Send Email using HTML Templates in ASPNet MVC

In this article I will explain with an example, how to send HTML formatted email using HTML Templates in ASP.Net MVC.

Note: For more details on how to send email in ASP.Net MVC, please refer my article Contact Us Form in ASP.Net MVC.

Mail Server Settings in Web.Config file

The following Mail Server settings need to be saved in the Web.Config file.

Note: It is necessary to use the sender’s email address credentials while defining the Gmail SMTP Server Credentials as Gmail the sender’s email address must be same as the Gmail Username specified in credentials.

<system.net>

<network

host="smtp.gmail.com"

port="587"

enableSsl="true"

userName="sender@gmail.com"

password="GMAILor2STEP-PASSWORD"

defaultCredentials="true"/>

</smtp>

</mailSettings>

</system.net>

Adding Email Template

The very first step is to Right Click the Project in the Solution Explorer and click Add and then New Item and then select HTML Page and name it as EmailTemplate.htm.

Send Email using HTML Templates in ASP.Net MVC

Location of the EmailTemplate

The Email Template is placed inside the Template Folder (Directory) in Project Folder.

Building HTML Template for Email Body

The HTML Template of the Email will be built by generating an HTML containing some placeholders which will be replaced with the actual content.

Advantage of creating templates instead of building HTML using String Builder class or String concatenation in code is that, one can easily change the HTML of the template without changing the code.

The following HTML Email Template consists of four placeholders:

{UserName} – Name of the recipient.

{Url} – Url of the article.

{Title} – Title of the article.

{Description} – Description of the Article.

These placeholders will be replaced with the actual (real) values, when the email is being sent.

<head>

</head>

<body>

Hello <b>{UserName}</b>,<br /><br />

A new article has been published on ASPSnippets.<br /><br />

<a style="color:#61028D" href="{Url}">{Title}</a><br />

{Description}

Thanks<br />

ASPSnippets

</span>

</body>

</html>

Namespaces

You will need to import the following namespaces.

using System.IO;

using System.Net;

using System.Net.Mail;

using System.Net.Configuration;

using System.Configuration;

Controller

The Controller consists of the following Action methods.

Action method for handling GET operation

Inside this Action method, simply the View is returned.

Action method for handling POST operation

Inside this Action method, the PopulateBody method is called and the contents of the HTML Email Template file are read using the StreamReader class.

The placeholders are replaced with their respective values and finally the contents of the HTML Email Template are returned.

Next, the formatted HTML body, email address (recepientEmail) and Subject are set into the respective properties of the object of MimeMessage class.

Setting Body of Email

For Body, an object of Builder class is created. The Body of the email is Text (Non HTML) hence it is set into the TextBody property of the Builder class object.

Sending Email

Then, object of the SmtpClient class is created and the settings of the Mail Server such has Host, Port, EnableSsl, Username, Password, Sender email address (from) and DefaultCredentials are fetched from the mailSettings section of the Web.Config file and are set in respective properties of the SmtpClient class object.

And, the email is being sent using Send method of the SmtpClient class and success message is set to a ViewBag object.

public class HomeController : Controller

{

// GET: Home

public ActionResult Index()

{

return View();

}

[HttpPost]

public ActionResult SendEmail()

{

string userName = "John";

string title = "ASP.Net MVC Hello World Tutorial with Sample Program example";

string url = "https://www.aspsnippets.com/Articles/1620/ASPNet-MVC-Hello-World-Tutorial-with-Sample-Program-example/";

string description = "Here Mudassar Khan has explained with an example, how to use and develop applications in ASP.Net MVC for the first time.";

string body = this.PopulateBody(userName, title, url, description);

//Read SMTP section from Web.Config.

SmtpSection smtpSection = (SmtpSection)ConfigurationManager.GetSection("system.net/mailSettings/smtp");

using (MailMessage mm = new MailMessage(smtpSection.From, "recepient@gmail.com"))

{

mm.Subject = "New article published!";

mm.Body = body;

mm.IsBodyHtml = true;

using (SmtpClient smtp = new SmtpClient())

{

smtp.Host = smtpSection.Network.Host;

smtp.EnableSsl = smtpSection.Network.EnableSsl;

NetworkCredential networkCred = new NetworkCredential(smtpSection.Network.UserName, smtpSection.Network.Password);

smtp.UseDefaultCredentials = smtpSection.Network.DefaultCredentials;

smtp.Credentials = networkCred;

smtp.Port = smtpSection.Network.Port;

smtp.Send(mm);

}

return View("Index");

}

private string PopulateBody(string userName, string title, string url, string description)

{

string body = string.Empty;

using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(Server.MapPath("~/Template/EmailTemplate.html")))

{

body = reader.ReadToEnd();

}

body = body.Replace("{UserName}", userName);

body = body.Replace("{Title}", title);

body = body.Replace("{Url}", url);

body = body.Replace("{Description}", description);

return body;

}

View

The View consists of an HTML Form which has been created using the Html.BeginForm method with the following parameters.

ActionName – Name of the Action. In this case the name is SendEmail.

ControllerName – Name of the Controller. In this case the name is Home.

FormMethod – It specifies the Form Method i.e. GET or POST. In this case it will be set to POST.

Inside the HTML Form, there is a Submit Button, which when clicked the form is submitted.

Finally, the ViewBag object is checked for NULL and if it is not NULL then the value of the object is displayed using JavaScript Alert Message Box.

Layout = null;

}

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<title>Index</title>

</head>

<body>

@using (Html.BeginForm("SendEmail", "Home", FormMethod.Post))

{

}

@if (ViewBag.Message != null)

{

window.onload = function () {

alert("@ViewBag.Message");

};

</script>

}

</body>

</html>

Possible Errors

The following error occurs when you try to send email using Gmail credentials in your application.

The SMTP server requires a secure connection or the client was not authenticated. The server response was: 5.5.1 Authentication Required. Learn more at

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.Net.Mail.SmtpException: The SMTP server requires a secure connection or the client was not authenticated. The server response was: 5.5.1 Authentication Required. Learn more at

Solution

GMAIL Error: The SMTP server requires a secure connection or the client was not authenticated.

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Send Email using HTML Templates in ASP.Net MVC

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