the screenshot above, if you don’t want to receive an e-mail alert whenever you actually change something, be sure to include the “Authorized As <> Your Name” clause.

You also get some handy context menus around the Team Explorer UI to help you to easily create subscriptions.  For example, if there is a particular work item (like a bug) that you want to get e-mail alerts anytime someone changes it, just choose “Alert on Change..” from the context menu on that work item.  You’ll find some other context menu items for Alerts in other places so have fun finding them!

Work Item Alert On Change Context Menu TFS 2010 Power Tools

Ed Blankenship

Comments [7]
Posted in TFS | Tools | VSTS


Wednesday, June 15, 2011 7:04:34 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
Is there any place that shows how group logic is dealt with in the Alerts Explorer? For instance, I have two groups which need to be OR'd.
--Group A: blank, OR, OR
--Group B: OR, AND
--Group C: Group A, Group B
--AND is a last, single condition.

Will this order ensure that if one of the two groups qualifies with the last condition, the alert is fired? There's no place to say And/Or for the grouping of groups.
thanks, Hance
www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawnaIOmm_9maZfBxpdezmAWHBMXpRRjVlmM
Monday, March 05, 2012 6:31:02 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I set up the Alerts for "Building Complete" but no email was received after the build was done. Then realized that I may need to modify in the build server. Since I am still new in TFS, would you please share more about that? I looked at the post in https://tfsalerts.codeplex.com/ but stuck in the second step (2. Install to a web server (suggest your TFS web frontend))? I do have the IIS installed in the build server. Thanks much for the help!

LHu
www.google.com/accounts/o8/id
Monday, March 05, 2012 6:31:24 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I set up the Alerts for "Building Complete" but no email was received after the build was done. Then realized that I may need to modify in the build server. Since I am still new in TFS, would you please share more about that? I looked at the post in https://tfsalerts.codeplex.com/ but stuck in the second step (2. Install to a web server (suggest your TFS web frontend))? I do have the IIS installed in the build server. Thanks much for the help!

LHu
www.google.com/accounts/o8/id
Monday, March 05, 2012 6:37:42 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
I set up the Alerts for "Building Complete" but no email was received after the build was done. Then realized that I may need to modify in the build server. Since I am still new in TFS, would you please share more about that? I looked at the post in https://tfsalerts.codeplex.com/ but stuck in the second step (2. Install to a web server (suggest your TFS web frontend))? I do have the IIS installed in the build server. Thanks much for the help!

LHu


Hi Lhu,

You won't need the CodePlex project or with the build servers or builds to get this working at all. Your TFS Administrator just needs to make sure the SMTP settings are set appropriately in the TFS Administration Console on the application tier server(s). This assumes you are using TFS 2010. If you are using something different then there will be other troubleshooting steps to figure out what is going on.

I have some more information about those SMTP settings in TFS here: http://www.edsquared.com/2012/02/10/Using+Exchange+Server+With+TFS+For+Delivering+EMail+Alerts.aspx. I happen to use Exchange server as an example but you can use any SMTP server.
Ed Blankenship
Tuesday, March 06, 2012 10:48:23 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
Thank so much Ed. It works well! The next step I am going to do is to customize the email notification. I may need your professional help again!
All the best!

Fishman
www.google.com/accounts/o8/id
Monday, May 14, 2012 10:33:44 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
Very nice, but i have a question how do i set the alert to send the email to the person who is the task is assigned to?
ZeusSE
Sunday, February 03, 2013 7:23:29 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
HI, I have TFS power tools 2010 and VS 2010, I don't have available from the context menu of the Team Project Collection node named “Alerts Explorer.”
eliassal
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