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Send mail without specifying an SMTP server

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12 Apr 2005Ms-PL2 min read 1.3M   5.4K   114   142
A class derived from CSMTPConnection that queries the MX record for a target domain and uses that to send mail

Overview

Quite frequently, you hear people asking how they can send an email from their applications to a specific email address without prompting the user for a relaying SMTP server. The most commonly suggested solution is to use MAPI and get a list of SMTP servers from the user's registry, but this assumes that the user has configured a MAPI compliant email client on his machine. I always reply with my solution of querying the MX record for the target domain and then SMTP-chatting to that server directly - it's easy to do, it works on any machine and it's also the fastest way to send email (minimum number of SMTP hops).

Starting with VC++ 7, ATL includes the CSMTPConnection class which lets you send mail, provided you give it an SMTP server to connect to. I derived a class (CSMTPConnection2) from CSMTPConnection which lets you pass in the target domain name directly and the class queries the MX records using the default DNS on the client machine, gets a list of SMTP servers (depending on the number of MX records returned) and connects to the first SMTP server that works okay. The only visible change is to the Connect method, and even for the Connect method, the method signature remains the same. The first parameter (an LPCTSTR) now represents the target domain name instead of the SMTP hostname. So it should be pretty easy to modify your existing code. Just change all references to CSMTPConnection in your code to CSMTPConnection2 and you are done.

Using the class

  • #include the header file for the class

    #include "smtpconnection2.h"

    The header file includes a #pragma linker directive to include Dnsapi.lib

  • Use the CSMTPConnection2 class just as you would use the CSMTPConnection class (it's assumed that CoInitialize has been called prior to invoking and using this class)

    CMimeMessage msg;
    msg.SetSender("nish@somedomain.com");
    msg.SetSenderName("Nishter");
    msg.AddRecipient("someone@vsnl.com");
    
    //Optional
    msg.SetSubject("Hello World");
    msg.AddText("Hmmm, this should work fine!");
    //msg.AttachFile("some file path");
    
    CSMTPConnection2 conn;
    //You need to specify the domain name of the recipient email address
    if(conn.Connect("vsnl.com"))
    {
        if( conn.SendMessage(msg) == TRUE )
            std::cout << "Mail sent successfully" << std::endl;
        conn.Disconnect();    
    }

Class requirements

  • You'll need VC++ 7 or above (for the ATL classes)

  • This code will run only on Windows 2000 or later (because of the DNS API that's used to query the MX record)

  • You do not need MFC (the CString that's used is shared between MFC/ATL and I specifically used CSimpleArray instead of an MFC array class)

Limitation

Note that, because the class looks up the MX record and SMTPs directly into the mail server for each domain name, you cannot use this class to send mails to multiple-domains in one go.

Source listings

Header file

/*
    Copyright(C) Nishant Sivakumar (nish#voidnish.com)
    Please maintain this copyright notice if you distribute this file
    in original or modified form.
*/

#pragma once
#include <atlsmtpconnection.h>
#include <Windns.h>

#pragma comment(lib,"Dnsapi.lib")

class CSMTPConnection2 : public CSMTPConnection
{
public:    
    BOOL Connect(LPCTSTR lpszHostDomain, DWORD dwTimeout = 10000) throw();
private:
    void _GetSMTPList(LPCTSTR lpszHostDomain, CSimpleArray<CString>& arrSMTP);
}; 

Cpp file

/*
    Copyright(C) Nishant Sivakumar (nish#voidnish.com)
    Please maintain this copyright notice if you distribute this file
    in original or modified form.
*/

#include "StdAfx.h"
#include "smtpconnection2.h"

BOOL CSMTPConnection2::Connect(LPCTSTR lpszHostDomain, 
                               DWORD dwTimeout /*= 10000*/) throw()
{
    CSimpleArray<CString> arrSMTP;
    _GetSMTPList(lpszHostDomain, arrSMTP);
    for(int i=0; i<arrSMTP.GetSize(); i++)
    {
        if(CSMTPConnection::Connect(arrSMTP[i], dwTimeout) == TRUE)
            return TRUE;
    }
    return FALSE;
}

void CSMTPConnection2::_GetSMTPList(LPCTSTR lpszHostDomain, 
                                   CSimpleArray<CString>& arrSMTP)
{
    PDNS_RECORD pRec = NULL;
    if(DnsQuery(lpszHostDomain, DNS_TYPE_MX, DNS_QUERY_STANDARD,
        NULL, &pRec, NULL) == ERROR_SUCCESS)
    {
        PDNS_RECORD pRecOrig = pRec;
        while(pRec)
        {
            if(pRec->wType == DNS_TYPE_MX)
                arrSMTP.Add(pRec->Data.MX.pNameExchange);
            pRec = pRec->pNext;
        }
        DnsRecordListFree(pRecOrig,DnsFreeRecordList);
    }
} 

Conclusion

As usual, feedback is welcome and appreciated whether it's constructive or not.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL)


Written By
United States United States
Nish Nishant is a technology enthusiast from Columbus, Ohio. He has over 20 years of software industry experience in various roles including Chief Technology Officer, Senior Solution Architect, Lead Software Architect, Principal Software Engineer, and Engineering/Architecture Team Leader. Nish is a 14-time recipient of the Microsoft Visual C++ MVP Award.

Nish authored C++/CLI in Action for Manning Publications in 2005, and co-authored Extending MFC Applications with the .NET Framework for Addison Wesley in 2003. In addition, he has over 140 published technology articles on CodeProject.com and another 250+ blog articles on his WordPress blog. Nish is experienced in technology leadership, solution architecture, software architecture, cloud development (AWS and Azure), REST services, software engineering best practices, CI/CD, mentoring, and directing all stages of software development.

Nish's Technology Blog : voidnish.wordpress.com

Comments and Discussions

 
Questionfails on local domain Pin
Member 1297374628-Mar-17 0:17
Member 1297374628-Mar-17 0:17 
QuestionSimilar solution Pin
Jamil Hallal13-Feb-16 12:15
professionalJamil Hallal13-Feb-16 12:15 
GeneralMy vote of 5 Pin
zriniadhi13-Mar-12 2:09
zriniadhi13-Mar-12 2:09 
QuestionError 300 - CSMTP_COMMAND_MAIL_FROM Pin
AlexEvans18-Jun-11 12:21
AlexEvans18-Jun-11 12:21 
GeneralSend email to multiple recipients who don't belong to the same domain Pin
D.Lakshmankumar7-Jan-10 19:03
D.Lakshmankumar7-Jan-10 19:03 
GeneralRe: Send email to multiple recipients who don't belong to the same domain Pin
daluu9-Oct-10 19:11
daluu9-Oct-10 19:11 
GeneralRe: Send email to multiple recipients who don't belong to the same domain Pin
Nish Nishant11-Oct-10 1:55
sitebuilderNish Nishant11-Oct-10 1:55 
Generaldebug assertion failed notifications Pin
eugene pinsky17-Aug-09 8:00
eugene pinsky17-Aug-09 8:00 
GeneralRe: debug assertion failed notifications [modified] Pin
BEDEK335-Mar-10 11:32
BEDEK335-Mar-10 11:32 
GeneralSend without smtp server [modified] Pin
Dipak V Bava28-Feb-09 10:02
Dipak V Bava28-Feb-09 10:02 
GeneralRe: Send without smtp server Pin
Elmue24-Apr-09 7:11
Elmue24-Apr-09 7:11 
GeneralRe: Send without smtp server Pin
Dipak V Bava24-Apr-09 7:32
Dipak V Bava24-Apr-09 7:32 
GeneralRe: Send without smtp server Pin
daluu16-Oct-10 20:32
daluu16-Oct-10 20:32 
QuestionWhat about VC++ 2008? Pin
Member 31360566-Feb-09 22:55
Member 31360566-Feb-09 22:55 
AnswerRe: What about VC++ 2008? Pin
Dave Calkins28-Feb-09 3:45
Dave Calkins28-Feb-09 3:45 
GeneralRe: What about VC++ 2008? Pin
Janma16-May-10 21:12
Janma16-May-10 21:12 
GeneralRe: What about VC++ 2008? Pin
daluu9-Oct-10 19:16
daluu9-Oct-10 19:16 
GeneralUseful article Pin
om7-Jan-09 12:33
om7-Jan-09 12:33 
QuestionCOM and ActiveX implementation? Pin
daluu1-Nov-08 19:40
daluu1-Nov-08 19:40 
General.NET alternative [modified] Pin
daluu3-Oct-08 20:25
daluu3-Oct-08 20:25 
GeneralRe: .NET alternative [modified] Pin
Jamil Hallal13-Feb-16 12:21
professionalJamil Hallal13-Feb-16 12:21 
GeneralQuite useless code! Pin
Elmue17-Jul-08 11:48
Elmue17-Jul-08 11:48 
Generalatlsmtpconnection.h Pin
theCPkid28-Jun-08 4:06
theCPkid28-Jun-08 4:06 
GeneralProps to Nish Pin
bvaghani26-Jan-08 16:31
bvaghani26-Jan-08 16:31 
Generalrename Connect to ConnectDomain Pin
Herbert Yu29-Nov-07 10:29
Herbert Yu29-Nov-07 10:29 

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