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Creating and sending HTML email in Visual Basic - Part
1
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by: AfterLogic
Sending Simple HTML E-mail
This tutorial demonstrates sending simple
HTML e-mail using AfterLogic's MailBee
SMTP component in Visual Basic. This focuses
on connecting to the SMTP server and sending
e-mail rather
than
message
composing.
Tutorial map:
Part 1 - Sending simple HTML e-mail
Part 2 - Importing HTML file into message
body
Part 3 - Assembling body text from different
sources
Part 4 - Building alternative message body
Part 5 - Advanced topics
To
send an e-mail, we need to create MailBee.SMTP object first.
Once
SMTP object is created and valid LicenseKey is assigned, next step is to set the properties
of the e-mail itself, and specify SMTP server
which will actually deliver our e-mail. We'll
set the following properties of the e-mail
itself:
- SMTP.Message.FromAddr - "From:" field
of the message
- SMTP.Message.ToAddr - "To:" field
of the message
- SMTP.Message.Subject - "Subject:" field
of the message
- SMTP.Message.BodyText - the message's
body text
- SMTP.Message.BodyFormat - the
message's body format (i.e.
plain-text or
HTML)
and the following property
of the SMTP server:
- SMTP.ServerName - SMTP server name
Once
all properties are set, call Send method
to perform
actual sending.
Finally,
call
Disconnect method to
close the SMTP session.
Code example:
Dim Mailer
' Using Visual Basic to create object
Set Mailer = CreateObject("MailBee.SMTP")
' Using ASP to create object
' Set Mailer =
Server.CreateObject("MailBee.SMTP")
' Unlock MailBee.SMTP object
Mailer.LicenseKey = "put your license
key here"
' SMTP server name
Mailer.ServerName = "mail.server.com"
' Recipients
Mailer.Message.ToAddr = "you@yourdomain.com"
' Sender
Mailer.Message.FromAddr = "me@mydomain.com"
' Subject
Mailer.Message.Subject = "Hello"
' HTML body text
Mailer.Message.BodyText = "<html>Hello</html>"
' Mark that body has HTML format
Mailer.Message.BodyFormat = 1
' Send it!
Mailer.Send
' Close the SMTP session
Mailer.Disconnect
E-mails are not sent: SMTP authentication
required
Sometimes e-mails are not sent if only the
SMTP server name is specified. This occurs
if the SMTP server's administrator restricted
access to the server by any means. For example,
e-mails may be delivered to local addresses
only or may not be delivered at all.
As
a rule, SMTP servers give unrestricted
access to authenticated users only. To
authenticate
on SMTP server, just set AuthMethod, UserName and
Password properties of SMTP object prior
to calling Send method.
Values
of UserName and
Password properties
are specific to each user, usually they are
the same as the user account name and the
password of the user's POP3 account on the
same mail server.
AuthMethod property denotes type of the
procedure to be used to authenticate user
on the SMTP server. Value of 2 (LOGIN authentication)
is supported by most SMTP servers. MSN servers
require to use value of 5 (MSN authentication).
E-mails are still not sent. Any ideas?
In rare cases, e-mails are not being sent
even if SMTP authentication is used. Typical
reasons: the SMTP server is down, it rejects
your IP-address, size of the e-mail you are
trying to send is out of quota, some of the
recipients are invalid or not allowed, etc.
To
find-out what is the problem's source,
you can analyze MailBee log file or the
values
of ErrCode and ServerResponse properties.
To
force MailBee to create log file, set EnableLogging and LogFilePath properties.
Also, you can add ClearLog method call to
clear log file on each run.
Sample code description
The sample below sends the same e-mail as
in the previous sample, but connects to the
SMTP server using SMTP authentication, logs
SMTP session into a file, and notifies user
about errors.
Code example:
Dim Mailer
'Using Visual Basic to create object
Set Mailer = CreateObject("MailBee.SMTP")
' Using ASP to create object
' Set Mailer = Server.CreateObject("MailBee.SMTP")
'
' Also, in ASP use Response.Write instead
of MsgBox
' Enable logging and clear log file
Mailer.LogFilePath = "C:\smtp_log.txt"
Mailer.EnableLogging = True
Mailer.ClearLog
' Unlock MailBee.SMTP object
Mailer.LicenseKey = "put your license
key here"
' SMTP server name
Mailer.ServerName = "mail.server.com"
' Set SMTP Authentication properties
Mailer.AuthMethod = 2
Mailer.Username = "username"
Mailer.Password = "password"
' Set message properties
Mailer.Message.ToAddr = "you@yourdomain.com"
Mailer.Message.FromAddr = "me@mydomain.com"
Mailer.Message.Subject = "Hello"
Mailer.Message.BodyText = "<html>Hello</html>"
Mailer.Message.BodyFormat = 1
' Try to send the e-mail
If Mailer.Send Then
' Succeeded
;-)
MsgBox "Sent successfully"
Else
' Error :-(
MsgBox "Error #" & Mailer.ErrCode & ", Server responded:" & Mailer.ServerResponse
End If
' Close the SMTP session
Mailer.Disconnect
About AfterLogic
AfterLogic specializes in email and messaging components.
You can visit AfterLogic at http://www.afterlogic.com/.
Here you can download evaluations for all their email and messaging components
and get
support.
© Copyright 2002-2005 Afterlogic,
an iForum LLC division
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