Defining Notification Classes

A notification class defines one type of notification generated by your application. When you define a Notification Services application, you create one notification class for each type of notification that is supported by your application.

When Notification Services creates the application, it uses the information in each notification class definition to create the tables, views, stored procedures, and functions that store and manipulate notification data, to associate content formatters and delivery protocols to format and deliver the notifications, and to specify operational settings for the notification class.

The following list shows the typical steps for defining a notification class:

1. Name the notification class and optionally designate the SQL Server filegroup for the database objects associated with the notification class (such as the notification table).
2. Define the notification class schema. The schema defines the form of the raw notification data, which is formatted and sent to your subscribers. Notification Services uses this schema to create a table that stores notification data, as well as other database objects.
3. Declare the content formatter for the notification class. The content formatter takes the raw notification data and formats it appropriately for presentation to the recipient.
4. Optionally select digest or multicast delivery.
5. Optionally specify a notification batch size.
6. Configure one or more delivery protocols for notification delivery.
7. Optionally specify a notification expiration age.

Your application can have multiple notification classes if it supports multiple types of notifications. For example, a stock application can generate notifications about current stock prices and end-of-day portfolio value. Each type of notification has its own notification class with its own schema and settings.

In This Section

Topic	Description
Defining the Core Notification Class	Describes the core notification properties of name and filegroup, and how to set these properties.
Defining the Notification Schema	Describes how notification data is stored in database tables and how to define fields for those tables.
Configuring Content Formatters	Describes how content formatters format notifications and explains how to configure a content formatter.
Specifying Digest or Multicast Delivery	Describes what the digest and multicast options do and how to configure these options.
Specifying the Notification Batch Size	Explains why you might want to restrict the notification batch size and how to set the maximum batch size.
Specifying the Delivery Protocol Name and Fields	Contains topics on how Notification Services uses delivery protocols to distribute notifications and how to configure delivery protocols for your applications.
Specifying the Notification Expiration Age	Explains how to set an expiration age for notifications, and how Notification Services uses the expiration age.
XSLT Content Formatter	Contains topics on the standard content formatter, which formats notifications using XSL transformations, and how to define the content formatter for use in your applications.
Standard Delivery Protocols	Contains topics on the standard delivery protocols SMTP and File, and how to define them for use in your applications.

See Also

Reference

Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Nmo.NotificationClass

Concepts

Notification Formatting and Delivery Architecture

Other Resources

Defining Notification Services Applications
NotificationClasses Element (ADF)

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance