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Email template engine

Newest version of Mail.dll email library for .NET includes easy to use template engine.

It allows you to easily create html template for your emails:

Loading and rendering such template requires one line of code:

// C# version

Contact templateData = ...;

 string html = Template
     .FromFile("template.txt")
     .DataFrom(templateData )
     .Render();

' VB.NET version

Dim templateData As Contact = ....

Dim html As String = Template _
     .FromFile("template.txt") _
     .DataFrom(templateData) _
     .Render()

This is how the template looks like:

<html>
<head>
    <title>Your order</title>
</head>
<body>
	Hi [FirstName] [LastName],
	<br />
	<p>
	Your account [if Verified]has[else]<strong>has not</strong>[end] been verified. <br/>
	Your password is: [Password].
	</p>
	<p>
	Here are your orders:
	</p>
	[foreach Orders]
		<p>
		Order sent to <strong>[Street]</strong>:
		</p>
		<table style="width: 30%;">
			[foreach Items]
				<tr style="background-color: #E0ECFF;">
					<td>[Name]</td><td>[Price]</td>
				</tr>
			[end]
		</table>
	[end]
	<p>
		Thank you for your orders.
	<p>
</body>
</html>

Here’s the sample code that loads, fills the template and sends it using Mail.dll:

// C# version

using Fluent = Limilabs.Mail.Fluent;

Fluent.Mail.Html(Template
              .FromFile("template.txt")
              .DataFrom(templateData)
              .Render())
    .From(new MailBox("alice@mail.com", "Alice"))
    .To(new MailBox("bob@mail.com", "Bob"))
    .Subject("Your order")
    .UsingNewSmtp()
    .WithCredentials("alice@example.org", "password")
    .Server("smtp.example.org")
    .WithSSL()
    .Send();

' VB.NET version

Imports Fluent = Limilabs.Mail.Fluent;

Fluent.Mail.Html(Template _
               .FromFile("template.txt") _
               .DataFrom(templateData) _
               .Render()) _
     .From(New MailBox("alice@mail.com", "Alice")) _
     .[To](New MailBox("bob@mail.com", "Bob")) _
     .Subject("Your order") _
     .UsingNewSmtp() _
     .WithCredentials("alice@example.org", "password") _
     .Server("smtp.example.org") _
     .WithSSL() _
     .Send()

You can also specify text version of the message, by using Text(string) method. In most cases this is unnecessary, as Mail.dll automatically extracts plain text from html and adds the plain text version to the email message.

And this is how the data (templateData variable), used by template, look like:

// C# version

public class Contact
{
    public List<order> Orders { get; private set; }

    public string FirstName { get; set; }
    public string LastName { get; set; }
    public bool Verified;
    private string Password { get; set; }

    public Contact()
    {
        Orders = new List<order>();
    }
} ;

' VB.NET version

Public Class Contact
	Public Property Orders() As List(Of Order)
		Get
			Return m_Orders
		End Get
		Private Set
			m_Orders = Value
		End Set
	End Property
	Private m_Orders As List(Of Order)

	Public Property FirstName() As String
		Get
			Return m_FirstName
		End Get
		Set
			m_FirstName = Value
		End Set
	End Property
	Private m_FirstName As String
	Public Property LastName() As String
		Get
			Return m_LastName
		End Get
		Set
			m_LastName = Value
		End Set
	End Property
	Private m_LastName As String
	Public Verified As Boolean
	Private Property Password() As String
		Get
			Return m_Password
		End Get
		Set
			m_Password = Value
		End Set
	End Property
	Private m_Password As String

	Public Sub New()
		Orders = New List(Of Order)()
	End Sub
End Class

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This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 17:47 and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Email template engine”

  1. Uroš Says:
    July 22nd, 2010 at 08:40

    This is a very usefull thing and easy to implement thanks to your tutorial! Great job.

  2. Martin Staael Says:
    May 24th, 2011 at 11:56

    I tried using DataFrom with a Dictionary but it doesn’t work. Would be nice to have

  3. Limilabs support Says:
    May 24th, 2011 at 12:47

    @Martin

    You can use Template.AddKey method:

    string s = Template
    .Create("Show some number [key].")
    .AddKey("key", "42")
    .Render();

    I’ve already implemented this feature, and it’ll be added in the next release.

  4. Send email to multiple recipients Says:
    December 7th, 2011 at 16:41

    [...] Also take a look at Mail.dll’s templating engine [...]

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