SendMail Custom Activity

This topic applies to Windows Workflow Foundation 4 (WF4).

This sample demonstrates how to create a custom activity that derives from AsyncCodeActivity to send mail using SMTP for use within a workflow application. The custom activity uses the capabilities of SmtpClient to send e-mail asynchronously and to send mail with authentication. It also provides some end-user features like test mode, token replacement, file templates, and test drop path.

The following table details the arguments for the SendMail activity.

Solution Contents

The solution contains two projects.

Further configuration of the SendMail activity

Although not shown in the sample, users can perform addition configuration of the SendMail activity. The next three sections demonstrate how this is done.

Sending an email using tokens specified in the body

This code snippet demonstrates how you can send email with tokens in the body. Notice how the tokens are provided in the body property. Values for those tokens are provided to the tokens property.

IDictionary<string, string> tokens = new Dictionary<string, string>();
tokens.Add("@name", "John Doe");
tokens.Add("@date", DateTime.Now.ToString());
tokens.Add("@server", "localhost");

new SendMail
{
    From = new LambdaValue<MailAddress>(ctx => new MailAddress("john.doe@contoso.com")),
    To = new LambdaValue<MailAddressCollection>(
                    ctx => new MailAddressCollection() { new MailAddress("someone@microsoft.com") }),
    Subject = "Test email",
    Body = "Hello @name. This is a test email sent from @server. Current date is @date",
    Host = "localhost",
    Port = 25,
    Tokens = new LambdaValue<IDictionary<string, string>>(ctx => tokens)
};

Sending an email using a template

This snippet shows how to send an email using a template tokens in the body. Notice that when setting the BodyTemplateFilePath property we don’t need to provide the value for Body property (the contents of the template file will be copied to the body).

new SendMail
{  
    From = new LambdaValue<MailAddress>(ctx => new MailAddress("john.doe@contoso.com")),
    To = new LambdaValue<MailAddressCollection>(
                    ctx => new MailAddressCollection() { new MailAddress("someone@microsoft.com") }),
    Subject = "Test email",
    Host = "localhost",
    Port = 25,
    Tokens = new LambdaValue<IDictionary<string, string>>(ctx => tokens),
    BodyTemplateFilePath = @"..\..\..\SendMail\Templates\MailTemplateBody.htm", 
};

Sending Mails in Testing Mode

This code snippet shows how to set the two testing properties: by setting TestMailTo to all messages will be sent to john.doe@contoso.con (without regard of the values of To, Cc, Bcc). By setting TestDropPath all outgoing emails will be also recorded in the provided path. These properties can be set independently (they are not related).

new SendMail
{  
   From = new LambdaValue<MailAddress>(ctx => new MailAddress("john.doe@contoso.com")),
   To = new LambdaValue<MailAddressCollection>(
                    ctx => new MailAddressCollection() { new MailAddress("someone@microsoft.com") }),
   Subject = "Test email",
   Host = "localhost",
   Port = 25,
   Tokens = new LambdaValue<IDictionary<string, string>>(ctx => tokens),
   BodyTemplateFilePath = @"..\..\..\SendMail\Templates\MailTemplateBody.htm",
   TestMailTo= new LambdaValue<MailAddress>(ctx => new MailAddress("john.doe@contoso.com")),
   TestDropPath = @"c:\Samples\SendMail\TestDropPath\",
};

Set-Up Instructions

Access to a SMTP server is required for this sample.

For more information aboutsetting up a SMTP server, see the following links.

• Microsoft Technet

• Configuring the SMTP Service (IIS 6.0)

• IIS 7.0: Configure SMTP E-Mail

• How to Install the SMTP Service

SMTP emulators provided by third parties are available for download.

To run this sample

1. Using Visual Studio 2010, open the SendMail.sln solution file.

2. Ensure that you have access to a valid SMTP server. See the set-up instructions.

3. Configure the program with your server address, and From and To e-mail addresses.

   To correctly run this sample, you may need to configure the value of From and To e-mail addresses and the address of the SMTP server in Program.cs and in Sequence.xaml. You will need to change the address in both locations since the program sends mail in two different ways

4. To build the solution, press CTRL+SHIFT+B.

5. To run the solution, press CTRL+F5.

Note:

The samples may already be installed on your machine. Check for the following (default) directory before continuing. <InstallDrive>:\WF_WCF_Samples If this directory does not exist, go to Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) Samples for .NET Framework 4 to download all Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and WF samples. This sample is located in the following directory. <InstallDrive>:\WF_WCF_Samples\WF\Scenario\ActivityLibrary\SendMail