Send Email from SharePoint

Although in general I believe that SharePoint should contribute to reducing email rather than adding to it, there are circumstances and user requirements that call for SharePoint to produce emails. I have used code similar to the following function to create and send emails from SharePoint as needed.

// Abbreviated namespace imports using System.Collections.Specialized; // For StringDictionary using System.Text;                    // For StringBuilder using Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities; // For SPUtility /// <summary> /// Email a message to a user /// </summary> /// <param name=”emailSubject”>string: the subject for the email</param> /// <param name=”emailAddr”>string: the target email address</param> /// <param name=”emailMsg”>string: the message to include in the email</param> private void EmailUser(string emailSubject, string emailAddr, string emailMsg) {     try     {         // Define a dictionary for the email parameters         StringDictionary headers = new StringDictionary();                 // Set the email content type (I am using text format in this example)         // Use "text/html" if you want to format/send email as HTML         headers.Add("content-type", "text/plain");         // Set the from address (does not need to be a valid email address)         headers.Add("from", "donotreply@yourdomain.local");         // Set the to address         headers.add("to", emailAddr);         // Set the cc address (in this case we will cc the current SharePoint user)         headers.add("cc", SPContext.Current.Web.CurrentUser.Email);         // Set the bcc address (if desired)         headers.add("bcc", "someaddr@yourdomain.local");         // Set the email subject         headers.add("subject", emailSubject);         // Build the message body (just a sample with text line feeds and tabs)         StringBuilder emailBody = new StringBuilder();         emailBody.AppendFormat("*** SharePoint Notification ***\n\n");         emailBody.AppendFormat("Site:\t{0}\n", SPContext.Current.Web.Url);         emailBody.AppendFormat("Message:\t{0}\n", emailMsg);         emailBody.AppendFormat("\n*** End of SharePoint Notification ***");         // Send the email         SPUtility.SendEmail(SPContext.Current.Web, headers, emailBody.ToString());     } // end try     catch (exception ex)     {         // Log exception to event and/or uls logs (code omitted)         // Handle exception (code omitted)    } // end catch } // end EmailUser