How to: Send the Document as an E-mail

• Sep 19, 2023
• 3 minutes to read

The following example describes how to send the mail merge result as an e-mail.

Refer to the Mail Merge topic for an example on how to create a mail-merge document. Follow the steps below to export the result as a Microsoft® Outlook® mail item.

• Create an Exporter class
• Send the result to the Microsoft® Outlook® application

Create an Exporter Class

1. Add a reference to the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook assembly.

2. Create an exporter class that implements the IUriProvider interface. Declare the class constructor as follows:

   C#

   using DevExpress.Office.Services;
   using Outlook = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook;
   
   public class RichEditMailMessageExporter : IUriProvider
   {
     readonly RichEditDocumentServer server;
     readonly Outlook.MailItem mailItem; 
   
     public RichEditMailMessageExporter(RichEditDocumentServer server, Outlook.MailItem mailItem)
    {
       Guard.ArgumentNotNull(server, "server");
       Guard.ArgumentNotNull(mailItem, "mailItem");
   
       this.server = richServer;
       this.mailItem = mailItem;
    }
   }
   

   VB.NET

   Imports DevExpress.Office.Services
   Imports Outlook = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook
   
   Public Class RichEditMailMessageExporter
       Inherits IUriProvider
   
       ReadOnly server As RichEditDocumentServer
       ReadOnly mailItem As Outlook.MailItem
   
       Public Sub New(ByVal server As RichEditDocumentServer, ByVal mailItem As Outlook.MailItem)
           Guard.ArgumentNotNull(server, "server")
           Guard.ArgumentNotNull(mailItem, "mailItem")
           Me.server = richServer
           Me.mailItem = mailItem
       End Sub
   End Class
   

3. Implement the Export method to retrieve the document text in HTML format and convert it into the message body. Subscribe to the RichEditDocumentServer.BeforeExport event.

   C#

   string tempFiles = Path.Combine(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(), "TempFiles");
   
   public virtual void Export()
     {
        if (!Directory.Exists(tempFiles))
        Directory.CreateDirectory(tempFiles);
   
        server.BeforeExport += OnBeforeExport;
        string htmlBody = server.Document.GetHtmlText(server.Document.Range, this);
        server.BeforeExport -= OnBeforeExport;
   
        mailItem.BodyFormat = Outlook.OlBodyFormat.olFormatHTML;
        mailItem.HTMLBody = htmlBody;
      }
   

   VB.NET

   Private tempFiles As String = Path.Combine(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory(), "TempFiles")
   
   Public Overridable Sub Export()
           If Not Directory.Exists(tempFiles) Then Directory.CreateDirectory(tempFiles)
           server.BeforeExport += AddressOf OnBeforeExport
           Dim htmlBody As String = control.Document.GetHtmlText(control.Document.Range, Me)
           server.BeforeExport -= AddressOf OnBeforeExport
           mailItem.BodyFormat = Outlook.OlBodyFormat.olFormatHTML
           mailItem.HTMLBody = htmlBody
       End Sub    
   

4. Specify the HtmlDocumentExporterOptions.Encoding property in the BeforeExport event handler.

   C#

   private void OnBeforeExport(object sender, BeforeExportEventArgs e)
     {
        HtmlDocumentExporterOptions options = e.Options as HtmlDocumentExporterOptions;
        if (options != null)
        {
           options.Encoding = Encoding.UTF8;
        }
     }
   

   VB.NET

   Private Sub OnBeforeExport(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As BeforeExportEventArgs)
           Dim options As HtmlDocumentExporterOptions = TryCast(e.Options, HtmlDocumentExporterOptions)
   
           If options IsNot Nothing Then
               options.Encoding = Encoding.UTF8
           End If
       End Sub
   

5. Implement the interface’s IUriProvider.CreateCssUri and IUriProvider.CreateImageUri methods. In this example, the IUriProvider.CreateImageUri method retains the document images and attaches them to the mail message.

   C#

   int imageId;
   
   public string CreateCssUri(string rootUri, string styleText, string relativeUri)
   {
      return String.Empty;
   }
   
   public string CreateImageUri(string rootUri, OfficeImage image, string relativeUri)
   {
      string imageName = String.Format("image{0}.png", imageId);
      imageId++;
   
      string imagePath = Path.Combine(tempFiles, imageName);
   
      image.NativeImage.Save(imagePath, ImageFormat.Png);
   
      mailItem.Attachments.Add(imagePath, Outlook.OlAttachmentType.olByValue, 0, Type.Missing);
   
      return "cid:" + imageName;
   }
   

   VB.NET

   Private imageId As Integer
   
   Public Function CreateCssUri(ByVal rootUri As String, ByVal styleText As String, ByVal relativeUri As String) As String
      Return String.Empty
   End Function
   
   Public Function CreateImageUri(ByVal rootUri As String, ByVal image As OfficeImage, ByVal relativeUri As String) As String
     Dim imageName As String = String.Format("image{0}.png", imageId)
     imageId += 1
     Dim imagePath As String = Path.Combine(tempFiles, imageName)
     image.NativeImage.Save(imagePath, ImageFormat.Png)
     mailItem.Attachments.Add(imagePath, Outlook.OlAttachmentType.olByValue, 0, Type.Missing)
     Return "cid:" & imageName
   End Function
   

Send the result to the Microsoft® Outlook® application

Declare a new Outlook application object and create a new mail item in the main class. Create a new RichEditMailMessageExporter instance and pass the RichEditDocumentServer and the MailItem objects as parameters. Call the Export method.

C#

Outlook.Application application = new Outlook.Application();
Outlook.MailItem mailItem = (Outlook.MailItem)application.CreateItem(Outlook.OlItemType.olMailItem);

RichEditMailMessageExporter exporter = new RichEditMailMessageExporter(richServer, mailItem);
exporter.Export();

mailItem.Display(false);

VB.NET

Dim application As Outlook.Application = New Outlook.Application()
Dim mailItem As Outlook.MailItem = CType(application.CreateItem(Outlook.OlItemType.olMailItem), Outlook.MailItem)

Dim exporter As RichEditMailMessageExporter = New RichEditMailMessageExporter(richEditDocumentServer1, mailItem)
exporter.Export()
mailItem.Display(False)
End Sub

Note

A full code example is available in the How to Export the Mail-Merge Document into an Outlook Mail Item repository on GitHub.