Adding variables in HTML emails

**vbcub** · Mar 5th, 2021, 10:39 PM

I want to send emails with variables embedded in them to change the information within as needed. First I wrote basic HTML email code without variables and it worked. Then I tried to add variables but it didn't work.
This is the code that didn't work (just one of the ways I tried to add a variable):

Code:

    Try
            Dim emailmessage As New MailMessage
            emailmessage.To.Add("to email address")
            emailmessage.From = New MailAddress("from email address")
            emailmessage.Subject = ("Arrival Date")
           
          emailmessage.IsBodyHtml = True
          Dim Username as string = "Bill"
          Dim NewString As String = "<html>
          <body> 
          <p>Dear " + UserName + ", </p>
          <p>I will be arriving on the 5th</p>
          <p>Sincerely,<br>-Sam</br></p>
          </body>
          </html>
           "

            Dim SMTP As New SmtpClient()
            SMTP.Host = "SMTP.Gmail.com"
            SMTP.Port = 587
            SMTP.EnableSsl = True
            SMTP.Credentials = New Net.NetworkCredential("email from", "password")
            SMTP.Send(emailmessage)
         
        Catch ex As Exception
           MsgBox(ex.ToString)
        End Try

I also tried <% Username %> in the non-working code as well

This code does work but is strictly text:

Code:

 Try
       Dim emailmessage As New MailMessage
              emailmessage.To.Add("to email address")
              emailmessage.From = New MailAddress("from email address")
              emailmessage.Subject = ("Arrival Date")
              emailmessage.IsBodyHtml = False
        Dim Username As String = "Bill"
        Dim Body As String = "Hi " + Username + ", I'll be arriving on the 5th"
         "
        emailmessage.Body = Body
         Dim SMTP As New SmtpClient()
            SMTP.Host = "SMTP.Gmail.com"
            SMTP.Port = 587
            SMTP.EnableSsl = True
            SMTP.Credentials = New Net.NetworkCredential("email from", "password")
            SMTP.Send(emailmessage)
         
Catch ex As Exception
            MsgBox(ex.ToString)
        End Try

I have been working on this all afternoon and evening and have searched the internet with no solution.
Please point me in the right direction.
Thanks

**OptionBase1** · Mar 5th, 2021, 10:59 PM

In your first block of code you are never assigning a value to emailmessage.Body

**jmcilhinney** · Mar 5th, 2021, 11:02 PM

Originally Posted by vbcub

I have been working on this all afternoon and evening and have searched the internet with no solution.

That's incredible, given how bleedingly obvious the issue is. This is a perfect demonstration that you need to be far more systematic in what you're doing. When things didn't work, what you should have done is stepped away from the code and listed all the things that your code needed to do, then gone back to the code and checked whether it actually did them. If you had done that then you would have solved the problem in minutes, if not seconds. Look at your second code snippet:

Code:

 Try
       Dim emailmessage As New MailMessage
              emailmessage.To.Add("to email address")
              emailmessage.From = New MailAddress("from email address")
              emailmessage.Subject = ("Arrival Date")
              emailmessage.IsBodyHtml = False
        Dim Username As String = "Bill"
        Dim Body As String = "Hi " + Username + ", I'll be arriving on the 5th"
         "
        emailmessage.Body = Body
         Dim SMTP As New SmtpClient()
            SMTP.Host = "SMTP.Gmail.com"
            SMTP.Port = 587
            SMTP.EnableSsl = True
            SMTP.Credentials = New Net.NetworkCredential("email from", "password")
            SMTP.Send(emailmessage)
         
Catch ex As Exception
            MsgBox(ex.ToString)
        End Try

Ignoring the fact that you have a spurious double-quote in there that would prevent that code compiling, you assign the body text to a variable and you assign that variable to the Body property of the MailMessage. Now let's take a look at your first code snippet, shall we?

Code:

    Try
            Dim emailmessage As New MailMessage
            emailmessage.To.Add("to email address")
            emailmessage.From = New MailAddress("from email address")
            emailmessage.Subject = ("Arrival Date")
           
          emailmessage.IsBodyHtml = True
          Dim Username as string = "Bill"
          Dim NewString As String = "<html>
          <body> 
          <p>Dear " + UserName + ", </p>
          <p>I will be arriving on the 5th</p>
          <p>Sincerely,<br>-Sam</br></p>
          </body>
          </html>
           "

            Dim SMTP As New SmtpClient()
            SMTP.Host = "SMTP.Gmail.com"
            SMTP.Port = 587
            SMTP.EnableSsl = True
            SMTP.Credentials = New Net.NetworkCredential("email from", "password")
            SMTP.Send(emailmessage)
         
        Catch ex As Exception
           MsgBox(ex.ToString)
        End Try

You assign the body text to a variable and...? That should have been bleedingly obvious. We often see what we expect to see rather than what's there - we're all prone to that at times - and that's why we have to be systematic about debugging.

Thread: Adding variables in HTML emails

Thread Tools

Display

Adding variables in HTML emails

Re: Adding variables in HTML emails

Re: Adding variables in HTML emails

Tags for this Thread

Posting Permissions