HOWTO: WebDAV: Send mail with Custom Form and set properties

This is going to be a very simple sample of how you can send an email with custom properties set and also change the message class so that it render on outlook as Custom Form.

Prerequisites: A custom form must be published with same class name to render the email properly.

How it works…

Step 1) It drop an email in the drafts folder of user

Step 2) Patches the properties to set Message Class & other properties, even including with special characters in name like Spaces and ‘/’

Step 3) Drop the mail to DavMailSubmissionURL to send it

Code:

 

 Imports System.Net

 Imports System.IO

 Imports System.Web

 Module Module1

     Const strServer As String = "Exchange_Server_Name"

     Const strMailbox As String = "Target_Mailbox"

     Const strFrom As String = "from@domain.com"

     Const strTo As String = "to@domain.com"

     Const strSubject As String = "Custom form email - sent using WebDAV"

     Const strBody As String = "<B>Hello There,</B><BR> Hope you are doing good.<BR>Good Bye!!!"

     Const strMessageClass As String = "IPM.Note.TestMessageClass"

     Const strDomain As String = "DomainNameHere"

     Const strUsername As String = "UsernameToLoginWith"

     Const strPassword As String = "Password"

     Dim objCDO As New CDO.Message

     Dim strMIME As String

     Dim sQuery As String = ""

     Dim sUri As Uri = New Uri("https://" & strServer & "/Exchange/" + strMailbox & "/Drafts/" & Guid.NewGuid().ToString() & ".eml")

     Dim sDavSubmissionURI As Uri = New Uri("https://" & strServer & "/Exchange/" + strMailbox & "/%23%23DavMailSubmissionURI%23%23/")

     Dim DavRequest As HttpWebRequest = DirectCast(WebRequest.Create(sUri), HttpWebRequest)

     Dim myCred As New NetworkCredential((strDomain & "\" & strUsername), strPassword)

     Dim myCredentialCache As New CredentialCache()

     Dim ByteQuery As Byte()

     Dim QueryStream As Stream

     Dim DavResponse As HttpWebResponse

     Dim iStatCode As Integer

     Dim sStatus As String

     Dim strm As Stream

     Dim sr As StreamReader

     Dim sText As String

     Sub Main()

         Console.WriteLine("Preparing message...")

         PrepairMessage()

         Console.WriteLine("Creating message in draft folder...")

         CreateMessageInDraft()

         Console.WriteLine("Updating message class & other properties...")

         SetMessageProperties()

         Console.WriteLine("Sending message...")

         SendMessage()

         Console.WriteLine("Message Sent")

     End Sub

     Sub PrepairMessage()

         With objCDO

             .From = strFrom

             .To = strTo

             .Subject = strSubject

             .HTMLBody = strBody

             strMIME = .GetStream.ReadText

         End With

         sQuery = strMIME

     End Sub

     Sub CreateMessageInDraft()

         myCredentialCache.Add(sUri, "Basic", myCred)

         DavRequest.Credentials = myCredentialCache

         DavRequest.KeepAlive = False

         DavRequest.Headers.Set("Translate", "f")

         DavRequest.ContentType = "message/rfc822"

         DavRequest.ContentLength = sQuery.Length

         'Set the request timeout to 5 minutes.

         DavRequest.Timeout = 300000

         ' Set the request method.

         DavRequest.Method = "PUT"

         ' Store the data in a byte array.

         ByteQuery = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(sQuery)

         DavRequest.ContentLength = ByteQuery.Length

         QueryStream = DavRequest.GetRequestStream()

         ' write the data to be posted to the Request Stream

         QueryStream.Write(ByteQuery, 0, ByteQuery.Length)

         QueryStream.Close()

         QueryStream = Nothing

         ' Send the request and get the response.

         DavResponse = DirectCast(DavRequest.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)

         ' Get the Status code.

         iStatCode = CInt(DavResponse.StatusCode)

         sStatus = iStatCode.ToString()

         Console.WriteLine("Status Code: " & sStatus.ToString())

         ' Read the response stream.

         strm = DavResponse.GetResponseStream()

         sr = New StreamReader(strm)

         sText = sr.ReadToEnd()

         Console.WriteLine("Response: " & sText)

         ' Close the stream.

         strm.Close()

     End Sub

     Sub SetMessageProperties()

         Dim sPropPatch As String = "<?xml version=""1.0""?>" + _

         "<g:propertyupdate xmlns:g=""DAV:"">" + _

         "<g:set>" + _

         "<g:prop>" + _

         "<d:outlookmessageclass xmlns:d=""https://schemas.microsoft.com/exchange/"">" & strMessageClass & "</d:outlookmessageclass>" + _

         "<NewCustomProperty>" & "CustomProperty1" & "</NewCustomProperty>" + _

         "</g:prop>" + _

         "</g:set>" + _

         "</g:propertyupdate>"

         DavRequest = Nothing

         DavResponse = Nothing

         DavRequest = DirectCast(WebRequest.Create(sUri), HttpWebRequest)

         DavRequest.Credentials = myCredentialCache

         DavRequest.KeepAlive = False

         DavRequest.Headers.Set("Translate", "f")

         DavRequest.ContentType = "text/xml"

         DavRequest.ContentLength = sQuery.Length

         'Set the request timeout to 5 minutes.

         DavRequest.Timeout = 300000

         ' Set the request method.

         DavRequest.Method = "PROPPATCH"

         ' Store the data in a byte array.

         ByteQuery = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(sPropPatch)

         DavRequest.ContentLength = ByteQuery.Length

         QueryStream = DavRequest.GetRequestStream()

         ' write the data to be posted to the Request Stream

         QueryStream.Write(ByteQuery, 0, ByteQuery.Length)

         QueryStream.Close()

         QueryStream = Nothing

         ' Send the request and get the response.

         DavResponse = DirectCast(DavRequest.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)

         ' Get the Status code.

         iStatCode = CInt(DavResponse.StatusCode)

         sStatus = iStatCode.ToString()

         Console.WriteLine("Status Code: " & sStatus.ToString())

         ' Read the response stream.

         strm = DavResponse.GetResponseStream()

         sr = New StreamReader(strm)

         sText = sr.ReadToEnd()

         Console.WriteLine("Response: " & sText)

         ' Close the stream.

         strm.Close()

         DavResponse = Nothing

         DavRequest = Nothing

     End Sub

     Sub SendMessage()

         DavRequest = Nothing

         DavResponse = Nothing

         DavRequest = DirectCast(WebRequest.Create(sUri), HttpWebRequest)

         DavRequest.Credentials = myCredentialCache

         'Set the request timeout to 5 minutes.

         DavRequest.Timeout = 300000

         ' Set the request method.

         DavRequest.Method = "MOVE"

         DavRequest.Headers.Add("Destination", sDavSubmissionURI.ToString())

         ' Send the request and get the response.

         DavResponse = DirectCast(DavRequest.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)

         ' Get the Status code.

         iStatCode = CInt(DavResponse.StatusCode)

         sStatus = iStatCode.ToString()

         Console.WriteLine("Status Code: " & sStatus.ToString())

         ' Read the response stream.

         strm = DavResponse.GetResponseStream()

         sr = New StreamReader(strm)

         sText = sr.ReadToEnd()

         Console.WriteLine("Response: " & sText)

         ' Close the stream.

         strm.Close()

         DavResponse = Nothing

         DavRequest = Nothing

     End Sub

 End Module

Note: I will update the sample to include custom properties with special characters soon… last edited: 5/23/09 4:19 AM