CODEWITHSUNDEEP
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McArthey
McArthey

Reputation: 1646

Using .Net to capture rendered HTML from URL

Is it possible to use a technique to redirect to a URL from within an application and simply take the page content that would be displayed but instead render it to email or otherwise? I believe I've seen the use of InnerHTML but is this really the best way? It seems a bit of a hack, to me. Thanks!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 279

Answers (3)

kol
kol

Reputation: 28678

Yes, this is possible. Download the page using a WebClient or an HttpWebRequest, put it into the Body of a MailMessage (also check out the IsBodyHtml and AlternateViews properties), and Send it using an SmtpClient.

However, the page at the URL should be created so it has a good chance to be consumed by e-mail clients: very small amount of CSS, table-based layout (argh...), good look even when images are not rendered by the client, left-aligned text, no Javascript, no Flash, no Silverlight, no embedded videos, etc. See this and this for the details of HTML e-mail creation.

If the page you download does not obey these rules, you may have to modify it before sending. The HTML Agility Pack, which was suggested by @Gaby, is an HTML parser, and one of the best tools for this purpose.

Upvotes: 2

Kugel
Kugel

Reputation: 19814

Just use WebClient.DownloadFile method to save the file and then do whatever you wish to do with it.

Upvotes: 0

Gabriele Petrioli
Gabriele Petrioli

Reputation: 195972

You might want to check the Html Agility Pack

Upvotes: 1

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