Sending E-Mails In The Code Behind With ASP.NET Using C#

I was recently asked, several times by varying different people, how to send emails in ASP.NET. When I explained to them how to do so they were amazed at how simple it was. I thought I would share with you this little nugget of wisdom as it is a very common feature of nearly all websites out in the wild.

In this article we will be creating a new website but if you are just looking to add the email feature to an existing site then please skip the first step.

The steps:

• Create a new ASP.NET empty website. Name it and save it. I have called mine ‘sendemail’ but you can name yours whatever you like.
  
  
• Next we need to add a web form. So go over to the solution explorer and right click on the website, a menu will appear, click ‘Add’ then ‘Add New Item’ (or ctrl + Shift + A). Select webform from the list, name it, then click ‘Add’.
  
  
• Now we have our webform we need to add some mark up to the page. Nothing complicated just some text inputs, labels and a button, like so:
  
  1. <asp:Label ID="lblError" runat="server"></asp:Label> <br />
  3. <asp:Label ID="lblFirstName" runat="server" Text="Contact Name" AssociatedControlID="txtFirstName"></asp:Label>
  4. <asp:TextBox ID="txtFirstName" runat="server" TextMode="SingleLine"></asp:TextBox>
  5. <br />
  8. <asp:Label ID="lblCompanyName" runat="server" Text="Company Name" AssociatedControlID="txtCompanyName"></asp:Label>
  9. <asp:TextBox ID="txtCompanyName" runat="server" TextMode="SingleLine"></asp:TextBox>
  11. <br />
  13. <asp:Label ID="lblEmail" runat="server" Text="Email Address" AssociatedControlID="txtEmail"></asp:Label>
  14. <asp:TextBox ID="txtEmail" runat="server" TextMode="SingleLine"></asp:TextBox>
  15. <br />
  18. <asp:Label ID="lblSubject" runat="server" Text="Subject" AssociatedControlID="txtSubject"></asp:Label>
  19. <asp:TextBox ID="txtSubject" runat="server" TextMode="SingleLine"></asp:TextBox>
  21. <br />
  23. <asp:Label ID="lblPhone" runat="server" Text="Phone Number" AssociatedControlID="txtPhone"></asp:Label>
  24. <asp:TextBox ID="txtPhone" runat="server" TextMode="SingleLine"></asp:TextBox>
  26. <br />
  28. <asp:Label ID="lblMessage" runat="server" Text="Message" AssociatedControlID="txtMessage"></asp:Label>
  29. <asp:TextBox ID="txtMessage" runat="server" TextMode="MultiLine" Rows="6"></asp:TextBox>
  31. <br />
  32. <asp:Button ID="btnSend" Text="Submit message" ValidationGroup="contactVal" runat="server" OnClick="btnSend_Click" />

Add the following using statements in your code behind: