Saving MailMessage to Disk (or Database)

[andyww14]

Hi,

I have a system where an email is generated and sent out. I need to create a mechanism to store the email as proof that it was sent.

At first I thought I could store the email in my database. Easy until I realised that MailMessage() is not serialised. Did find some links on how to serialise it but it looks enormously complicated and I could not get any of them close to working.

I then came across this article which adds a save method to the class. The code can be found here:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/IP/smtpclientext.aspx

It’s written in C# so I’ve had to convert it VB.Net but I cannot see to fix a single error which is:

Extension methods can be defined only in modules.

Here is the VB code:

Imports System.Net.Mail
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Linq
Imports System.Text
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Reflection

Namespace MailMessageExtension
      Public NotInheritable Class MailMessageExt
            Private Sub New()
            End Sub
            <System.Runtime.CompilerServices.Extension> _
            Public Shared Sub Save(Message As MailMessage, FileName As String)
                  Dim assembly As Assembly = GetType(SmtpClient).Assembly
                  Dim _mailWriterType As Type = assembly.[GetType]("System.Net.Mail.MailWriter")

                  Using _fileStream As New FileStream(FileName, FileMode.Create)
                        ' Get reflection info for MailWriter contructor
                        Dim _mailWriterContructor As ConstructorInfo = _mailWriterType.GetConstructor(BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.NonPublic, Nothing, New Type() {GetType(Stream)}, Nothing)

                        ' Construct MailWriter object with our FileStream
                        Dim _mailWriter As Object = _mailWriterContructor.Invoke(New Object() {_fileStream})

                        ' Get reflection info for Send() method on MailMessage
                        Dim _sendMethod As MethodInfo = GetType(MailMessage).GetMethod("Send", BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.NonPublic)

                        ' Call method passing in MailWriter
                        _sendMethod.Invoke(Message, BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.NonPublic, Nothing, New Object() {_mailWriter, True}, Nothing)

                        ' Finally get reflection info for Close() method on our MailWriter
                        Dim _closeMethod As MethodInfo = _mailWriter.[GetType]().GetMethod("Close", BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.NonPublic)

                        ' Call close method
                        _closeMethod.Invoke(_mailWriter, BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.NonPublic, Nothing, New Object() {}, Nothing)
                  End Using
            End Sub
      End Class
End Namespace

Any help much appreciated.

[Hack]

Wouldn't it be a whole lot simpler to send the message to whoever it is supposed to go to AND to the mailbox sending it thereby storing a copy of the sent message in the mailbox of the sending account?

I.E., why not just send yourself a copy? Or a Blindcopy?