Send Email Using ASP.NET CORE 1.1 With MailKit In Visual Studio 2017

Introduction

 

We are familiar with Sending Email Using ASP.NET With C#. But today, we are going to teach you how to send email using ASP.NET Core 1.1 with MailKit. We can implement it in ASP.Net Core very easily as compared to the previous versions of ASP.NET.

 

Before reading this article, you must read the articles given below for ASP.NET Core knowledge.

• Getting Started With ASP.NET CORE 1.0
• Project Layout In ASP.NET Core 1.0
  
• Middleware And Staticfiles In ASP.NET Core 1.0 - Part One
  
• Middleware And Staticfiles In ASP.NET Core 1.0 - Part Two
  

MailKit

 

MailKit is a cross-platform mail client library built on top of MimeKit. That means we get all the mail sending libraries from MailKit, such as - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) etc.

 

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

 

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is a TCP/IP protocol used in sending and receiving e-mail. Most e-mail systems that send mail over the Internet use SMTP to send messages from one server to another.The messages can then be retrieved with an e-mail client using either POP or IMAP.

 

The following is a list of SMTP Server and Port Numbers,

 

Sl.No	Mail Server	SMTP Server( Host )	Port Number
1	Gmail	smtp.gmail.com	587
2	Outlook	smtp.live.com	587
3	Yahoo Mail	smtp.mail.yahoo.com	465
4	Yahoo Mail Plus	plus.smtp.mail.yahoo.com	465
5	Hotmail	smtp.live.com	465
6	Office365.com	smtp.office365.com	587
7	zoho Mail	smtp.zoho.com	465

Assemblies Required

 

The following assemblies are required for sending email using ASP.NET Core with MailKit.

using MailKit.Net.Smtp;
using MimeKit;

Adding MailKit in Our Project

 

Go to "Tools -> NuGet Package Manager -> Manage Nuget Package for Solutions…" Then, search "MailKit", Choose and Install the latest version "V1.12.0" in your application.

 

 

 

Project Structure

 

New .NET Core tooling is available in Visual Studio 2017 by default. In the Dependencies folder, every package tool has separate folder like MailKit saved into NuGet folder. If you have a client side tool like bower, then its dependencies are saved into it’s folder.

 

 

Code

 

The following code contains the mail sending code of ASP.NET Core.

using MailKit.Net.Smtp;
using MimeKit;
using System;

namespace EmailApplication
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            try
            {
                //From Address
                string FromAddress = "From Email Address";
                string FromAdressTitle = "Email from ASP.NET Core 1.1";
                //To Address
                string ToAddress = "To Email Address";
                string ToAdressTitle = "Microsoft ASP.NET Core";
                string Subject = "Hello World - Sending email using ASP.NET Core 1.1";
                string BodyContent = "ASP.NET Core was previously called ASP.NET 5. It was renamed in January 2016. It supports cross-platform frameworks ( Windows, Linux, Mac ) for building modern cloud-based internet-connected applications like IOT, web apps, and mobile back-end.";

                //Smtp Server
                string SmtpServer = "smtp.gmail.com";
                //Smtp Port Number
                int SmtpPortNumber = 587;

                var mimeMessage = new MimeMessage();
                mimeMessage.From.Add(new MailboxAddress(FromAdressTitle, FromAddress));
                mimeMessage.To.Add(new MailboxAddress(ToAdressTitle, ToAddress));
                mimeMessage.Subject = Subject;
                mimeMessage.Body = new TextPart("plain")
                {
                    Text = BodyContent

                };

                using (var client = new SmtpClient())
                {

                    client.Connect(SmtpServer, SmtpPortNumber, false);
                    // Note: only needed if the SMTP server requires authentication
                    // Error 5.5.1 Authentication
                    client.Authenticate("From Address Email", "Password");
                    client.Send(mimeMessage);
                    Console.WriteLine("The mail has been sent successfully !!");
                    Console.ReadLine();
                    client.Disconnect(true);

                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                throw ex;
            }
        }
    }
}

Important Points

• When you are sending mail with your "gmail" account, enable less secure apps so that you will be able to login from all apps. Otherwise, it will throw authentication error like 5.5.1 authentication.
  
  
• Remove 2-Step Verification.
  

In the following code, we can mention username for "gmail" account but in other service like "hotmail", we must provide the full email address because other Microsoft accounts, like Outlook, live, etc. have the same SMTP Server Address "smtp.live.com".

client.Authenticate("From Address Email", "Password");

csproj

In previous version, ASP.NET Core 1.0 contained all the versions & dependencies in project.json file but in new version, i.e., ASP.NET Core 1.1, they are saved in csproj.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp1.1</TargetFramework>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="MailKit" Version="1.12.0" />
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

Output

 

 

 

References

• Github
• Send Email Using ASP.Net With C#
  
• SMTP Server Requires a Secure Connection
  
• TechBlog Content
  

Conclusion

 

We learned how to send email using ASP.NET Core 1.1 with MailKit in Visual Studio 2017. I hope, you liked this article. Please share your valuable suggestions and feedback.