Send Email Using jQuery and Web.API (Part 2)

Written by David Bauernschmidt Friday, 22 March 2013

As promised here is Part 2 of Sending Email using jquery and web.api (including some validation). If you missed Part 1 then get it here. It is important to realize that if you are going to use web.api for web forms then you need to add the following to the global.asax.

Imports System.Web.SessionState
Imports System.Web.Routing
Imports System.Web.Http

Public Class Global_asax
	Inherits System.Web.HttpApplication

	Sub Application_Start(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
		RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes)
	End Sub

Sub RegisterRoutes(routes As routecollection)
	routes.MapHttpRoute"ActionApi", "api/{controller}/{action}/{id}", New With {.id = System.Web.Http.RouteParameter.Optional})
	routes.MapHttpRoute("DefaultApi", "api/{controller}/{id}", New With {.id = System.Web.Http.RouteParameter.Optional})
End Sub

End Class

Then create a new web.api file and add the following;

Imports System.Net
Imports System.Web.Http
Imports System.Net.Http
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations
Imports System.Web
Imports System.Net.Mail
Imports System.IO

Public Class SendEmailController
    Inherits ApiController

     ' POST api/
    Public Function PostValue(ByVal EmailMessage As EmailClass) As HttpResponseMessage

        If Not ModelState.IsValid Then
            Dim errors = ModelState.Where(Function(s) s.Value.Errors.Count > 0).[Select](Function(s) New KeyValuePair(Of String, String)(s.Key, s.Value.Errors.First().ErrorMessage)).ToArray()
            Dim responser = Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, errors)
            Return responser
        End If

        Try
            Dim mail As New MailMessage(EmailMessage.EmailFrom, EmailMessage.EmailTo)

            Dim sendtoBCC As String = "[email protected]"
            If sendtoBCC <> "" Then
                mail.Bcc.Add(sendtoBCC)
            End If

            mail.Subject = EmailMessage.Subject
            mail.IsBodyHtml = True

            mail.Body = GetEmailBody()

            '// Replace placeholders in template.
            mail.Body = mail.Body.Replace("<%FromName%>", EmailMessage.Name)
            mail.Body = mail.Body.Replace("<%FromCompany%>", EmailMessage.CompanyName)
            mail.Body = mail.Body.Replace("<%FromAddress%>", EmailMessage.Address)
            mail.Body = mail.Body.Replace("<%FromCity%>", EmailMessage.City)
            mail.Body = mail.Body.Replace("<%FromStateZip%>", EmailMessage.State)
            mail.Body = mail.Body.Replace("<%FromPhone%>", EmailMessage.PhoneNumber)
            mail.Body = mail.Body.Replace("<%ToName%>", EmailMessage.EmailToName)
            mail.Body = mail.Body.Replace("<%MessageBody%>", EmailMessage.Message)
            mail.Body = mail.Body.Replace("<%Information%>", EmailMessage.Information)
            mail.Body = mail.Body.Replace("<%Comment%>", EmailMessage.Comment)

            'send the message
            Dim smtp As New SmtpClient()
            smtp.Send(mail)
        Catch ex As Exception
            If IsNothing(ex.InnerException) = True Then
                Dim responser = Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, ex.Message.ToString)
                Return responser
            Else
                Dim responser = Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest, ex.Message.ToString)
                Return responser
            End If
        End Try

        EmailMessage.RtnID = 1

        Dim response = Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.Created, EmailMessage)
        response.Headers.Location = New Uri(Request.RequestUri, String.Format("customer/{0}", EmailMessage.RtnID))
        Return response
    End Function

    Public Function GetEmailBody() As String
        Dim templatePath As String = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/ContactForm.txt")
        Dim sr As New StreamReader(templatePath)
        Return sr.ReadToEnd()
    End Function
End Class

Public Class EmailClass

    <Required(ErrorMessage:="Name is required!")>
    Public Property Name As String

    <Required(ErrorMessage:="Email is Required!")> _
    <RegularExpression("\w+([-+.]\w+)*@\w+([-.]\w+)*\.\w+([-.]\w+)*([,;]\s*\w+([-+.]\w+)*@\w+([-.]\w+)*\.\w+([-.]\w+)*)*", ErrorMessage:="Invalid email address")> _
    Public Property EmailFrom As String
    Public Property CompanyName As String
    Public Property Address As String
    Public Property City As String
    Public Property State As String
    Public Property PhoneNumber As String
    Public Property Subject As String
    Public Property Message As String
    Public Property Information As String
    Public Property Comment As String
    Public Property EmailTo As String
    Public Property EmailToName As String
    Public Property RtnID As Integer
End Class

A few things to keep in mind and to take notice of in this web.api. First, I am using a class “container” to hold the email variables. I have also placed Required attributes to the Emailclass. When ModelState is validated then any requirements will trigger an error response back to the client. You can actually expand this to do a multitude of different validations as necessary. I am also using an email template and replace the variables with the content from the forms. The ContactForm.txt is here. It is a just a text file.

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