Send email with attachment in C++

Question

I am working on a project in C++, which includes a feature of sending information to someone as 'email attachment'.

Everything is done except this 'email' thing. I do not know how to make this program able to send an email without using any email client or opening a browser. I have searched a lot over the internet but could not find any working thing (I do not have any knowledge of socket, Winsock, etc).

Answer 1

I am not sure I agree with what you are doing in spying the users on what they do, but regardless here is some C++ code useful to send emails:

#define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <fstream.h>
#include <iostream.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include <winsock2.h>

#pragma comment(lib, "ws2_32.lib")

// Insist on at least Winsock v1.1
const VERSION_MAJOR = 1;
const VERSION_MINOR = 1;

#define CRLF "
"                 // carriage-return/line feed pair

void ShowUsage(void)
{
  cout << "Usage: SENDMAIL mailserv to_addr from_addr messagefile" << endl
       << "Example: SENDMAIL smtp.myisp.com rcvr@elsewhere.com my_id@mydomain.com message.txt" << endl;

  exit(1);
}

// Basic error checking for send() and recv() functions
void Check(int iStatus, char *szFunction)
{
  if((iStatus != SOCKET_ERROR) && (iStatus))
    return;

  cerr << "Error during call to " << szFunction << ": " << iStatus << " - " << GetLastError() << endl;
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
  int         iProtocolPort        = 0;
  char        szSmtpServerName[64] = "";
  char        szToAddr[64]         = "";
  char        szFromAddr[64]       = "";
  char        szBuffer[4096]       = "";
  char        szLine[255]          = "";
  char        szMsgLine[255]       = "";
  SOCKET      hServer;
  WSADATA     WSData;
  LPHOSTENT   lpHostEntry;
  LPSERVENT   lpServEntry;
  SOCKADDR_IN SockAddr;

  // Check for four command-line args
  if(argc != 5)
    ShowUsage();

  // Load command-line args
  lstrcpy(szSmtpServerName, argv[1]);
  lstrcpy(szToAddr, argv[2]);
  lstrcpy(szFromAddr, argv[3]);

  // Create input stream for reading email message file
  ifstream MsgFile(argv[4]);

  // Attempt to intialize WinSock (1.1 or later)
  if(WSAStartup(MAKEWORD(VERSION_MAJOR, VERSION_MINOR), &WSData))
  {
    cout << "Cannot find Winsock v" << VERSION_MAJOR << "." << VERSION_MINOR << " or later!" << endl;

    return 1;
  }

  // Lookup email server's IP address.
  lpHostEntry = gethostbyname(szSmtpServerName);
  if(!lpHostEntry)
  {
    cout << "Cannot find SMTP mail server " << szSmtpServerName << endl;

    return 1;
  }

  // Create a TCP/IP socket, no specific protocol
  hServer = socket(PF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
  if(hServer == INVALID_SOCKET)
  {
    cout << "Cannot open mail server socket" << endl;

    return 1;
  }

  // Get the mail service port
  lpServEntry = getservbyname("mail", 0);

  // Use the SMTP default port if no other port is specified
  if(!lpServEntry)
    iProtocolPort = htons(IPPORT_SMTP);
  else
    iProtocolPort = lpServEntry->s_port;

  // Setup a Socket Address structure
  SockAddr.sin_family = AF_INET;
  SockAddr.sin_port   = iProtocolPort;
  SockAddr.sin_addr   = *((LPIN_ADDR)*lpHostEntry->h_addr_list);

  // Connect the Socket
  if(connect(hServer, (PSOCKADDR) &SockAddr, sizeof(SockAddr)))
  {
    cout << "Error connecting to Server socket" << endl;

    return 1;
  }

  // Receive initial response from SMTP server
  Check(recv(hServer, szBuffer, sizeof(szBuffer), 0), "recv() Reply");

  // Send HELO server.com
  sprintf(szMsgLine, "HELO %s%s", szSmtpServerName, CRLF);
  Check(send(hServer, szMsgLine, strlen(szMsgLine), 0), "send() HELO");
  Check(recv(hServer, szBuffer, sizeof(szBuffer), 0), "recv() HELO");

  // Send MAIL FROM: <sender@mydomain.com>
  sprintf(szMsgLine, "MAIL FROM:<%s>%s", szFromAddr, CRLF);
  Check(send(hServer, szMsgLine, strlen(szMsgLine), 0), "send() MAIL FROM");
  Check(recv(hServer, szBuffer, sizeof(szBuffer), 0), "recv() MAIL FROM");

  // Send RCPT TO: <receiver@domain.com>
  sprintf(szMsgLine, "RCPT TO:<%s>%s", szToAddr, CRLF);
  Check(send(hServer, szMsgLine, strlen(szMsgLine), 0), "send() RCPT TO");
  Check(recv(hServer, szBuffer, sizeof(szBuffer), 0), "recv() RCPT TO");

  // Send DATA
  sprintf(szMsgLine, "DATA%s", CRLF);
  Check(send(hServer, szMsgLine, strlen(szMsgLine), 0), "send() DATA");
  Check(recv(hServer, szBuffer, sizeof(szBuffer), 0), "recv() DATA");

  // Send all lines of message body (using supplied text file)
  MsgFile.getline(szLine, sizeof(szLine));             // Get first line

  do         // for each line of message text...
  {
    sprintf(szMsgLine, "%s%s", szLine, CRLF);
    Check(send(hServer, szMsgLine, strlen(szMsgLine), 0), "send() message-line");
    MsgFile.getline(szLine, sizeof(szLine)); // get next line.
  } while(MsgFile.good());

  // Send blank line and a period
  sprintf(szMsgLine, "%s.%s", CRLF, CRLF);
  Check(send(hServer, szMsgLine, strlen(szMsgLine), 0), "send() end-message");
  Check(recv(hServer, szBuffer, sizeof(szBuffer), 0), "recv() end-message");

  // Send QUIT
  sprintf(szMsgLine, "QUIT%s", CRLF);
  Check(send(hServer, szMsgLine, strlen(szMsgLine), 0), "send() QUIT");
  Check(recv(hServer, szBuffer, sizeof(szBuffer), 0), "recv() QUIT");

  // Report message has been sent
  cout << "Sent " << argv[4] << " as email message to " << szToAddr << endl;

  // Close server socket and prepare to exit.
  closesocket(hServer);

  WSACleanup();

  return 0;
}

plenty of links on internet for a similar problem, I've found this:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vclanguage/thread/12345906-8a17-41c2-846f-fd3e1a135238/