Creating an Email Attachment

If you want to add an attachment to your email, you will need to add only a few lines of code to your custom controller. Email attachments are Blob file types. To create an attachment, you need to use the Apex Messaging.EmailFileAttachment class. You must define both the file name and the content of an EmailFileAttachment object.

Adding a PDF Attachment

The following example demonstrates how to transform a PageReference to a Visualforce page rendered as a PDF into an email attachment. First, create a page called attachmentPDF:

1<apex:page standardController="Account" renderAs="PDF">
2
3  <h1>Account Details</h1>
4  
5  <apex:panelGrid columns="2">
6
7      <apex:outputLabel for="Name" value="Name"/>
8      <apex:outputText id="Name" value="{!account.Name}"/>
9      
10      <apex:outputLabel for="Owner" value="Account Owner"/>
11      <apex:outputText id="Owner" value="{!account.Owner.Name}"/>
12      
13      <apex:outputLabel for="AnnualRevenue" value="Annual Revenue"/>
14      <apex:outputText id="AnnualRevenue" value="{0,number,currency}">
15          <apex:param value="{!account.AnnualRevenue}"/>
16      </apex:outputText>
17      
18      <apex:outputLabel for="NumberOfEmployees" value="Employees"/>
19      <apex:outputText id="NumberOfEmployees" value="{!account.NumberOfEmployees}"/>
20      
21  </apex:panelGrid>
22
23</apex:page>

See Best Practices for Rendering PDF Files for details of which components are recommended for use in PDF attachments.

Note

Next, create the EmailFileAttachment object in the send() method of your custom controller. The following examples must be placed before calling Messaging.sendEmail:

1// Reference the attachment page, pass in the account ID
2    PageReference pdf = Page.attachmentPDF;
3    pdf.getParameters().put('id',(String)account.id);
4    pdf.setRedirect(true);
5
6    // Take the PDF content
7    Blob b = pdf.getContent();
8
9    // Create the email attachment
10    Messaging.EmailFileAttachment efa = new Messaging.EmailFileAttachment();
11    efa.setFileName('attachment.pdf');
12    efa.setBody(b);

If your SingleEmailMessage object is named email, then you associate the attachment like this:

1email.setFileAttachments(new Messaging.EmailFileAttachment[] {efa});

Defining a Custom Component as an Attachment

By creating a custom component and using it on the Visualforce email form and to render the PDF for the email, users can see a preview of the content they are trying to send.

The following markup defines a custom component named attachment that represents the attachment for the email:

1<apex:component access="global">
2  <h1>Account Details</h1>
3  
4  <apex:panelGrid columns="2">
5
6      <apex:outputLabel for="Name" value="Name"/>
7      <apex:outputText id="Name" value="{!account.Name}"/>
8      
9      <apex:outputLabel for="Owner" value="Account Owner"/>
10      <apex:outputText id="Owner" value="{!account.Owner.Name}"/>
11      
12      <apex:outputLabel for="AnnualRevenue" value="Annual Revenue"/>
13      <apex:outputText id="AnnualRevenue" value="{0,number,currency}">
14          <apex:param value="{!account.AnnualRevenue}"/>
15      </apex:outputText>
16      
17      <apex:outputLabel for="NumberOfEmployees" value="Employees"/>
18      <apex:outputText id="NumberOfEmployees" value="{!account.NumberOfEmployees}"/>
19      
20  </apex:panelGrid>
21</apex:component>

Replace your attachmentPDF page like this:

1<apex:page standardController="account" renderAs="PDF">
2    <c:attachment/>
3</apex:page>

Then add the custom component to render at the bottom of your previous sendEmailPage:

1<apex:pageBlock title="Preview the Attachment for {!account.name}">
2    <c:attachment/>
3</apex:pageBlock>

If you want to make changes to both the attachment and the preview, the attachment custom component needs to be modified in only one location.

Example: Sending an Email with an Attachment

The following example shows the previous sendEmail example with a custom component that adds a Visualforce page as an attachment. First, the controller:

1public class sendEmail {
2    public String subject { get; set; }
3    public String body { get; set; }
4
5    private final Account account;
6
7    // Create a constructor that populates the Account object
8    public sendEmail() {
9        account = [SELECT Name, 
10                  (SELECT Contact.Name, Contact.Email FROM Account.Contacts) 
11                   FROM Account 
12                   WHERE Id = :ApexPages.currentPage().getParameters().get('id')];
13    }
14
15    public Account getAccount() {
16        return account;
17    }
18
19    public PageReference send() {
20        // Define the email
21        Messaging.SingleEmailMessage email = new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage(); 
22
23        // Reference the attachment page and pass in the account ID
24        PageReference pdf =  Page.attachmentPDF;
25        pdf.getParameters().put('id',(String)account.id); 
26        pdf.setRedirect(true);
27
28        // Take the PDF content
29        Blob b = pdf.getContent();
30
31        // Create the email attachment
32        Messaging.EmailFileAttachment efa = new Messaging.EmailFileAttachment();
33        efa.setFileName('attachment.pdf');
34        efa.setBody(b);
35
36        String addresses;
37        if (account.Contacts[0].Email != null) {
38            addresses = account.Contacts[0].Email;
39            // Loop through the whole list of contacts and their emails
40            for (Integer i = 1; i < account.Contacts.size(); i++) {
41                if (account.Contacts[i].Email != null) {
42                    addresses += ':' + account.Contacts[i].Email;
43                }
44            }
45        }
46
47        String[] toAddresses = addresses.split(':', 0);
48
49        // Sets the paramaters of the email
50        email.setSubject( subject );
51        email.setToAddresses( toAddresses );
52        email.setPlainTextBody( body );
53
54        email.setFileAttachments(new Messaging.EmailFileAttachment[] {efa});
55
56        // Sends the email
57        Messaging.SendEmailResult [] r = 
58            Messaging.sendEmail(new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage[] {email});   
59		
60        return null;
61    }
62}

Next, the Visualforce page that sends the email:

1<apex:page controller="sendEmail">
2    <apex:messages/>
3    <apex:pageBlock title="Send an Email to Your {!account.name} Representatives">
4        <p>Fill out the fields below to test how you might send an email to a user.</p>
5
6        <apex:dataTable value="{!account.Contacts}" var="contact" border="1">
7            <apex:column>
8                <apex:facet name="header">Name</apex:facet>
9                {!contact.Name}
10            </apex:column>
11            <apex:column>
12                <apex:facet name="header">Email</apex:facet>
13                {!contact.Email}
14            </apex:column>
15        </apex:dataTable>
16    
17        <apex:form><br/><br/>
18            <apex:outputLabel value="Subject" for="Subject"/>: <br/>     
19            <apex:inputText value="{!subject}" id="Subject" maxlength="80"/>
20            <br/><br/>
21
22            <apex:outputLabel value="Body" for="Body"/>: <br/>     
23            <apex:inputTextarea value="{!body}" id="Body" rows="10" cols="80"/>           
24            <br/><br/>
25
26            <apex:commandButton value="Send Email" action="{!send}"/> 
27        </apex:form>
28    </apex:pageBlock>
29
30    <apex:pageBlock title="Preview the Attachment for {!account.name}">
31        <c:attachment/>
32    </apex:pageBlock>
33</apex:page>

Visualforce Developer Guide

Creating an Email Attachment

Adding a PDF Attachment

Defining a Custom Component as an Attachment

Example: Sending an Email with an Attachment

See Also: