Send HTML email from VBScript using CDO
Summary: VBScript to send HTML (and plain text) email.
It's 2013 and apparently there are no tools that would allow you to easily send HTML-formatted email.Don't get me wrong: of course, Outlook, Thunderbird, Gmail, or whatever client you use, allows (and sometimes forces) you to send email in HTML format, but what if you want to test a format of a message that your application (code) and not you (person) sends? What do you use? Sure, both Outlook and Thunderbird allow you to insert an HTML file as the body of the text, but as soon as you do, they alter your HTML source in a way you you would not imagine, so that the delivered message will show little resemblance to the original.
After wasting several hours with existing email clients and trying available scripting samples (e.g. the ones written by Paul Sadowski and Rob Vanderwoude), I decided to do it the right way and wrote a little utility that would take your HTML file and send it without making any changes to the source code. Lo and behold, here is a VBScript file that you can use for sending email messages:
IMPORTANT: This script requires the helper Common.vbs file to be located in the same folder (or in the PATH).
SendMail.wsf script takes email body from command line or retrieves it from a file. It supports both HTML and plain text formats. You can send your message via a remote mail server or using the local SMTP service. You can also include attachments with the message.Here is the usage info (you can get this output by running the script with the /? or /h command-line switch):
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 | cscript //nologo SendMail.wsf /hDESCRIPTION: Sends an email.USAGE: cscript SendMail.wsf [/option[:parameter[;...]]] [...]OPTIONS: from Email From address. to Email To address. Use comma to separate multiple addresses. cc [Optional] Email CC address. Use commas to separate multiple addresses. bcc [Optional] Email BCC address. Use commas to separate multiple addresses. subject [Optional] Email Subject line. [Default: TEST] body Plain text, HTML text, or path to file containing email message. smtp [Optional] SMTP server. [Default: localhost] port [Optional] SMTP server port. [Default: 25] html [Optional] Indicates whether email message format is HTML. [Values: yes|no|y|n|true|false|t|f] [Default: no] file [Optional] Indicates whether the [/body] parameter points to a file. [Values: yes|no|y|n|true|false|t|f] [Default: no] charset [Optional] Specifies character set of the email text (or HTML text). [Default: utf-8] add [Optional] Indicates paths to file attachments. Multiple files must be separated by semicolons. |
This is how you would invoke the script:
Example 1: Send HTML-formatted email with email body defined in a file and with two JPEG file attachments using local SMTP service
cscript SendMail.wsf /from:me@mail.com /to:a@b.com /cc:"b@c.com,c@d.com" /subject:"Hey!" /body:Test.html /html:y /file:y /add:"a.jpg;b.jpg"
Example 2: Send plan text email using a remote SMTP servercscript SendMail.wsf /from:me@mail.com /to:a@b.com /cc:"b@c.com,c@d.com" /subject:"Hey!" /body:"How are you?" /html:n /file:n /smtp:"smtp.server.com"
TIP: If you reference files when invoking the script (such as attachments or file containing message body), make sure that you use ether absolute path or path relative to the current directory; otherwise you may get the "File not found" error.
And here is the source code, in case you need to take a peek at the logic:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 | <!------------------------------------------------------------------- -- DESCRIPTION -- Sends email message with optional attachments. ------------------------------------------------------------------><package><job ID="SendMail"><script Language="VBScript" Src="Common.vbs" /><script Type="text/vbscript">Option ExplicitConst SWITCH_FROM = "from"Const SWITCH_TO = "to"Const SWITCH_CC = "cc"Const SWITCH_BCC = "bcc"Const SWITCH_SUBJECT = "subject"Const SWITCH_BODY = "body"Const SWITCH_SERVER = "smtp"Const SWITCH_PORT = "port"Const SWITCH_HTML = "html"Const SWITCH_FILE = "file"Const SWITCH_ADD = "add"Const SWITCH_CHARSET = "charset"Const SWITCH_ADD_DELIMETER = ";"Wscript.Quit(Main())'--------------------------------------------------------------------' Method' Main'' Description' Performs the main operation.'--------------------------------------------------------------------Function Main() Dim strFrom, strTo, strCc, strBcc, strSubject, strBody Dim strServer, nPort Dim bIsHtml, bIsFile Dim strCharset Dim arAttachments Dim i Main = -1 ' Make sure the script is executed via cscript (not wscript). RevertToCscript(False) ' Show help if needed. If (IsHelpMode(False)) Then ShowHelp() Main = 0 Exit Function End If ' Initialize run-time parameters. If Not Initialize _ ( _ strFrom, strTo, strCc, strBcc, strSubject, strBody, _ strServer, nPort, bIsHtml, bIsFile, strCharset, _ arAttachments _ ) Then Exit Function End If ' Make sure that all files (if any) exist. If (bIsFile) Then If Not FileExists(GetAbsolutePath(strBody)) Then WScript.Echo "File '" & strBody & "' does not exist." Exit Function End If End If If GetArraySize(arAttachments) > 0 Then For i = LBound(arAttachments) To UBound(arAttachments) If Not FileExists(GetAbsolutePath(arAttachments(i))) Then WScript.Echo "File '" & arAttachments(i) & "' does not exist." Exit Function End If Next End If ' Get contents of the message body from a file. If (bIsFile = True) Then strBody = ReadTextFromFileEx(GetAbsolutePath(strBody), strCharset) End If SendEmail _ strFrom, strTo, strCc, strBcc, _ strSubject, strBody, strServer, nPort, _ bIsHtml, strCharset, arAttachments Main = 0 WScript.Echo "Done."End Function'--------------------------------------------------------------------' Method' SendEmail'' Description' Sends email using CDO.'' Parameters' Self-explinatory'--------------------------------------------------------------------Sub SendEmail _( _ ByVal strFrom, _ ByVal strTo, _ ByVal strCc, _ ByVal strBcc, _ ByVal strSubject, _ ByVal strBody, _ ByVal strServer, _ ByVal nPort, _ ByVal bIsHtml, _ ByVal strCharSet, _ ByRef arAttachments _) ' Standard housekeeping Dim i, oEmail ' Create an e-mail message object Set oEmail = CreateObject("CDO.Message") ' Fill in the field values With oEmail .From = strFrom .To = strTo If Not IsEmptyString(strCc) Then .Cc = strCc End If If Not IsEmptyString(strBcc) Then .Bcc = strBcc End If .Subject = strSubject If bIsHtml = True Then .HTMLBody = strBody .HTMLBodyPart.charset = strCharset Else .TextBody = strBody .TextBodyPart.charset = strCharset End If If GetArraySize(arAttachments) > 0 Then For i = LBound(arAttachments) To UBound(arAttachments) .AddAttachment Replace(GetAbsolutePath(arAttachments(i)), "\", "\\" ), "", "" Next End If If Not IsEmptyString(strServer) Then With .Configuration.Fields .Update End With End If ' Send the message .Send End With ' Release the e-mail message object Set oEmail = NothingEnd Sub'--------------------------------------------------------------------' Method' Initialize'' Description' Processes command-line switches and initializes run-time' parameters.'' Returns' True on success; otherwise, False.'' Parameters' Self-explinatory'--------------------------------------------------------------------Function Initialize _( _ ByRef strFrom, _ ByRef strTo, _ ByRef strCc, _ ByRef strBcc, _ ByRef strSubject, _ ByRef strBody, _ ByRef strServer, _ ByRef nPort, _ ByRef bIsHtml, _ ByRef bIsFile, _ ByRef strCharset, _ ByRef arAttachments _) Initialize = False Dim strValue, strErrMsg strErrMsg = "Missing required parameter: " strFrom = GetParamValue(SWITCH_FROM) If (IsEmptyString(strFrom)) Then WScript.Echo strErrMsg & SWITCH_FROM Exit Function End If strTo = GetParamValue(SWITCH_TO) If (IsEmptyString(strTo)) Then WScript.Echo strErrMsg & SWITCH_TO Exit Function End If strCc = GetParamValue(SWITCH_CC) strBcc = GetParamValue(SWITCH_BCC) strSubject = GetParamValue(SWITCH_SUBJECT) If (IsEmptyString(strSubject)) Then strSubject = "TEST" End If strBody = GetParamValue(SWITCH_BODY) If (IsEmptyString(strBody)) Then WScript.Echo strErrMsg & SWITCH_BODY Exit Function End If strServer = GetParamValue(SWITCH_SERVER) strValue = GetParamValue(SWITCH_PORT) If (IsEmptyString(strValue)) Then nPort = 25 Else nPort = CInt(strValue) End If strValue = GetParamValue(SWITCH_HTML) If (IsEmptyString(strValue)) Then bIsHtml = False Else strValue = UCase(strValue) If (strValue = "YES") Or (strValue = "Y") Or _ (strValue = "TRUE") Or (strValue = "T") Then bIsHtml = True Else bIsHtml = False End If End If strValue = GetParamValue(SWITCH_FILE) If (IsEmptyString(strValue)) Then bIsFile = False Else strValue = UCase(strValue) If (strValue = "YES") Or (strValue = "Y") Or _ (strValue = "TRUE") Or (strValue = "T") Then bIsFile = True Else bIsFile = False End If End If strValue = GetParamValue(SWITCH_CHARSET) If (IsEmptyString(strValue)) Then strCharset = "utf-8" Else strCharset = strValue End If arAttachments = GetParamValues(SWITCH_ADD, SWITCH_ADD_DELIMETER) Initialize = TrueEnd Function'--------------------------------------------------------------------' Function' ShowHelp'' Description' Displays help and usage info.'--------------------------------------------------------------------Sub ShowHelp() Dim strMsg ' help message ' We know that user wants to see help, so generate help message. strMsg = _ "DESCRIPTION:" & vbCrLf &_ vbCrLf &_ " Sends an email." & vbCrLf &_ vbCrLf &_ "USAGE:" & vbCrLf &_ vbCrLf &_ " cscript " & Wscript.ScriptName &_ " [/option[:parameter[" & SWITCH_ADD_DELIMETER & "...]]] [...]" & vbCrLf &_ vbCrLf &_ "OPTIONS:" & vbCrLf &_ vbCrLf &_ " " & SWITCH_FROM & vbCrLf &_ " Email From address." & vbCrLf &_ vbCrLf &_ " " & SWITCH_TO & vbCrLf &_ " Email To address. Use comma to separate multiple addresses." & vbCrLf &_ vbCrLf &_ " " & SWITCH_CC & vbCrLf &_ " [Optional] Email CC address. Use comma to separate multiple addresses." & vbCrLf &_ vbCrLf &_ " " & SWITCH_BCC & vbCrLf &_ " [Optional] Email BCC address. Use comma to separate multiple addresses." & vbCrLf &_ vbCrLf &_ " " & SWITCH_SUBJECT & vbCrLf &_ " [Optional] Email Subject line. " & vbCrLf &_ " [Default: TEST]" & vbCrLf &_ vbCrLf &_ " " & SWITCH_BODY & vbCrLf &_ " Plain text, HTML text, or path to file containing email message." & vbCrLf &_ vbCrLf &_ " " & SWITCH_SERVER & vbCrLf &_ " [Optional] SMTP server." & vbCrLf &_ " [Default: localhost]" & vbCrLf &_ vbCrLf &_ " " & SWITCH_PORT & vbCrLf &_ " [Optional] SMTP server port." & vbCrLf &_ " [Default: 25]" & vbCrLf &_ vbCrLf &_ " " & SWITCH_HTML & vbCrLf &_ " [Optional] Indicates whether email message format is HTML." & vbCrLf &_ " [Values: yes|no|y|n|true|false|t|f]" & vbCrLf &_ " [Default: no]" & vbCrLf &_ vbCrLf &_ " " & SWITCH_FILE & vbCrLf &_ " [Optional] Indicates whether the [/" & SWITCH_BODY & "] parameter points to a file." & vbCrLf &_ " [Values: yes|no|y|n|true|false|t|f]" & vbCrLf &_ " [Default: no]" & vbCrLf &_ vbCrLf &_ " " & SWITCH_CHARSET & vbCrLf &_ " [Optional] Specifies character set of the email text (or HTML text)." & vbCrLf &_ " [Default: utf-8]" & vbCrLf &_ vbCrLf &_ " " & SWITCH_ADD & vbCrLf &_ " [Optional] Indicates paths to file attachments." & vbCrLf &_ " Multiple files must be separated by semicolons." Wscript.Echo strMsgEnd Sub</script></job></package> |
