The Infragistics UltraDesktopAlert component provides the ability for the end developer to display an T:Infragistics.Win.UltraControlBase-derived control, hosted in a top-level window, which notifies the end user of some event. The end user can interact with the notification by clicking one of the hyperlinks (as defined by the UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.Caption, UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.Text, and UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.FooterText properties), which utilize the T:Infragistics.Win.FormattedLinkLabel.FormattedTextUIElement. User interaction is also supported via the AlertButtons collection, which extend the ability to customize the appearance and behavior of the buttons which appear alongside the bottom edge of the desktop alert window. The desktop alert windows exhibit animated effects when they appear and close, which are controlled by the AnimationStyleShow and AnimationStyleAutoClose properties. A desktop alert can be made to appear at any of the four corners of the user's screen, and also fully supports multi-monitor configurations, using the UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.ScreenPosition and UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.Screen properties, or can be displayed at an explicit screen location by setting the UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.ScreenLocation property. A sound can be played as the desktop alert window appears by setting the UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.Sound property, which supports the System.Media.SystemSound class, as well as a path to a sound file or URL, or a System.IO.Stream that contains sound data in the popular Windows WAV (Waveform Audio Format) format. The desktop alert windows can be made to emulate either the New Mail Desktop Alert notification mechanism seen in MS Outlook, or the notification windows seen in the MS Windows Live Messenger online chat application, by setting the Style property.

The displaying of a desktop alert window is accomplished by a simple two-step process; first, an object of type UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo is created, which exposes settable properties that extend the ability to change the attributes of the desktop alert, such as the text and formatting of the links it displays, the image it displays, and the sound that is played when it appears. The component's Show(UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo) method is then called, which accepts as its only parameter the UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo instance that was created in the first step. An object of type UltraDesktopAlertWindowInfo is returned from the Show method, which contains information about the desktop alert window, as well as a way to identify it and/or refer to it programmatically.

The following table cross references some of the features of the UltraDesktopAlert component with the members of the public object model which control them:

Feature	Public members
Customizing look and feel of desktop alerts	Style
Controlling animation	AnimationStyleShow AnimationStyleAutoClose AnimationScrollDirectionShow AnimationScrollDirectionAutoClose AnimationSpeed Opacity
Displaying hyperlinks/formatted text	UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.Caption UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.Text UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.FooterText DesktopAlertLinkClicked
Customizing images	UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.Image ImageSize
Playing sounds	UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.Sound
Customizing colors and visual formatting	Appearance UltraDesktopAlertButton.Appearance ButtonAppearance ButtonHotTrackAppearance ButtonPressedAppearance CaptionAppearance CaptionHotTrackAppearance TextAppearance TextHotTrackAppearance FooterTextAppearance FooterTextHotTrackAppearance GripAreaAppearance (Office2007 style only) CaptionAreaAppearance (WindowsLiveMessenger style only) MainImageAreaBorderColor
Customizing the appearance and behavior of buttons	AlertButtons UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.VisibleAlertButtons CloseButtonVisible DropDownButtonVisible ButtonImageSize ButtonStyle AlertButtonClicked DropDownButtonClicked
Programmatic management of desktop alert windows	Show(UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo) Close(UltraDesktopAlertWindowInfo) CloseAll UltraDesktopAlertWindowInfo.Close HasOpenWindows IsOpen(UltraDesktopAlertWindowInfo) GetWindowInfo UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.Key DesktopAlertClosing DesktopAlertClosed
Getting/setting the size and location of desktop alert windows	FixedSize UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.ScreenPosition UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.Screen UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.ScreenLocation UltraDesktopAlertWindowInfo.Bounds
Controlling whether/how desktop alert windows can be dismissed/moved by the end user	CloseButtonVisible DesktopAlertClosing (cancelable event) UltraDesktopAlertShowWindowInfo.PinButtonVisible Infragistics.Win.Misc.UltraDesktopAlertWindowInfo.Pinned AutoClose AutoCloseDelay AllowMove
Controlling whether multiple desktop alert windows can be displayed	MultipleWindowDisplayStyle

Reference