MailMessage Class

Instances of the MailMessage class are used to construct e-mail messages that are transmitted to an SMTP server for delivery using the SmtpClient class.

The sender, recipient, subject, and body of an e-mail message may be specified as parameters when a MailMessage is used to initialize a MailMessage object. These parameters may also be set or accessed using properties on the MailMessage object.

The primary mail message headers and elements for the message may be set using the following properties of the MailMessage class.

The MailMessage class also allows an application to access the headers collection for the message using the Headers property. While this collection is read-only (a new collection can not be set), custom headers can be added to or deleted from this collection. Any custom headers added will be included when the MailMessage instance is sent. Before a message is sent, only headers specifically added to this collection in the Headers property are included in the collection. After a the MailMessage instance is sent, the Headers property will also include headers that are set using the associated properties of the MailMessage class or parameters passed when a MailMessage is used to initialize a MailMessage object.

If some mail headers are malformed, they could cause the email message to become corrupted. So any mail header in the headers collection that can be set using a property on the MailMessage class should only be set using the MailMessage class property or as a parameter passed when a MailMessage initializes a MailMessage object. The following list of mail headers should not be added using the Headers property and any values set for these headers using the Headers property will be discarded or overwritten when the message is sent:

• Bcc

• Cc

• Content-ID

• Content-Location

• Content-Transfer-Encoding

• Content-Type

• Date

• From

• Importance

• MIME-Version

• Priority

• Reply-To

• Sender

• To

• X-Priority

If the application does not specify an X-Sender header using the Headers property, the MailMessage class will create one when the message is sent.

Use the AlternateViews property to specify copies of an e-mail message in different formats. For example, if you send a message in HTML, you might also want to provide a plain text version in case some of the recipients use e-mail readers that cannot display HTML content. For an example that demonstrates creating a message with alternate views, see AlternateViews.

Use the Attachments property to add attachments to an e-mail message. For an example that demonstrates creating a message with an attachment, see Attachments.

After assembling your e-mail message, you can send it by using the Send or SendAsync methods.

The following code example demonstrates creating and sending an e-mail message that includes an attachment.

		public static void CreateMessageWithAttachment(string server)
		{
			// Specify the file to be attached and sent.
			// This example assumes that a file named Data.xls exists in the
			// current working directory.
			string file = "data.xls";
			// Create a message and set up the recipients.
			MailMessage message = new MailMessage(
			   "jane@contoso.com",
			   "ben@contoso.com",
			   "Quarterly data report.",
			   "See the attached spreadsheet.");

			// Create  the file attachment for this e-mail message.
			Attachment data = new Attachment(file, MediaTypeNames.Application.Octet);
			// Add time stamp information for the file.
			ContentDisposition disposition = data.ContentDisposition;
			disposition.CreationDate = System.IO.File.GetCreationTime(file);
			disposition.ModificationDate = System.IO.File.GetLastWriteTime(file);
			disposition.ReadDate = System.IO.File.GetLastAccessTime(file);
			// Add the file attachment to this e-mail message.
			message.Attachments.Add(data);

			//Send the message.
			SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient(server);
			// Add credentials if the SMTP server requires them.
			client.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultNetworkCredentials;

      try {
			  client.Send(message);
			}
			catch (Exception ex) {
			  Console.WriteLine("Exception caught in CreateMessageWithAttachment(): {0}", 
                    ex.ToString() );			  
			}
			// Display the values in the ContentDisposition for the attachment.
			ContentDisposition cd = data.ContentDisposition;
			Console.WriteLine("Content disposition");
			Console.WriteLine(cd.ToString());
			Console.WriteLine("File {0}", cd.FileName);
			Console.WriteLine("Size {0}", cd.Size);
			Console.WriteLine("Creation {0}", cd.CreationDate);
			Console.WriteLine("Modification {0}", cd.ModificationDate);
			Console.WriteLine("Read {0}", cd.ReadDate);
			Console.WriteLine("Inline {0}", cd.Inline);
			Console.WriteLine("Parameters: {0}", cd.Parameters.Count);
			foreach (DictionaryEntry d in cd.Parameters)
			{
				Console.WriteLine("{0} = {1}", d.Key, d.Value);
			}
			data.Dispose();
		}

.NET Framework

.NET Framework Client Profile

Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1 or later, Windows XP SP3, Windows XP SP2 x64 Edition, Windows Server 2008 (Server Core not supported), Windows Server 2008 R2 (Server Core supported with SP1 or later), Windows Server 2003 SP2

Reference