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Send Gridview Data On Email In Asp.Net

In this article I will explain how to send grid view data on email in asp.net.

Software Requirement

Before you start reading this tutorial you should make sure that

Visual studio 2005(or above) is installed on your machine.
SQL Server 2005(or above) is installed on your machine

Prerequisite Knowledge

Before you go ahead, it is required that you should know

Basics about SQL objects like tables.
How to create tables in SQL server and how to insert data into the table?
How to create a project using visual studio?
Basic knowledge about basic controls like button textbox etc and their events
Basic knowledge about data controls like grid view.
How to bind data in grid view?
How to send email using asp.net?

Steps Of Execution

In this tutorial I will execute certain steps for the demonstration of sending grid view data on email in asp.net. These steps are

Create a new table
Add data in the table
Create a new project
Add controls on the page
Add code to bind grid
Add code to send grid view on email

Let us execute each step

Create A New Table

First of all create a new table. See the screen shot below for table schema

Picture showing the schema of the sample database table

Click to Enlarge

Add Data In The Table

Add data in the table. See the screen shot below for data

Picture showing the data in the sample database table

Click to Enlarge

Create A New Project

Create a new website (or web based application) using visual studio. See the screen shot below for project structure.

Picture showing the project structure in the solution explorer

Click to Enlarge

Add Controls On The Page

Add 2 buttons and a grid view on the page. See the code section below

<asp:GridView ID="gvReport" runat="server"  AutoGenerateColumns="false">
	<HeaderStyle Font-Names="Verdana" Font-Size="Small" BackColor="#90546f" ForeColor="White" BorderStyle="Solid" BorderColor="Black" />
	<RowStyle Font-Names="Verdana" Font-Size="Small"/>
	<Columns>
		<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Course Name">
			<ItemTemplate>
				<asp:Label runat="server" Text='<%#Eval("course_name") %>'>
				</asp:Label>
			</ItemTemplate>
		</asp:TemplateField>
		<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Course Code">
			<ItemTemplate>
				<asp:Label runat="server" Text='<%#Eval("course_code") %>'>
				</asp:Label>
			</ItemTemplate>
		</asp:TemplateField>
		<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Due Date">
			<ItemTemplate>
				<asp:Label runat="server" Text='<%#Eval("due_date") %>'>
				</asp:Label>
			</ItemTemplate>
		</asp:TemplateField>
	</Columns>
</asp:GridView>
<asp:Button ID="btnGetData" runat="server" Text="Get Data" OnClick="btnGetData_Click" />
     
    
<asp:Button ID="btnSendOnEmail" runat="server" Text="Send on email" OnClick="btnSendOnEmail_Click" />

Gridview (gvReport) will display data fetch from database.
Button (btnGetData) – Get data from database and bind gridview(gvReport)
Button (btnSendOnEmail) – Email gridview’s data.

Add Code To Bind Grid

Add the following code on click of btnGetData.

protected void btnGetData_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
  DataSet oDataSet = new DataSet();
  using(SqlConnection oConnection = new SqlConnection("connection_string")) {
    // Open a connection
    oConnection.Open();
    using(SqlDataAdapter adapter = new SqlDataAdapter("select * from Course", oConnection)) {

      adapter.Fill(oDataSet);
    }
  }

  gvReport.DataSource = oDataSet.Tables[0];
  gvReport.DataBind();
}

Here we are fetching data from the database and bind to the grid.

Add Code To Send Grid View On Email

Add following code in code behind

protected void btnSendOnEmail_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) {
  StringBuilder htmlResponse = new StringBuilder();
  using(StringWriter sw = new StringWriter(htmlResponse)) {
    using(HtmlTextWriter textWriter = new HtmlTextWriter(sw)) {
      ((Control) gvReport).RenderControl(textWriter);
    }
  }

  MailMessage mailMessage = new MailMessage();
  mailMessage.From = new MailAddress("sender_address");
  mailMessage.To.Add("recipient_address");
  mailMessage.Subject = "Report";
  mailMessage.IsBodyHtml = true;
  mailMessage.Body = htmlResponse.ToString();

  SmtpClient smtpServer = new SmtpClient("smtp");
  smtpServer.Port = 25;
  smtpServer.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("user_name", "password");
  smtpServer.EnableSsl = false;
  smtpServer.Send(mailMessage);
  mailMessage.Attachments.Clear();
  mailMessage = null;

}
public override void VerifyRenderingInServerForm(Control control) {
  /* Confirms that an HtmlForm control is rendered for the specified ASP.NET
     server control at run time. */
}

Code Explanation

The code above performs 2 functionalities

Get the rendered HTML of the grid view
Send rendered HTML on email as an email’s body.

Let us explain each functionality.

The best way to get the rendered HTML of a control is to call the RenderControl() method of the Control class. See the code section below

StringBuilder htmlResponse = new StringBuilder();
using(StringWriter sw = new StringWriter(htmlResponse)) {
  using(HtmlTextWriter textWriter = new HtmlTextWriter(sw)) {
    ((Control) gvReport).RenderControl(textWriter);
  }
}

In this code I am assigning rendered HTML of the grid view to a variable htmlResponse (which is of type StringBuilder).

In the second part I am sending an email to the recipient with email body as rendered HTML

MailMessage mailMessage = new MailMessage();
mailMessage.From = new MailAddress("sender_address");
mailMessage.To.Add("recipient_address");
mailMessage.Subject = "Report";
mailMessage.IsBodyHtml = true;
mailMessage.Body = htmlResponse.ToString();
        
SmtpClient smtpServer = new SmtpClient("smtp");
smtpServer.Port = 25;
smtpServer.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("user_name", "password");
smtpServer.EnableSsl = false;
smtpServer.Send(mailMessage);
mailMessage.Attachments.Clear();
mailMessage = null;

It is required to add ‘VerifyRenderingInServerForm’ method else you will get this run time error - Control 'MainContent_gvReport' of type 'GridView' must be placed inside a form tag with runat=server.

Output

Click to Enlarge

Posted By -	Karan Gupta

Posted On -	Friday, April 12, 2013

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