SQL Server Notification Services

SQL Server Notification Services is being Removed from SQL Server 2008 [http://blog.desktopalert.net/blogs/da_blog/archive/2008/02/16/25.aspx]

Notification Services is based on SQL Server Technology, and sits atop the Microsoft .NET Framework. Notification Services offers a scalable server engine on which to run notification applications, with multi-server capability-providing flexibility and scalability for deploying applications.

Notification Services was designed to ease the pain of developing and deploying notification applications that generate personalized, timely information to subscribers.

To design, code and test all of the components that make up a robust Notification Services Application-such as notification scheduling, failure detection, retry logic, time zone management, notification grouping, and queue management, adding Notification Services to software applications can be a daunting task.

Extensibility and Programmability

A programming framework based on Transact-SQL and XML, provides a declarative programming model, and lends itself to quick prototyping and deployment of robust notification applications.

An API for creating subscription management applications is provided, plus standard components for collecting event data from files and SQL Server databases, for formatting notifications using XSLT, and for sending notifications via Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) or by writing notifications to a file.

If the standard components do not meet the needs of an application, Notification Services is extendable by building custom components using the .NET family of programming languages, such as Microsoft Visual C# .NET and Microsoft Visual Basic .NET.

Finally, Notification Services can communicate with a wide variety of Microsoft, third-party, and custom-built event providers and delivery protocols, enabling Notification Services to communicate with existing systems in heterogeneous environments.

External links

* [http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=97&SiteID=1 Forums]
* [http://www.microsoft.com/sql/technologies/notification/default.mspx Microsoft Official Site]
* [http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/technologies/ntfcsvcs.mspx TechNet]

Books

* [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0672327791/ Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Notification Services]
* [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0972688811/ The Rational Guide to SQL Server Notification Services]