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Sending an Email in C# with or without attachments: generic routine.

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4.88/5 (54 votes)
3 Mar 2011CPOL 181.3K   52   26
Sending an email is not a real problem, but I am fed up with answering the question "How do I do it?" in Q&A . So, here is the generic routine I use to send an email, with or without attachments, so I can just point people at it!
/// <summary>
/// Send an email from [DELETED]
/// </summary>
/// <param name="to">Message to address</param>
/// <param name="body">Text of message to send</param>
/// <param name="subject">Subject line of message</param>
/// <param name="fromAddress">Message from address</param>
/// <param name="fromDisplay">Display name for "message from address"</param>
/// <param name="credentialUser">User whose credentials are used for message send</param>
/// <param name="credentialPassword">User password used for message send</param>
/// <param name="attachments">Optional attachments for message</param>
public static void Email(string to,
                         string body,
                         string subject,
                         string fromAddress,
                         string fromDisplay,
                         string credentialUser,
                         string credentialPassword,
                         params MailAttachment[] attachments)
    {
    string host = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SMTPHost"];
    body = UpgradeEmailFormat(body);
    try
        {
        MailMessage mail = new MailMessage();
        mail.Body = body;
        mail.IsBodyHtml = true;
        mail.To.Add(new MailAddress(to));
        mail.From = new MailAddress(fromAddress, fromDisplay, Encoding.UTF8);
        mail.Subject = subject;
        mail.SubjectEncoding = Encoding.UTF8;
        mail.Priority = MailPriority.Normal;
        foreach (MailAttachment ma in attachments)
            {
            mail.Attachments.Add(ma.File);
            }
        SmtpClient smtp = new SmtpClient();
        smtp.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(credentialUser, credentialPassword);
        smtp.Host = host;
        smtp.Send(mail);
        }
    catch (Exception ex)
        {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(1024);
        sb.Append("\nTo:" + to);
        sb.Append("\nbody:" + body);
        sb.Append("\nsubject:" + subject);
        sb.Append("\nfromAddress:" + fromAddress);
        sb.Append("\nfromDisplay:" + fromDisplay);
        sb.Append("\ncredentialUser:" + credentialUser);
        sb.Append("\ncredentialPasswordto:" + credentialPassword);
        sb.Append("\nHosting:" + host);
        ErrorLog(sb.ToString(), ex.ToString(), ErrorLogCause.EmailSystem);
        }
    }

"UpgradeEmailFormat" and "ErrorLog" are generic routines; you don't need the former, and can write the later yourself!
"MailAttachment" is a simple class you only need if you want to send attachments:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.IO;
using System.Net.Mime;
using System.Net.Mail;
public class MailAttachment
    {
    #region Fields
    private MemoryStream stream;
    private string filename;
    private string mediaType;
    #endregion
    #region Properties
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the data stream for this attachment
    /// </summary>
    public Stream Data { get { return stream; } }
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the original filename for this attachment
    /// </summary>
    public string Filename { get { return filename; } }
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the attachment type: Bytes or String
    /// </summary>
    public string MediaType { get { return mediaType; } }
    /// <summary>
    /// Gets the file for this attachment (as a new attachment)
    /// </summary>
    public Attachment File{ get {return new Attachment(Data, Filename, MediaType); } }
    #endregion
    #region Constructors
    /// <summary>
    /// Construct a mail attachment form a byte array
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="data">Bytes to attach as a file</param>
    /// <param name="filename">Logical filename for attachment</param>
    public MailAttachment(byte[] data, string filename)
        {
        this.stream = new MemoryStream(data);
        this.filename = filename;
        this.mediaType = MediaTypeNames.Application.Octet;
        }
    /// <summary>
    /// Construct a mail attachment from a string
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="data">String to attach as a file</param>
    /// <param name="filename">Logical filename for attachment</param>
    public MailAttachment(string data, string filename)
        {
        this.stream = new MemoryStream(System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(data));
        this.filename = filename;
        this.mediaType = MediaTypeNames.Text.Html;
        }
    #endregion
    }

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
CEO
Wales Wales
Born at an early age, he grew older. At the same time, his hair grew longer, and was tied up behind his head.
Has problems spelling the word "the".
Invented the portable cat-flap.
Currently, has not died yet. Or has he?

Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralReason for my vote of 5 Useful code. Pin
ProEnggSoft26-Feb-12 22:31
ProEnggSoft26-Feb-12 22:31 

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