This document captures the known limitations for the anticipated first release of Alert Plus, including:
- Alert Me
- Alert Administrator
- Bamboo Tenant Manager
- Azure Backend Services
It also includes a near-term roadmap to address these limitations in upcoming releases.
1. Overall Limitations (Alert Me + Alert Administrator)
Because Alert Me and Alert Administrator share the same base code, the functional limitations below apply to both products.
1.1 Item Level Alerts (UI Not Available in v1)
- Purposeful limitation for the first release.
- While item level alerts are supported in the backend, the frontend UI does not yet provide an easy way for users to configure them.
- Users could approximate this behavior by using filter logic such as:
- Description Equals [specific value]
Planned Enhancement:
- Full item level alert configuration will be added in the next release.
Deployment Impact:
- Alert Me will deploy only to the Ribbon Bar in v1.
- Context Menu deployment will be enabled once item level alerts are available, minimizing end user confusion.
1.2 Text Filter Operators: “Contains” and “Ends With”
- The Microsoft Graph API does not currently support these operators.
- We believe custom logic can be added, at minimum, in:
- Step 2 (Optional Filters)
Potential future support in:
- Step 1 (Items meet a condition)
1.3 Folder Scoped Alerts in Document Libraries
- Alerts created on a document library treat the library as flat, including all folders/subfolders.
- This is due to how SharePoint presents document libraries through the SharePoint Framework.
Planned Enhancement:
- Enable targeting of a specific folder (including subfolders).
- Requires:
- Custom parsing algorithms in Azure backend
- Additional tokens passed from front‑end to backend services
1.4 Summary Alerts Scheduling
- Summary alerts can only be scheduled on the hour.
- Execution occurs approximately one minute after the hour.
1.5 Choice Column Filtering UX
- Choice column fields do not prompt the user with available choices from the list/library.
- Users must manually enter values.
1.6 Entra ID Group Alerts Not Supported
- Creating an alert where the recipient is an Entra ID Group is not supported in v1.
1.7 People Picker for To/CC Fields Not Supported
- People picker support was removed from the first release due to:
- Excessive noise in Entra directory data
- Pagination and sorting complexity
1.8 Alerts Against a Specific List/Library View
- No support in v1 for creating an alert tied directly to a specific SharePoint view.
1.9 Alerts Created from a List Web Part
- Alerts created from a List Web Part embedded on a SharePoint page do not register correctly in v1.
- Users must create alerts directly from the actual list or library, not from a surrogate web part displaying that list.
Planned Guidance:
- Documentation and UI messaging will clarify that alerts should be configured from the source list/library.
2.0 Approval Status and Promoted Status Not Displaying in Alerts Summary
- When using Alert Plus alerts, the Approval Status and Promoted Status fields may not display correctly in alert messages.
These values may appear as blank or as a default value (such as 0) instead of showing the expected status (e.g., Approved, Pending).
What You May Experience: Approval Status shows as 0 instead of Approved/Pending/RejectedPromoted Status appears blank in alert emailsAlerts will include items that are in an Approved stateItems in Pending, Draft, or Rejected status may not trigger alerts or appear in alert data
Draft Item Security Impact
Within the Versioning Settings of a SharePoint list or library, there is a setting called Draft Item Security that directly affects alert behavior.
If configured as:
Any user who can read items
- Alerts can process items in all statuses, including Draft and Pending
If configured as:
- Only users who can edit items
- Only users who can approve items (and the author of the item)
Then:
- Only items in an Approved state will be included in alerts
Why This Happens
These columns are system-managed fields in SharePoint (used for publishing and approvals) and are not standard list columns. Due to platform limitations, Graph API, these fields are not always accessible or readable when generating alerts.
Additionally, content that is not in an Approved/Published state is often treated as incomplete or not fully available, which can prevent it from being included in alert processing.
Workarounds / Recommendations
To ensure consistent alert behavior, consider the following:
- Create a custom column (e.g., Choice field) to track Approval or Promoted status.
2. Near-term Product Roadmap
The following roadmap reflects the planned enhancements for releases immediately following v1.
Release 1.1 (Short-term)
- Add Item Level Alerts UI support
- Enable Context Menu deployment for Alert Me
- Folder scoped alerts for document libraries
- Backend parsing enhancements + token support for folders
Release 1.2
- Add custom support for “Contains” and “Ends With” operators
- Expand filtering support in Step 1 and Step 2
Release 1.3
- Improve Choice Column filtering experience
Future Enhancements (Post‑1.x)
- Entra ID Group recipient support
- Reintroduce People Picker with improved directory handling
- Alerts tied to specific SharePoint views
3. Notes
This document is intended to remain the single source of truth for:
- Release‑1 known limitations
- Feature scope boundaries
- Roadmap planning and prioritization
It will evolve as Alert Plus moves through early releases.
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