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SMTP Mailer with Authentication

pjutard

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4.10/5 (10 votes)

25 Oct 20031 min read

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.NET assembly, 100% managed code. Send mails using a SMTP server that requires authentication.

Download source files - 4.63 Kb

Introduction

This article describes a simple assembly to send mails programmatically using a SMTP server that requires authentication. It also works with those servers that doesn't require it.

In this release, you cannot use attachments, but I will implement it as soon as possible.

To show you how simple this component is, I'll show you it's main interface:

The main method is SendMail:

1st Overload

Used for sending a simple mail using a server without authentication. The default MailFormat is HTML.

public System.Boolean SendMail ( System.String from , System.String to , System.String subject , System.String message , System.String serverName )

2nd Overload

Used for sending a simple mail using a server with authentication. The default MailFormat is HTML.

public System.Boolean SendMail ( System.String from , System.String to , System.String subject , System.String message , System.String AUTH_Name , System.String AUTH_Password , System.String serverName )

3rd Overload

Used for sending a mail using a server with authentication. Here you can specify the MailFormat and also the server port.

public System.Boolean SendMail ( System.String from , System.String to , System.String subject , System.String message , MailFormat format , System.String AUTH_Name , System.String AUTH_Password , System.String serverName , System.Int32 port )

When the method SendMail returns false, you have an Err property that contains the Exception that originated the failure of the method call.

License

This article has no explicit license attached to it but may contain usage terms in the article text or the download files themselves. If in doubt please contact the author via the discussion board below.

A list of licenses authors might use can be found here

Written By

pjutard

Web Developer

United States

This member has not yet provided a Biography. Assume it's interesting and varied, and probably something to do with programming.

Comments and Discussions

HankiDesign6-Jul-07 8:17

6-Jul-07 8:17

Does someone know what is that server address when using Gmail?

_BlackLine_23-Apr-06 7:44

23-Apr-06 7:44

It would be nice to add an option to attach files, but anyway it's a good start! Smile | :)

Smile | :)

Thank you!

different views in different Browsers

Ramalinga S Reddy26-Mar-06 19:47

Ramalinga S Reddy

26-Mar-06 19:47

Hi Guys,

when i try to run an application (developed in C#.net) in different browsers,
i am not able to view in the same way as in IE.
when i try to view in mozilla and opera....
i found difference in the view...

some of them that i noticed in OPERA and MOZILLA Browsers
1. huge gap between the left panel and the right panel.
2. and the entire content of right panel is overlapping on the left panel...

where as the same source when i run in IE it is working

Ramalinga Reddy

I could not be able to run

Ramalinga S Reddy26-Mar-06 19:34

Ramalinga S Reddy

26-Mar-06 19:34

I have downloaded the source code for "SMTP Mailer with Authentication."
when i try to run the source i am getting an error
"A Project with an output type of class library cannot be started directly."
in order to debug this project go to the debugging tab under configuration settings in project properties, and set the start action to ......
"

if you know how to run the source code, help me.

Ramalinga Reddy

Time stamp says 12/31/1969

FinishedOnTime14-Mar-04 10:57

14-Mar-04 10:57

Everything seems to work fine for me but when the email arrives it is dated 12/31/1969. Any ideas for a fix?

Thank you!

David Berman

Do me a favor and download my software from http://www.sen.us
Its free. Meet people for professional contacts, dating and friendship.

Member 71462119-Nov-03 6:02

19-Nov-03 6:02

Hi !
Could you please help me. Use your Mailer as dll in an VB Usercontrol and get always this error. The Mail Server is an Exchange-Server 200 using ESMTP.
Thanks in advance.

System.Exception: Invalid command response: 503 5.5.2 Send hello first. ---> System.Exception: Invalid command response: 503 5.5.2 Send hello first. at JutardLib.SMTP.SmtpServer.ResponseOK(String resp) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at JutardLib.SMTP.Mailer.SendCommand(String commmand, String OK_Response) at JutardLib.SMTP.Mailer.AuthLogin(String usrName, String password)

Re: Get an Error

pjutard19-Nov-03 6:19

19-Nov-03 6:19

try modifying de routine where de HELO command is sent so that it sends:

HELO remoteservername

Where remoteservername is the name of the SMTP server to which you want to connect to.

How about other encoding mail?

Hardy Wang14-Nov-03 3:00

14-Nov-03 3:00

System.Web.Mail.MailMessage provides property BodyEncoding we can use to specify encoding, such as UTF8 and so on.
Does your component provide this feature?

WWW: http://hardywang.1accesshost.com
ICQ: 3359839
yours Hardy

Re: How about other encoding mail?

pjutard14-Nov-03 4:35

14-Nov-03 4:35

No it does not, but you can implement it ver easily.

Heath Stewart26-Oct-03 18:08

26-Oct-03 18:08

You come from a C background, don't you? Smile | :)

Smile | :)

Instead of using several overloads with massive amounts of parameters (especially for the body, which - if marshalled - would be very expensive), use an object. For instance, System.Web.Mail.SmtpMail uses a MailMessage class. This allows more flexibility and, perhaps, even data-binding which could be handy in mailings (not advocating SPAM here, but things like news or site updates).

Also, exceptions are used in .NET - just like in Java. the Err property is remnant of Win32, just like having to call GetLastError. Throw an Exception (preferrably your own exception class derived from Exception) with necessary information. Keeping with the .NET model helps other developers when using your libraries because it's consistent and ties in with everything else (for example, exceptions break the flow the execution and are automatic, where error checking is does not break the flow and is not automatic).

Just some suggestions for a better object-oriented design (since .NET is truly object-oriented) and for consistency with the .NET base class library and the general framework model.

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.21
GCS/G/MU d- s: a- C++++ UL@ P++(+++) L+(--) E--- W+++ N++ o+ K? w++++ O- M(+) V? PS-- PE Y++ PGP++ t++@ 5 X+++ R+@ tv+ b(-)>b++ DI++++ D+ G e++>+++ h---* r+++ y+++
-----END GEEK CODE BLOCK-----

pjutard26-Oct-03 18:37

26-Oct-03 18:37

I just wanted to make it as simple as possible.
But you are right about everythig.

I have a TODO List for this component:

a. Add Attachment support
b. Add support to every Mail Field (Cc, Cco, etc)
c. Add another overload that receives an object reprecenting the whole mail.
d. Make the method return void and throw a custom exception when ther´s any problem.

About c. what would you do? really make another averload or just leave 1 method that accepts an object?

Another question, how would you prefere to pass recipients to the Mailer?
a) an AddRcpt(string name, string email) method
b) an AddRcpt(Recipient rcpt) where Recipient is a custom class representing a Recipient
c) a To property that accepts a comma delimited list.

Heath Stewart26-Oct-03 18:50

26-Oct-03 18:50

Depends how much you use your class. A single method would be easiest and less confusing. If you keep them, attribute them with the ObsoleteAttribute and get rid of them later. For now, to make things easier, have them create a mail object and call the single overload for a mail object.

As far as recipients, I would treat this multiple ways. The important thing is consistency. you'll see a lot of classes that have both a and b above (but spell them out, as is common):

public void AddRecipient(string name, string email)
{
    this.AddRecipient(new Recipient(name, email);
}
public void AddRecipient(Recipient rcpt)
{
    // Add to internal list.
}

You could also provide the To property, but think about this carefully. It is far more expensive for string operations such as this. Perhaps it could get a read-only property (only provides a get accessor) that simply enumerates the internal list maintained for recipients and joins them with commas and returns the string. The important thing is to use string buffers (like System.Text.StringBuilder) effectively since strings are immutable in .NET.

You could provide a set accessor for a To property, but I would split the string against common delimiters (value.Split(',', ';')) and then parse each name / email pair (if name is available) and call AddRecipient to make sure that you don't have to maintain such code in multiple places.

One final word, having an AddRange like property is also convenient, such as adding an AddRecipientRange. This could either take an array of Recipient objects, or a parameter array, which is like varargs in C/C++:

public void AddRecipientRange(Recipient[] rcpts)
{
    // ...
}
// OR...
public void AddRecipientRange(params Recipient[] rcpts)
{
    // ...
}

The latter allows for a variable number of parameters like the ellipses in C/C++.

Just some suggestions. Great work, though. As an editor, though, seeing some more content would be nice, such as particularily interesting code fragments. Perhaps any SMTP authentication or - better yet (for newbies) - how you establish a connection with the SMTP server and say HELO to get things going. This would make for a much better article.

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.21
GCS/G/MU d- s: a- C++++ UL@ P++(+++) L+(--) E--- W+++ N++ o+ K? w++++ O- M(+) V? PS-- PE Y++ PGP++ t++@ 5 X+++ R+@ tv+ b(-)>b++ DI++++ D+ G e++>+++ h---* r+++ y+++
-----END GEEK CODE BLOCK-----

pjutard27-Oct-03 2:16

27-Oct-03 2:16

Thank you very much for your suggestions.
In my next release I will extend significantly the content.

alpy26-Mar-07 8:09

26-Mar-07 8:09

I failed to use the code. Can you guide me or send me a simple sample program?
Thanks,

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