Email confirmation in ASP.NET mvc5 without sendgrid

Question

The title pretty much says it. Is there a way of adding Email Confirmation to my application without using the send grid ? my Azure account won't let me use it, says it isnt available in my zone and i cant seem to find another solution .

Answer 1

I didn't use sendgrid neither in my website for the Email confirmation service. I See no point having it in small websites with low traffic.

I use gmail SMTP service instead and it's works perfectly:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Linq;
using System.Net.Mail;
using System.Web;

namespace MyProject.MyClasses
{
public class GmailEmailService : SmtpClient
{
    // Gmail user-name
    public string UserName { get; set; }

    public GmailEmailService():
        base( ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["GmailHost"], Int32.Parse(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["GmailPort"]) )
    {
        //Get values from web.config file:
        this.UserName = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["GmailUserName"];
        this.EnableSsl = Boolean.Parse( ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["GmailSsl"] );
        this.UseDefaultCredentials = false;
        this.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(this.UserName, ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["GmailPassword"]);
    }


}

}

in the Web.Config file add the following:

  <configSections>

      <appSettings>

        <!--Smptp Server (confirmations emails)-->
        <add key="GmailUserName" value="[your user name]@gmail.com"/>
        <add key="GmailPassword" value="[your password]"/>
        <add key="GmailHost" value="smtp.gmail.com"/>
        <add key="GmailPort" value="587"/>
        <add key="GmailSsl" value="true"/>

      </appSettings>

  </configSections>

In App_Start\IdentityConfig.cs file change the SendAsync method to this code:

public class EmailService : IIdentityMessageService
{
public async Task SendAsync(IdentityMessage message)
{

        MailMessage email = new MailMessage(new MailAddress("[email protected]", "(do not reply)"), 
            new MailAddress(message.Destination));

        email.Subject = message.Subject;
        email.Body = message.Body;

        email.IsBodyHtml = true;

    using( var mailClient = new MyProject.MyClasses.GmailEmailService() )
    {
        //In order to use the original from email address, uncomment this line:
        //email.From = new MailAddress(mailClient.UserName, "(do not reply)");

        await mailClient.SendMailAsync(email);
    }

}
}

note: you will also have to add this using to the IdentityConfig.cs file:

using System.Net.Mail;

The last thing is to update the following in your AccountController file to something like that:

//
// POST: /Account/Register
[HttpPost]
[AllowAnonymous]
[ValidateAntiForgeryToken]
public async Task<ActionResult> Register(RegisterViewModel model)
{
    if (ModelState.IsValid)
    {
        var user = new ApplicationUser { UserName = model.UserName, Email = model.Email };
        var result = await UserManager.CreateAsync(user, model.Password);
        if (result.Succeeded)
        {
            //Comment the following line to prevent log in until the user is confirmed:
            //await SignInManager.SignInAsync(user, isPersistent:false, rememberBrowser:false);

            string callbackUrl = await SendEmailConfirmationTokenAsync(user.Id, "Account confirmation");

            // Uncomment to debug locally 
            // TempData["ViewBagLink"] = callbackUrl;

            ViewBag.errorMessage = "Please confirm the email was sent to you.";
            return View("ShowMsg");
        }
        AddErrors(result);
    }

    // If we got this far, something failed, redisplay form
    return View(model);
}


//
// GET: /Account/ConfirmEmail
[AllowAnonymous]
public async Task<ActionResult> ConfirmEmail(string userId, string code)
{
    if (userId == null || code == null)
    {
        return View("Error");
    }
    var result = await UserManager.ConfirmEmailAsync(userId, code);
    return View(result.Succeeded ? "ConfirmEmail" : "Error");
}


private async Task<string> SendEmailConfirmationTokenAsync(string userID, string subject)
{
    // For more information on how to enable account confirmation and password reset please visit http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=320771
    // Send an email with this link:
    string code = await UserManager.GenerateEmailConfirmationTokenAsync(userID);
    var callbackUrl = Url.Action("ConfirmEmail", "Account", new { userId = userID, code = code }, protocol: Request.Url.Scheme);
    await UserManager.SendEmailAsync(userID, subject, "Please confirm your account by <a href=\"" + callbackUrl + "\">clicking here</a>");


    return callbackUrl;
}        

and a possible view ShowMsg.cs file can be:

@{
    ViewBag.Title = "Message";
}

<h1 class="text-danger">@ViewBag.Title</h1>
@{
    if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(ViewBag.errorMessage))
    {
        <h3 class="text-danger">An error occurred while processing your request.</h3>
    }
    else
    {
        <h3 class="text-danger">@ViewBag.errorMessage</h3>
    }
}

That's it!, It works for me.

p.s: you will have to allow the "less-secure-apps" option in your gmail account. follow that gmail link

I used the following articles to write that solution:

Create a secure ASP.NET MVC 5 web app with..

ASP-NET-MVC-Confirm-Registration-Email

stackoverflow-email-using-gmail-smtp-in-asp-net-mvc-application

adding-two-factor-authentication..

how-to-send-an Anonymous Email using Gmail in ASP.Net

how-to-send-email-using-gmail-smtp-...