[RESOLVED] Want to send an email - can I just figure it out without anyone helping me...

[MMock]

... other than you guys here?

I'm working on a new function in my WinForms C# application to send an email. I send emails in this app all the time but how it works is we have a table called xtblMessages and I just write a row into the table that has a subject, message body, recipient, etc. and some program that somebody else wrote processes the table. What I need to do this time is attach an Excel file, and the table doesn't support that.

I've emailed the author of that code twice today but he hasn't replied, so I was wondering if this is something I can just figure out, or if I need him or our other IT person to tell me what goes here?

            try
            {
                //do submit
                MailMessage emailMessage = new MailMessage();
                emailMessage.From = new MailAddress("account2@gmail.com", "Account2");
                emailMessage.To.Add(new MailAddress("account1@gmail.com", "Account1"));
                emailMessage.Subject = "SUBJECT";
                emailMessage.Body = "BODY";
                emailMessage.Priority = MailPriority.Normal;
                SmtpClient MailClient = new SmtpClient("smtp.gmail.com");
                MailClient.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("account2@gmail.com", "password");
                MailClient.Send(emailMessage);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(ex.ToString());
            }

Even if it's just temporary to flesh everything out and I change it later, if I could get this to work I'd be making progress. I didn't know if I could use my own personal gmail account while testing, but I wasn't thrilled about putting my personal password here: MailClient.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("account2@gmail.com", "password") even temporarily.

Thanks for any tips.

[kfcSmitty]

I typically use papercut to send SMTP locally for testing. You can just set the client to localhost and you don't need to use credentials: https://github.com/ChangemakerStudios/Papercut-SMTP

It looks pretty straightforward to add an attachment to the MailMessage object. https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dot...s?view=net-5.0

And attachment seems to have plenty of constructors you can use if you want to do this all in memory, or read a file from the filesystem and pass the contents: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dot...t?view=net-5.0

Is there something specific you're getting stuck on?

[OptionBase1]

If you don't want credentials hard-coded (which I would be nervous about as well), you should just create a small form that asks for the username/password and populates the Credentials with what was entered.

[MMock]

I am getting stuck on what provide in this line: MailClient.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("account2@gmail.com", "password");
Would I use my own personal gmail id and pw?

[MMock]

If you don't want credentials hard-coded (which I would be nervous about as well), you should just create a small form that asks for the username/password and populates the Credentials with what was entered.

Sorry I did not see this; I didn't refresh the page. Yes this might be a good idea. I can also change my gmail password when I'm done testing. Thanks.

[kfcSmitty]

I am getting stuck on what provide in this line: MailClient.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("account2@gmail.com", "password");
Would I use my own personal gmail id and pw?

If you use papercut, you don't need to specify credentials at all, you can just set SmtpClient("localhost") and it will deliver the mail to papercut for you to view. No need to worry about credentials at all.

[MMock]

Thanks @kfc, I will give that a try.

[MMock]

@kfcSmitty, I don't understand exactly what I am supposed to do with the github code. Build and install it? I had errors when I tried to open the solution file I downloaded.

I went to the papercut website https://www.papercut.com/support/res...ure-email.html to see if that would help, and the first screenshot here is how to configure an SMTP server using gmail. How is this any better than just going to gmail directly?

I apologize if I misunderstood the answer you are proposing.

[kfcSmitty]

Just download the release here: https://github.com/ChangemakerStudio...-SMTP/releases

You can get it as a standalone in the zip or an installer in the .exe. Then all you need to do is run the Papercut app and it will look like an email client.. any email sent to localhost at that point will show up there.

[MMock]

Ok, thanks, but I went with using gmail directly in my code. I realized I could make a new gmail account specifically for this and not have to use my own personal one. It's all working great. Later when we decide how we want to do this permanently I can just replace the code block. I will post back at that time when the final, real solution is and will mark resolved then. Thanks to you both for the discussion.

[MMock]

I was given the info I need which is our permanent solution as long as the mail is sent from a PC in our building. For this particular function in the application, that is fine.
The SMTP Server is an outlook server, obviously the port had to be changed from the gmail server port and there's no authentication required. So really I just had to replace a few lines of code from the gmail-specific code.
Thanks again for your interest in and help with my problem