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I have a text file output.txt which has following content:

OPERATINGSYSTEM     PROJECTSERVER1   PROJECTSERVER2
Windows                       1.36             4.42
Linux12                       2.78             5.76
MacOS                         3.45             6.39
Ubuntu                        4.12             0.00
Android                       0.00             3.46
FreePhysicalMemory           30.12            31.65
TotalVisibleMemorySize       48.00            48.00
CPULoadPercentage                2                4

I want to send content of output.txt in a email as a body in Formatted HTML table look in Windows server 2008 R2. I am trying with below code, but its not working for me..where am I mistaking below ?

$smtpServer = "[email protected]"
$smtpFrom = "[email protected]"
$smtpTo = "[email protected]"
$messageSubject = "Servers Memory"

$message = New-Object System.Net.Mail.MailMessage $smtpfrom, $smtpto
$message.Subject = $messageSubject
$message.IsBodyHTML = $true

$message.Body = Get-Content C:\Logs\output.txt
$style = "< style>BODY{font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;}"
$style = $style + "TABLE{border: 1px solid black; border-collapse: collapse;}"
$style = $style + "TH{border: 1px solid black; background: #dddddd; padding: 5px; }"
$style = $style + "TD{border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px; }"
$style = $style + "< /style>"

$smtp = New-Object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer)
$smtp.Send($message)

EDIT1

When i modified my code as below:

$smtpServer = "[email protected]"
$smtpFrom = "[email protected]"
$smtpTo = "[email protected]"
$messageSubject = "Servers Memory"

$message = New-Object System.Net.Mail.MailMessage $smtpfrom, $smtpto
$message.Subject = $messageSubject
$message.IsBodyHTML = $true

$style = "<style>BODY{font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;}"
$style = $style + "TABLE{border: 1px solid black; border-collapse: collapse;}"
$style = $style + "TH{border: 1px solid black; background: #dddddd; padding: 5px; }"
$style = $style + "TD{border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px; }"
$style = $style + "</style>"
$message.Body = "<head><pre>$style</pre></head>"
$message.Body += Get-Content C:\Logs\output.txt

$smtp = New-Object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer)
$smtp.Send($message)

I am getting mail like this:

OPERATING SYSTEM SERVER1 SERVER2 Windows 1.36 4.42 Linux 2.78 5.76 MacOS 3.45 6.39 Android 0.00 3.46 Ubuntu 4.12 0.00 FreePhysicalMemory 30.12 31.65 TotalVisibleMemorySize 48.00 48.00

Note: I am using Powershell v1.0

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  • 1. "Not working" in which way? The more specific you are, the more likely someone will be able to identify the problem. 2. What are your intentions for $style? You're setting its value to a bunch of CSS code, but then you're not doing anything with it. It seems that there should be something like $message.Body = '<head>' + $style + '</head>' + $message.Body between the last $style = [...] statement and the $smtp = [...] statement. 3. output.txt doesn't contain HTML. It should have HTML table data, otherwise the formatting will be all wrong. Is that what's "not working"? Commented Oct 29, 2013 at 4:05

1 Answer 1

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4

Okay, the question is a little unclear, but I'll take a stab at it based on what I infer is "not working for you". I'm guessing that your script is successfully sending the message, and what's not working is that the formatting of the message is all wrong, for two reasons:

  1. output.txt is in plain text, not HTML. When rendered in HTML, the whitespace won't be preserved and there won't be any line breaks. If the whitespace consists of spaces, the consecutive spaces will be reduced to single spaces, and if it's tabs, I believe the text will all run together with no whitespace at all. I take it you were expecting $message.IsBodyHTML = $true to convert your plain text input to HTML, but that's not what it does. It just sets a property of the message that instructs mail clients to interpret the body as HTML (specifically, it sets the Content-Type header to "text/html"), but you have to actually supply it HTML code.
  2. You're setting the $style variable to a bunch of CSS code, but then you don't do anything with it. I presume you intended to add it to $message.Body. The problem with that is that you can't reliably put a style sheet in an email message; most clients will ignore it. The styles have to be inline.

output.txt should look like this:

<body style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">
  <table style = "border: 1px solid black; border-collapse: collapse;">
    <tr>
      <th style = "border: 1px solid black; background: #dddddd; padding: 5px;">OPERATINGSYSTEM</th>
      <th style = "border: 1px solid black; background: #dddddd; padding: 5px;">PROJECTSERVER1</th>
      <th style = "border: 1px solid black; background: #dddddd; padding: 5px;">PROJECTSERVER2</th>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">Windows</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">1.36</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">4.42</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">Linux12</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">2.78</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">5.76</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">MacOS</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">3.45</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">6.39</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">Ubuntu</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">4.12</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">0.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">Android</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">0.00</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">3.46</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">FreePhysicalMemory</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">30.12</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">31.65</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">TotalVisibleMemorySize</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">48.00</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">48.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">CPULoadPercentage</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">2</td>
      <td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">4</td>
    </tr>
  </table>
</body>

The PowerShell script should look like this:

$smtpServer = "[email protected]"
$smtpFrom = "[email protected]"
$smtpTo = "[email protected]"
$messageSubject = "Servers Memory"

$message = New-Object System.Net.Mail.MailMessage $smtpfrom, $smtpto
$message.Subject = $messageSubject
$message.IsBodyHTML = $true
$message.Body = Get-Content C:\Logs\output.txt

$smtp = New-Object Net.Mail.SmtpClient($smtpServer)
$smtp.Send($message)

If you can't provide output.txt in HTML because it's generated automatically in plain text, then your script will need to convert it. If the format is consistently as shown in your example, that's not too complicated. Replace the $message.Body = line with this:

$body = Get-Content C:\Logs\output.txt | Out-String
$body = $body -replace '^(\S+)\s+(\S+)\s+(\S+)', '<tr><th style = "border: 1px solid black; background: #dddddd; padding: 5px;">$1</th><th style = "border: 1px solid black; background: #dddddd; padding: 5px;">$2</th><th style = "border: 1px solid black; background: #dddddd; padding: 5px;">$3</th></tr>'
$body = $body -replace '\n(\S+)\s+(\S+)\s+(\S+)', '<tr><td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">$1</td><td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">$2</td><td style = "border: 1px solid black; padding: 5px;">$3</td></tr>'
$body = '<body><table style = "border: 1px solid black; border-collapse: collapse;">' + $body + '</table></body>'
$message.Body = $body
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3 Comments

& output.txt will always be in plain text format..because its being generated through a batch script..i can't change that..:)
Be that as it may, that doesn't change the fact that if you don't provide HTML input, you won't get HTML output (you know...the GIGO principle). All the IsBodyHTML property does is set the Content-Type header to text/html, which instructs clients to interpret the body as HTML. The results you posted in your update are exactly what I described that you'd get by rendering output.txt as HTML--no line breaks, and the whitespace reduced to single spaces. If you can't change the script that generates output.txt, you'll have to make the PowerShell script convert it to HTML.
Actually, what I've discovered is that you can't reliably include a style sheet in an email. The styles have to be inline, or most clients will ignore them.

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