An alert channel is a well-defined medium for distributing alert notifications. ATG Portal provides the ability to send alert notifications over two different alert channels, the Web alert channel and the E-mail alert channel. ATG Portal provides an API that you can use to add other alert channels beyond these two channels.
A new alert channel is created by configuring a component whose class is defined as the atg.portal.alert.AlertChannel class. The new alert channel must also specify an atg.portal.alert.AlertHandlerInterface in the same property file. The implementation of the AlertHandlerInterface performs the work of delivering alerts. Each alert channel, therefore, has a corresponding implementation of the AlertHandlerInterface.
Finally, the new alert channel must register itself with the atg.portal.alert.AlertMgr global Nucleus component. The AlertMgr handles all incoming alerts, determines the list of users to receive the alerts, and which channels each user should receive the alerts on. The AlertMgr loops over the receiving channels and calls their alert handler methods.
The following sections provide the details of how to create a custom alert channel, register it with the AlertMgr, and handle the distribution of the alert notifications.
