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Home » ASP.NET & Web Forms » Sending E-mails with ASP.NET 2.0 using C#

Sending E-mails with ASP.NET 2.0 using C#

By  Anand Narayanaswamy May 21, 2007

In this article, Anand examines how to send e-mails using ASP.NET 2.0 in both text and HTML formats using C# with the help of an example.
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Nowadays, web masters prefer to receive information from their users or customers through a contact or feedback form placed on the website. ASP.NET 2.0 provides a simplified approach to achieve the task as compared to ASP.NET 1.1. In this part of the series, we will examine how to send e-mails in plain text and HTML formats using C#.

Let us start our discussion by creating a simple user interface as shown below

Figure 1

The code to create the above WebForm is given below.

<form id="Form1" runat="server">

<div align="left">

<table border="0" width="544">

<tr>

<td valign="top"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Name</font></td>

<td height="24" valign="top"> <asp:TextBox runat="server" Height="25px" Width="370px" ID="txtName"></asp:TextBox>

<asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID = "reqName" ControlToValidate = "txtName" Runat = "server" ErrorMessage = "*"></asp:RequiredFieldValidator></td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td valign="top"><font size="2" face="Verdana">Address</font></td>

<td height="24" valign="top">

<asp:TextBox runat="server" Height="25px" Width="370px" ID="txtAddress"></asp:TextBox> </td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td valign="top"><font face="Verdana" size="2">From</font></td>

<td height="24" valign="top"> <asp:TextBox runat="server" Height="22px" Width="368px" ID="txtFrom"></asp:TextBox>

<asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID = "reqFrom1" ControlToValidate = "txtFrom" runat = "server" ErrorMessage = "*" ></asp:RequiredFieldValidator>

<asp:RegularExpressionValidator ID = "regFrom2" ControlToValidate = "txtFrom" runat = "server" ErrorMessage = "Invalid Email" ValidationExpression="\w+([-+.]\w+)*@\w+([-.]\w+)*\.\w+([-.]\w+)*"></asp:RegularExpressionValidator>

<br></td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td valign="top"><font face="Verdana" size="2">To</font></td>

<td height="24" valign="top">

<asp:TextBox runat="server" Height="22px" Width="368px" ID="txtTo"></asp:TextBox>

<asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID = "reqTo1" ControlToValidate = "txtTo" runat = "server" ErrorMessage = "*" ></asp:RequiredFieldValidator>

<asp:RegularExpressionValidator ID = "reqTo2" ControlToValidate = "txtTo" runat = "server" ErrorMessage = "Invalid Email" ValidationExpression="\w+([-+.]\w+)*@\w+([-.]\w+)*\.\w+([-.]\w+)*"></asp:RegularExpressionValidator>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td valign="top"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Comments</font></td>

<td height="112" valign="top"><asp:TextBox runat="server" Height="110px" TextMode="MultiLine" Width="368px" ID="txtComments"></asp:TextBox>

<asp:RequiredFieldValidator ID = "reqComments" ControlToValidate = "txtComments" Runat = "server" ErrorMessage = "*"></asp:RequiredFieldValidator> </td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td colspan="2" valign="top" height="30">

<p align="center">

 

<asp:Button Runat = server ID = btnSubmit OnClick = btnSubmit_Click Text = "Submit"></asp:Button>

&nbsp;<input id="Reset1" type = "reset" runat = "server" value = "Clear"></td>

</tr>

</table>

</div>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p><br>

<!-- Insert content here -->

</p>

</form>

As you can see we have applied validation controls to prevent input errors. The next process is to provide the required code for sending e-mails upon submission of the form. We will analyze each process in a series of steps for better understanding.

Step 1: Importing Namespace

<%@ Page Language="C#" %>

<%@ Import Namespace="System.Net.Mail" %>

Step 2: Creating objects of SmtpClient and MailMessage classes

SmtpClient smtpClient = new SmtpClient();

MailMessage objMail = new MailMessage();

Step 3: Creating and Specifying From, To Addresses

//From Address will be assigned from the e-mail specified in the From TextField

MailAddress objMail_fromaddress = new MailAddress(txtFrom.Text);

 

You can also give the code given below.

 

MailAddress objMail_fromaddress = new MailAddress(txtFrom.Text, "Learnxpress Support");

 

The above code inserts the text Learnxpress Support instead of the From e-mail address.

 

//To Address will be assigned from the e-mail specified in the To TextField

MailAddress objMail_toaddress = new MailAddress(txtTo.Text);

 

//Assigning From address to the MailMessage class

objMail.From = objMail_fromaddress;

 

//Assigning To address to the MailMessage class as a collection

objMail.To.Add(objMail_toaddress);

Step 4: Creating the Subject and Message Body Text Format

objMail.Subject = "E-mail Example - CSharp - Text";
objMail.Body = "Name: " +txtName.Text + "\r\n" +"Address: " + txtAddress.Text + "\r\n" + "Comments: "  + txtComments.Text;

Step 5: Specifying the HTML Header

objMail.IsBodyHtml = true;

Step 6: Creating the Subject and Message Body HTML Format

objMail.Subject = "E-mail Example - CSharp - HTML";
objMail.Body = "<html><head><title>Sending E-mails with ASP.NET 2.0 using CSharp</title></head><body>"   +"<p>Name : " +txtName.Text + "</p>" +"<p>Address : " +txtAddress.Text + "</p>" +"<p>Comments : " +txtComments.Text + "</p>" +"</body></html>";

Step 7: Specifying Mail Priority

objMail.Priority = MailPriority.High;

Step 8: Enabling SMTP Authentication

Sometimes, you will need to provide the code for SMTP authentication to send e-mails. The required code snippet is given below.

smtpClient.Host = "mail.domain.com";
smtpClient.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("username@domain.com","Password");

Note: domain should be substituted with your real domain name such as c-sharpcorner, learnxpress.

Step 9: Handling Exceptions and Delivering E-mail

try
{
smtpClient.Send(objMail);
Response.Redirect("http://www.c-sharpcorner.com");
}
catch (Exception exc)
{
Response.Write("Send failure: " + exc.ToString());
}

In the above code, we have specified that the page should be redirected to c-sharpcorner website after the successful submission of the form. You can also create a separate page called thankyou.aspx and redirect users to the page so that users will know that the mail has been successfully delivered. Once you understood the basics of System.Net.Mail namespace then it is very easy to write the code. Moreover, we now have a simplified coding mechanism as compared to ASP.NET 1.1.

You can download the complete source code of this sample application and customize it as per your requirements.

Login to add your contents and source code to this article
 About the author
 
Anand Narayanaswamy
Anand Narayanaswamy, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), works as an independent consultant and runs NetAns Technologies (www.netans.com) which provides web hosting services based in Trivandrum, India. He is the author of Community Server Quickly (Packt Publishing - November 2006). You can find more information about the book at http://www.packtpub.com/community-server/book. Anand also works as a technical editor lead for ASPAlliance.com. He runs Learnxpress.com (www.learnxpress.com), Dotnetalbum.com (www.dotnetalbum.com) and Csharpfaq.com (www.csharpfaq.com). Find out more about him at www.visualanand.net.
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 Comments
automatic "to" address?? by Maralynn On July 25, 2007
wondering how i can modify this code to eliminate the input box "txtTo" and instead have the form automatically sent to my email address. Can anyone help?
Reply | Email | Delete | Modify | 
i have error by ramamoorthy On July 30, 2007
Send failure: System.Net.Mail.SmtpFailedRecipientException: Mailbox unavailable. The server response was: 5.7.1 Unable to relay for ramamoorthy.jobs@gmail.com at System.Net.Mail.SmtpTransport.SendMail(MailAddress sender, MailAddressCollection recipients, String deliveryNotify, SmtpFailedRecipientException& exception) at System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient.Send(MailMessage message) at email.Page_Load(Object sender, EventArgs e) in c:\Documents and Settings\ramamoorthy\My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\WebSites\mail\email.aspx.cs:line 34
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Hello Anand by Emre On October 25, 2007
when I use the script I have an error on line 9. Can you tell me what is the problem? Thanks :) The error is The specified string is not in the form required for an e-mail address. Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code. Exception Details: System.FormatException: The specified string is not in the form required for an e-mail address. Source Error: Line 7: Line 8: SmtpClient smtpClient = new SmtpClient(); Line 9: MailMessage objMail = new MailMessage(); Line 10: MailAddress objMail_fromaddress = new MailAddress(txtFrom.Text); Line 11: MailAddress objMail_toaddress = new MailAddress(txtTo.Text);
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Re: Hello Anand by Lokesh On December 26, 2007
here you might have used wrong format for the "from" field that should be proper and of e mail address format.i think you have enter email address in wrong format.
Reply | Email | Delete | Modify | 
.net by dilip On December 23, 2007
explain advantages of 3-tier architecture in .net
Reply | Email | Delete | Modify | 
reagrding sending email by mandeepkaur On March 2, 2008
Hi all I use the above code to send the email from remote login, but time and again I get the following error A connection attempt failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time, or established connection failed because connected host has failed to respond Kindly solve my problem
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Wrong Email address by thariq On March 5, 2008
In the try catch block if there is an error while sending it it will give a message but if the sent Email address is a wrong one how will that be handled. how will we know that it was a wrong email address
Reply | Email | Delete | Modify | 
Sending Email by santhakumar On March 26, 2009
how to send email from my asp.net page using C#.net
Reply | Email | Delete | Modify | 
sending mails using smtp client by Pravara On August 21, 2009
Hi,
can anybody tell me how to send mails from windows application?
i have written following code but it is not working. it throws an exception of relying.

MailMessage mailmessage = new MailMessage();

SmtpClient smtp;

mailmessage.From = new MailAddress("otherid@mydomain.com");

mailmessage.To.Add(new MailAddress("myid@other.com"));

mailmessage.Subject = "Test mail";

mailmessage.Body = "Hi, this is a test mail";

mailmessage.IsBodyHtml = true;

mailmessage.BodyEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8;

//smtp settings

smtp = new SmtpClient("servername",25);

NetworkCredential objNet = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");

smtp.Credentials = objNet;

smtp.UseDefaultCredentials = false;

try

{

smtp.Send(mailmessage);

MessageBox.Show("Message sent successfully !!!");

}

catch (SmtpException ex)

{

MessageBox.Show("Message sending failure");

MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);

}

}

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i have error by muna On August 7, 2010
Sending E-mails with ASP.NET 2.0 using CSharpSend failure: System.Net.Mail.SmtpException: Failure sending mail. ---> System.Net.WebException: Unable to connect to the remote server ---> System.Net.Sockets.SocketException: A socket operation was attempted to an unreachable network 65.54.245.40:25 at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.DoConnect(EndPoint endPointSnapshot, SocketAddress socketAddress) at System.Net.Sockets.Socket.InternalConnect(EndPoint remoteEP) at System.Net.ServicePoint.ConnectSocketInternal(Boolean connectFailure, Socket s4, Socket s6, Socket& socket, IPAddress& address, ConnectSocketState state, IAsyncResult asyncResult, Int32 timeout, Exception& exception) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.Net.ServicePoint.GetConnection(PooledStream PooledStream, Object owner, Boolean async, IPAddress& address, Socket& abortSocket, Socket& abortSocket6, Int32 timeout) at System.Net.PooledStream.Activate(Object owningObject, Boolean async, Int32 timeout, GeneralAsyncDelegate asyncCallback) at System.Net.PooledStream.Activate(Object owningObject, GeneralAsyncDelegate asyncCallback) at System.Net.ConnectionPool.GetConnection(Object owningObject, GeneralAsyncDelegate asyncCallback, Int32 creationTimeout) at System.Net.Mail.SmtpConnection.GetConnection(String host, Int32 port) at System.Net.Mail.SmtpTransport.GetConnection(String host, Int32 port) at System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient.GetConnection() at System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient.Send(MailMessage message) --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at System.Net.Mail.SmtpClient.Send(MailMessage message) at ASP.default2_aspx.btnSubmit_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e) in c:\Users\Mona\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\WebSites\EmailApplication\Default2.aspx:line 35
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