Question

I’m facing a problem with an Internet application I’m working on right now (programming in C#).

I have to create a report and then send it via email to a certain user. After I create the report, I save it first into a temporary file, then attached it to the email giving the file path.

It’s working on my computer because I have the administrator right, but it doesn’t for my coworkers who don’t have the admin right on their computer.

The file path I’m using is:

string filePath = Path.Combine(
    Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.InternetCache), 
    fileName
);

Is there any temporary repository I can use that doesn’t require admin rights?

Thanks.

Answer 1

If you’re using the built in mail classes in .Net, there’s really no reason you need to write the attachment to a file at all, unless whatever is generating the report requires it.

This would work, assuming your report generator doesn’t require file output and can just return bytes.

            SmtpClient smtpClient = new SmtpClient(); //do whatever else you need to do here to configure this
            byte[] report = GetReport();//whatever your report generator is
            MailMessage m = new MailMessage();
            //add your other mail fields (body, to, cc, subject etc)
            using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(report))
            {
                m.Attachments.Add(new Attachment(stream,"reportfile.xls"));//just guessing, use the right filename for your attachment type
                smtpClient.Send(m);  //note that we send INSIDE this using block, because it will not actually read the stream until you send
                                     //and you want to make sure not to dispose the stream before it reads it
            }