Once app is launched to Azure, the confirmation email is not being sent. Anyone know why?

Question

Hi I created an app in asp.net which requires user authentication. I've activated the 'Email confirmation' option. This worked fine with a local db, but once on azure, doesn't work. the code for the email confirmation is as follows:

public Task SendAsync(IdentityMessage message)
        {
            
            return Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
            {
            sendMail(message);
        });

    }

    
    void sendMail(IdentityMessage message)
    {
        #region formatter
       
        string html =  message.Body;
      

      
        #endregion

        MailMessage msg = new MailMessage();
        msg.From = new MailAddress(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Email"].ToString());
        msg.To.Add(new MailAddress(message.Destination));
        msg.Subject = message.Subject;
      
        msg.AlternateViews.Add(AlternateView.CreateAlternateViewFromString(html, null, MediaTypeNames.Text.Html));

        SmtpClient smtpClient = new SmtpClient("smtp-mail.outlook.com", Convert.ToInt32(587));
        System.Net.NetworkCredential credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Email"].ToString(), ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["Password"].ToString());
        smtpClient.Credentials = credentials;
        smtpClient.EnableSsl = true;
        smtpClient.Send(msg);
    }

}

I tried sendgrid, but it didn't seem to work, so I used outlook.

This is the code for the Register part :

   public async Task<ActionResult> Register(RegisterViewModel model)
    {
        if (ModelState.IsValid)
        {
            var user = new ApplicationUser { UserName = model.Email, Email = model.Email };
            var result = await UserManager.CreateAsync(user, model.Password);
            if (result.Succeeded)
            {                   
            string callbackUrl = await SendEmailConfirmationTokenAsync(user.Id, "Confirm your account");                 

                ViewBag.Message = "Check your email and confirm your account. You must confirm your email " + "before you can log in.";

                return View("Info");

                              }
            else 
            { return View("Error"); }

            AddErrors(result);
        }

and finally the code for the last part

private async Task<string> SendEmailConfirmationTokenAsync(string userID, string subject)
        {
            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 clicking <a href=\"" + callbackUrl + "\">here</a>");

            return callbackUrl;
        }

Answer 1

When your code runs in Azure it may not have access to Outlook, this could explain why emails are not being sent.

SendGrid is a recommended method for sending emails from the Azure function, web job, or any app. There is a good explaination of how to use SendGrid here: https://blog.mailtrap.io/azure-send-email/#What_do_I_need_to_send_emails_from_Azure

Answer 2

Finally got it working. Actually it worked previously when I tried it, but the confirmation went to my spam folder... Doh.

    public async Task SendAsync(IdentityMessage message)
    {
        // Plug in your email service here to send an email.

         var apiKey = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SendGridAPI"];
                   var client = new SendGridClient(apiKey);
        var from = new EmailAddress("your email address", "your name");
        var subject = message.Subject;
        var to = new EmailAddress(message.Destination);
        var plainTextContent = message.Body;
        var htmlContent = message.Body;
        var msg = MailHelper.CreateSingleEmail(from, to, subject, plainTextContent, htmlContent);
        var response = await client.SendEmailAsync(msg);


    }