I’ve just spent many fruitless hours trying to find a bug in my code that has been causing minor but visible pain for a number of users – and it was never even there. You would think after spending several years working with SharePoint I would know all of the ins-and-outs of alerts but not this one!
Scenario
- “Require Check Out” is set to Yes (toggle the screenshot below in your mind, please!)
- Alert created to only send when new items are added
Problem
User does not receive alerts on new items.
What’s happening?
When “Require Check Out” is enabled, alerts for a new document are only processed when it is checked in, and only the most recent alert event is kept. Here’s a simplified version of what SharePoint is doing behind the scenes when a user sets an alert for new items only:
| Action | Alert-related behaviour | Response to user |
|---|---|---|
| User uploads a document | “New item” event registered | “Fill in properties and check in” page displays |
| User clicks “Check In” | “Changed item” event registered and alert functionality triggered – most recent event is processed, sending a “Changed item” alert (“New item” event is discarded) | Document checked in and user receives no alert |
This is also an issue for users opting to receive alerts with the “All changes” or “Existing items are modified” options set. Their alerts will read the item has changed when actually it is new.
I asked about this on the SharePoint forums and received a good response from Lu Zou-MSFT confirming this behaviour. Unfortunately it’s unknown if this behaviour will change for SharePoint 2010.