Email Communication in ASP.NET Core: A Complete Guide with MailKit

Email functionality is a crucial part of many web applications, allowing users to receive notifications, password resets, and other important messages. In this tutorial, we’ll explore how to send emails in ASP.NET Core using the MailKit library.

Prerequisites

In order to participate in this tutorial, the following items are required:

• Visual Studio or your preferred development environment
• Basic knowledge of ASP.NET Core
• Gmail account credentials (email address and password)

Step 1: Creating a New ASP.NET Core Project

First, let’s create a new ASP.NET Core project. Open Visual Studio and choose “Create a new project.” Select the ASP.NET Core Web Application template and configure the project as desired.

Step 2: Installing the Required NuGet Packages

To work with MailKit in our ASP.NET Core project, we need to install the MailKit and MimeKit NuGet packages. Open the NuGet Package Manager Console and run the following commands to install the packages:

Install-Package MailKit
Install-Package MimeKit

Step 3: Adding the Required Using Statements

In the code file where you’ll send the email, add the following using statements at the top:

using MailKit.Net.Smtp;
using MailKit.Security;
using MimeKit;

These statements enable us to use the classes and functionality provided by the MailKit library.

Step 4: Configuring the Sender’s Email and Password

Before sending an email, we need to configure the sender’s email address and password. In the code file, find the following lines and replace the placeholder values with your actual Gmail email address and password:

string senderEmail = "your-email@gmail.com";
string senderPassword = "your-password";

Make sure to keep quotation marks around the email and password.

Step 5: Creating a MimeMessage

To create an email message, we’ll use the MimeMessage class provided by MailKit. In the code file, locate the following lines and modify them to set the sender, recipient, subject, and body of the email:

MimeMessage message = new MimeMessage();
message.From.Add(new MailboxAddress("Sender Name", senderEmail));
message.To.Add(new MailboxAddress("Recipient Name", recipientEmail));
message.Subject = "Hello from ASP.NET Core";

BodyBuilder bodyBuilder = new BodyBuilder();
bodyBuilder.TextBody = "This is the body of the email.";
message.Body = bodyBuilder.ToMessageBody();

Replace "Sender Name" with the desired name for the sender, "Recipient Name" with the desired name for the recipient, and modify the body of the email as needed.

Step 6: Sending the Email

Now that we have our email message prepared, let’s send it using the SmtpClient class. Locate the following code block and add the necessary code:

using (SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient())
{
    client.Connect("smtp.gmail.com", 587, SecureSocketOptions.StartTls);
    client.Authenticate(senderEmail, senderPassword);

    try
    {
        client.Send(message);
        Console.WriteLine("Email sent successfully.");
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Failed to send email: " + ex.Message);
    }

    client.Disconnect(true);
}

The SmtpClient class allows us to connect to the SMTP server (in this case, Gmail) and send the email. Make sure to handle any exceptions that may occur during the email-sending process.

Step 7: Running the Application

Build and run your ASP.NET Core application. If everything is set up correctly, the email will be sent, and you should see the “Email sent successfully.” message in the console.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned how to send emails in ASP.NET Core using the MailKit library. We covered the installation of the necessary NuGet packages, configuring the sender’s email and password, creating a MimeMessage object, and sending the email using the SmtpClient class.

Using MailKit provides a powerful and flexible way to send emails in your ASP.NET Core applications. You can further enhance this functionality by adding support for email templates, attachments, and more.

Feel free to explore the MailKit documentation for additional features and customization options available.

Happy coding!

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