HTML based email not working properly in asp.net web form

Question

I am working on web form which collects certain user information from users and sends confirmation by email. I am trying to user the following approach to send the HTML email as it make managing HTML based email easy.

https://gist.github.com/1668751

I made necessary changes to the code but it is not working. I read other related article to make it work but i am doing something wrong.

Following line of code generates error The replacements dictionary must contain only strings.

MailMessage msgHtml = mailDef.CreateMailMessage(to, replacements, MessageBody, new System.Web.UI.Control());

I have made many change to the code but it doesnt seem to work for me. I would appreciate help to make this code work.

If i comment the above line of code with some other changes then i can send email but i can't replace the token. Any easy approach to replace token is also welcome.

Below is the Complete code i am using right now

String to, subject, Name;
subject = "Booking Confirmation";
Name = txtName.text;


ListDictionary replacements = new ListDictionary();
replacements.Add("<%Name%>", Name);
replacements.Add("<%Email%>", objVR.Email);
replacements.Add("<%CompanyName%>", objVR.CompanyName);
replacements.Add("<%BookingDate%>", objVR.BookingDate);
replacements.Add("<%BookingTime%>", objVR.TimeSlot);
replacements.Add("<%NoOfVisitors%>", objVR.NoOfVisitors);
replacements.Add("<%BookingCode%>", objVR.BookingUniqueID);


MailDefinition mailDef = new MailDefinition();

string MessageBody = String.Empty;
string filePath = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Request.PhysicalApplicationPath;

using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(filePath + @"\en\VREmailEnglish.htm"))
{
    MessageBody = sr.ReadToEnd();
}

MailMessage msgHtml = mailDef.CreateMailMessage(to, replacements, MessageBody, new System.Web.UI.Control());

string message = msgHtml.Body.ToString();

Helper.SendTokenEmail(to, subject, msgHtml, isHtml);




public static void SendTokenEmail(string to, string subject, string mailMessage, bool isHtml)
        {
            try
            {
                // Create a new message
                var mail = new MailMessage();

                // Set the to and from addresses.
                mail.From = new MailAddress("noreply@somedomain.net");
                mail.To.Add(new MailAddress(to));

                // Define the message
                mail.Subject = subject;
                mail.IsBodyHtml = isHtml;
                mail.Body = mailMessage.ToString();
                //Object userState = mailMessage;

                // Create a new Smpt Client using Google's servers
                var mailclient = new SmtpClient();
                mailclient.Host = "mail.XYZ.net";
                //mailclient.Port = 587; //ForGmail
                mailclient.Port = 2525;

                mailclient.EnableSsl = false;
                mailclient.UseDefaultCredentials = true;

                // Specify your authentication details

                mailclient.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("noreply@somedomain.net", "XYZPassword");

                mailclient.Send(mail);
                mailclient.Dispose();
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
            }

        }

Answer 1

As pointed out by HatSoft the ListDictionary accepts objects as key and value so this looks like it should work.

But reading the docs for the CreateMailMessage() method here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/0002kwb2.aspx indicates you need to convert the value to a string otherwise it will throw an ArgumentException.

So to fix make sure all values you add to the ListDictionary are converted to string ie

objVR.BookingDate.ToString()