How do I popup the compose / create mail dialog using the user's default email client?

Question

The use case is simple. At a certain point of time, I need to be able to show the user his familiar compose email dialog (Outlook or other) with

• fields like f

Answer 1

Could it be that you used the mailto: protocol?

Almost all of what you highlight can be done, but I am quite sure, that you cant do attachments.

Microsoft MailTo Documentation

Answer 2

Since mailto does not support attachments, and since MAPI is not supported within managed code, your best bet is to write (or have someone write) a small non-managed program to call MAPI functions that you can call with command-line arguments. Pity that .NET does not have a cleaner alternative.

See also : MAPI and managed code experiences?

Answer 3

It's probably not the most efficient or elegant way, but shelling a "mailto:" link will do what you want, I think.

EDIT: Sorry, left out a very important "not".

Answer 4

Starting process with mailto: arguments is the simplest approach. Yet, it does not allow anything more or less complex.

Slightly different approach involves creating email template and then feeding it to the Process.Start:

var client = new SmtpClient();

var folder = new RandomTempFolder();
client.DeliveryMethod = 
  SmtpDeliveryMethod.SpecifiedPickupDirectory;

client.PickupDirectoryLocation = folder.FullName;

var message = new MailMessage("to@no.net",
  "from@no.net", "Subject","Hi and bye");

// add attachments here, if needed
// need this to open email in Edit mode in OE
message.Headers.Add("X-Unsent", "1");

client.Send(message);

var files = folder.GetFiles();

Process.Start(files[0].FullName);

Scenarios for the default email handler:

• Outlook express opens
• Windows: Outlook - does not handle by default, Outlook Express is called instead
• Windows: The Bat! - message is opened for viewing, hit Shift-F6 and Enter to send

I've also tested with Mono and it worked more or less.

Additional details are available in this post: Information integration - simplest approach for templated emails

PS: in the end I went for slightly more complex scenario:

• Defined interface IEmailIntegraton
• Code above went into the DefaultEmailIntegration
• Added implementations for OutlookEmailIntegration (automation) and theBat! email integration (using their template format).
• Allowed users of the SmartClient to select their scenario from the drop-down (alternatively this could've been implemented as "Check the system for the default email handler and decide automatically")

Answer 5

you can use a trick if you intend to use Outlook[this code is based on outlook 2010[v14.0.0.]] Create Outlook MailItem and transmit file (ie download) if user opens the file (.msg) the compose message dialog opens automatically

here is the code ...

    Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application outapp = new Application();
    try
    {

        _NameSpace np = outapp.GetNamespace("MAPI");
        MailItem oMsg = (MailItem)outapp.CreateItem(OlItemType.olMailItem);
        oMsg.To = "a@b.com";
        oMsg.Subject = "Subject";

       //add detail

        oMsg.SaveAs("C:\\Doc.msg", OlSaveAsType.olMSGUnicode);//your path
        oMsg.Close(OlInspectorClose.olSave);
    }
    catch (System.Exception e)
    {
        status = false;
    }
    finally
    {
        outapp.Quit();
    }

then transmit the file you created say "Doc.msg"

    string filename ="Doc.msg";//file name created previously
    path = "C:\\" + filename; //full path ; 
    Response.ContentType="application/outlook";
    Response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition", "filename=\"" + filename + "\"");
    FileInfo fl = new FileInfo(path);
    Response.AddHeader("Content-Length", fl.Length.ToString());
    Response.TransmitFile(path,0,fl.Length);
    Response.End();

Answer 6

You're making the assumption that they will have an email client installed, of course.

The option I've taken in the past (in a corporate environment where everyone has at least one version of Outlook installed) was to use the Outlook interop - you only need to reference the earliest version you need to support.

You could look at P/Invoking MAPISendDocuments (which I'd try and avoid, personally), or the other option would be to create your own "compose" form and use the objects from the System.Net.Mail namespace.