Customize Sharepoint Search Alert Email Template

Question

I am trying to modify the email template for a sharepoint search alert. I have done the following:

Made a copy of the following file:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\XML\alerttemplate.xml

Renamed it to "alerttemplatetest.xml" and made my changes, then ran the following command:

stsadm -o updatealerttemplates -url http://sharepointsite -filename "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\TEMPLATE\XML\alerttemplatestest.xml"

Then I did the following:

• IIS Reset
• Restart Sharepoint Timer Service

I then relized that the search alert does not use the same alerttemplate.xml file that the other alerts use because the template name is OSS.Search and that does not exist in the file.

In summary my question is how can I edit the template for the Sharepoint Search Alert Emails or if this is even possible?

Answer 1

I'm also not aware of how to change the Search Alert Templates by modifying some XML. However it is possible to create these templates using C# as explained here:

• Customize search alert email

The important thing to note in the post is the SearchAlert class with which you can create daily/weekly alerts.

Also there is a very good article about the inner workings of Search alerts on MSDN:

• Working with Search Alerts in SharePoint 2010