CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#smtpclientmailmessage
Johan
Johan

Reputation: 1505

Use html email template and replace variables in MailMessage

I have an html email template in a file and want to replace variables in the template before sending the email. Is there any easy/built-in way of doing that or do I have to read the file contents as a string and replace them manually? It feels like AlternateView is made for loading a template but I can't find a way to replace variables.

    private void SendMail() {
        var client = new SmtpClient();
        client.Host = "host here";
        client.Port = 123;

        var message = new MailMessage();
        message.From = new MailAddress("[email protected]", "Test sender");
        message.To.Add(new MailAddress("[email protected]", "Test reciever"));
        message.SubjectEncoding = Encoding.UTF8;
        message.BodyEncoding = Encoding.UTF8;
        message.Subject = "Test subject";

        // testFile.html contents:
        //
        // <html>
        //  <body>
        //   <h1><%= name %></h1>          <-- Name should be replaced
        //  </body>
        // </html>
        var alternativeView = new AlternateView("testFile.html", new System.Net.Mime.ContentType("text/html"));

        message.AlternateViews.Add(alternativeView);

        client.SendMailAsync(message);
    }

Upvotes: 0

Views: 4375

Answers (3)

Karen Payne
Karen Payne

Reputation: 5102

Consider FluentEmail.Core which makes replacing tokens in a string used to send email simple.

Here is an example where email.Data.Body becomes the body for an email.

enter image description here

internal class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {

        /*
         * Can come from a file
         */
        string template = @"
<html>
 <body>
  <h1><%= ##Name## %></h1>
  <p>On <%=##Date##%> you are required to change your password</p>
  <p>Any questions contact ##Contact##</p>
 </body>
</html>
";

        var email = Email
            .From("fromEmail")
            .To("toEmail")
            .Subject("subject")
            .UsingTemplate(template, new
            {
                Name = "Mary Sue", 
                Date = new DateTime(2022,10,12).ToString("d"),
                Contact = "Bill Jones (504) 999-1234"
            });

        Console.WriteLine(email.Data.Body); // for body of email

    }
}

Upvotes: 1

Johan
Johan

Reputation: 1505

Apparently there's no built-in way to do this so I ended up reading the file as a string and replacing them manually (the reason I use AlternateView is because in the original code I have both an html and plain text body):

    private async Task SendMail() {
        var client = new SmtpClient();
        client.Host = "host here";
        client.Port = 123;

        var message = new MailMessage();
        message.From = new MailAddress("[email protected]", "Test sender");
        message.To.Add(new MailAddress("[email protected]", "Test reciever"));
        message.SubjectEncoding = Encoding.UTF8;
        message.BodyEncoding = Encoding.UTF8;
        message.Subject = "Test subject";

        // testFile.html contents:
        //
        // <html>
        //  <body>
        //   <h1><%= name %></h1>          <-- Name should be replaced
        //  </body>
        // </html>

        var content = await File.ReadAllTextAsync("testFile.html");
        content = content.Replace("<%= name %>", "Superman");
        var alternativeView = AlternateView.CreateAlternateViewFromString(content, new ContentType(MediaTypeNames.Text.Html));

        message.AlternateViews.Add(alternativeView);

        await client.SendMailAsync(message);
    }

Upvotes: 0

SIbghat
SIbghat

Reputation: 309

you have to read template from file and then apply replace

Upvotes: 1

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