SQL Server Notification Services

"Notification Services is essentially an application framework that lets you develop custom notification applications.These applications monitor a data source for a predefined event. When that event occurs, the application notifies subscribers and devices. You can build these types of notification applications from scratch, but Notification Services gives you a solid foundation for development projects by providing you with a robust, scalable, tested framework that you can use for your own notification applications.

Microsoft originally developed the Notification Services framework to satisfy internal needs, then later turned the technology into a product for distribution.

A Notification Services application monitors certain predefined events and can intelligently filter and route the information about those events to a variety of different target devices by using a personalized delivery schedule.

Notification Services applications consist of three basic components: events, subscriptions, and notifications.

As their names imply, events are data changes that you want to be alerted about, subscriptions tell the application which users are interested in which events, and the notification is the message the application sends to the end user.

Applications can render notifications in a number of formats and can target various outlets, including the Web, email, mobile devices, and more.

Notification Services applications consist of an Application Definition File (ADF) and an Application Configuration File (ACF) that you create by using T-SQL and XML.

Notification Services is a valuable tool for your application-development tool chest. It gives you a ready-to-use foundation for creating Notification-style applications. Notification Services is free to all users who have SQL Server 2000 licenses. Notification Services Service Pack 1 (SP1) is available at http://www.microsoft.com/sql/ns/downloads/download.asp ."

Source: SQLMag newsletter

Comments