Umbraco Notifications: Run Code on Publish

Notifications in a nutshell

Umbraco raises notifications before and after things happen: saving, publishing, deleting, moving, a member logging in, and many more.

"…ing" notifications such as ContentPublishingNotification run before the action, and can cancel it.
"…ed" notifications such as ContentPublishedNotification run after it, and are perfect for side effects such as clearing a cache, calling an API or sending an email.

Step 1: React after publishing

Notifications/LogPublishedContentHandler.cs

using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Events;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Notifications;

namespace MySite.Notifications;

public class LogPublishedContentHandler(ILogger<LogPublishedContentHandler> logger)
    : INotificationHandler<ContentPublishedNotification>
{
    public void Handle(ContentPublishedNotification notification)
    {
        foreach (IContent item in notification.PublishedEntities)
        {
            logger.LogInformation("Published {Name} ({Key}) of type {Type}", item.Name, item.Key, item.ContentType.Alias);
        }
    }
}

Step 2: Stop publishing when something's missing

Notifications/BlockEmptyTitleHandler.cs

using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Events;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Models;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Notifications;

namespace MySite.Notifications;

public class BlockEmptyTitleHandler : INotificationHandler<ContentPublishingNotification>
{
    public void Handle(ContentPublishingNotification notification)
    {
        foreach (IContent item in notification.PublishedEntities)
        {
            if (item.HasProperty("title") && string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(item.GetValue<string>("title")))
            {
                notification.CancelOperation(new EventMessage(
                    "Missing title", $"Add a title to \"{item.Name}\" before publishing.", EventMessageType.Error));
            }
        }
    }
}

The editor sees your message as an error, and the page isn't published.

Step 3: Register them with a composer

Umbraco finds composers automatically when the site starts:

Notifications/NotificationsComposer.cs

using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Composing;
using Umbraco.Cms.Core.Notifications;

namespace MySite.Notifications;

public class NotificationsComposer : IComposer
{
    public void Compose(IUmbracoBuilder builder)
    {
        builder.AddNotificationHandler<ContentPublishedNotification, LogPublishedContentHandler>();
        builder.AddNotificationHandler<ContentPublishingNotification, BlockEmptyTitleHandler>();
    }
}

For handlers that call APIs or databases, implement INotificationAsyncHandler<T> and register it with AddNotificationAsyncHandler.

Rules of thumb

Keep handlers fast. They run while the editor waits. For slow work, queue it and run it in the background.
Don't publish or save inside a handler for the same event, or you'll trigger an infinite loop.
Load balancing: handlers run on the server where the action happened. Use cache refresher notifications for things every server must do.

No code? Use webhooks

Umbraco has built-in webhooks under Settings › Webhooks. Choose an event such as Content Published, enter a URL, and Umbraco posts the details there. That's ideal for triggering a static site rebuild, or a Zapier or n8n workflow.

Need a hand?

umbraco.ninja has more than 20 years of Umbraco experience. If you'd rather not do this yourself, we'll set it up, test it and hand it over.

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Run code when content is published in Umbraco (notifications)