Saving Email Message to disk

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1.00/5 (2 votes)

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Regarding this article: Adding Save() functionality to System.Net.Mail.MailMessage[^]

I found someone had already converted this to VB so I copied it:

VB

Public Shared Sub WriteEmailMessageToFile(Message As MailMessage, FileName As String)

        Dim assembly As Assembly = GetType(SmtpClient).Assembly

        Dim _mailWriterType As Type = assembly.[GetType]("System.Net.Mail.MailWriter")

        Using _fileStream As New FileStream(FileName, FileMode.Create)
            ' Get reflection info for MailWriter contructor
            Dim _mailWriterContructor As ConstructorInfo = _mailWriterType.GetConstructor(BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.NonPublic, Nothing, New Type() {GetType(Stream)}, Nothing)

            ' Construct MailWriter object with our FileStream
            Dim _mailWriter As Object = _mailWriterContructor.Invoke(New Object() {_fileStream})

            ' Get reflection info for Send() method on MailMessage
            Dim _sendMethod As MethodInfo = GetType(MailMessage).GetMethod("Send", BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.NonPublic)


            ' Call method passing in MailWriter
            _sendMethod.Invoke(Message, BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.NonPublic, Nothing, New Object() {_mailWriter, True}, Nothing)


            ' Finally get reflection info for Close() method on our MailWriter
            Dim _closeMethod As MethodInfo = _mailWriter.[GetType]().GetMethod("Close", BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.NonPublic)


            ' Call close method
            _closeMethod.Invoke(_mailWriter, BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.NonPublic, Nothing, New Object() {}, Nothing)


        End Using

    End Sub

When I execute, it hangs on the line:

VB

_sendMethod.Invoke(Message, BindingFlags.Instance Or BindingFlags.NonPublic, Nothing, New Object() {_mailWriter, True}, Nothing)

Please help me determine what is wrong with this line of code.

Posted 2-Sep-15 11:23am

KevinBrady57

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Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 2-Sep-15 21:21pm

The whole idea is wrong. Getting a method by name from reflection is a really bad thing, bad for maintenance. It makes use of "magic strings" like "Send", which cannot be validated be a compiler. In almost all cases, it can be avoided.
—SA

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Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-02T15:14:00

Please see my comment to the question. Avoid doing such things.

I can suggest you the alternative method I use: saving a mail message to file using the same method as sending it: System.Net.Mail.SmptClient.Send
To do so, you can use your instance of System.Net.Mail.SmptClient and modify two properties of its instance: set DeliveryMethod to SmtpDeliveryMethod.SpecifiedPickupDirectory and set PickupDirectoryLocation to some directory (you can later rename the file created there, so it could be a temporary directory). Your SmptClient instance will save a message copy for you.

Please see:
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/swas0fwc(v=vs.110).aspx[^],
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.mail.smtpclient.deliverymethod(v=vs.110).aspx[^],
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.mail.smtpdeliverymethod%28v=vs.110%29.aspx[^],
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.mail.smtpclient.pickupdirectorylocation(v=vs.110).aspx[^].

—SA