embedding image not displaying in emaill using vb.net - asp.net

Question

I am trying to display an embed an image within the body of an email. The is sent, however without the image.
Below is the code:
Dim mail As New MailMessage()
mail.[To].Add("siu07aj#reading.ac.uk")
mail.From = New MailAddress("atiqisthebest#hotmail.com")
mail.Subject = "Test Email"
Dim Body As String = "<b>Welcome to codedigest.com!!</b><br><BR>Online resource for .net articles.<BR><img alt="""" hspace=0 src=""cid:imageId"" align=baseline border=0 >"
Dim htmlView As AlternateView = AlternateView.CreateAlternateViewFromString(Body, Nothing, "text/html")
Dim imagelink As New LinkedResource(Server.MapPath(".") & "\uploads\CIMG1443.JPG", "image/jpg")
imagelink.ContentId = "imageId"
imagelink.TransferEncoding = System.Net.Mime.TransferEncoding.Base64
htmlView.LinkedResources.Add(imagelink)
mail.AlternateViews.Add(htmlView)
Dim smtp As New SmtpClient()
smtp.DeliveryMethod = SmtpDeliveryMethod.PickupDirectoryFromIis
smtp.Host = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings("SMTP")
smtp.Port = 587
'smtp.EnableSsl = True
smtp.Credentials = New System.Net.NetworkCredential(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings("FROMEMAIL"), ConfigurationManager.AppSettings("FROMPWD"))
smtp.Send(mail)
In the body of the email only the following is display:
Welcome to CodeDigest.Com!!
Any idea how I can get the CIMG1443.JPG displaying?
Thanks

Answer 1

you could try to inline the image, by converting it to a base64-string with the following method:
Public Function ImageToBase64(image As Image, format As System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat) As String
If image Is Nothing Then Return ""
Using ms As New MemoryStream()
' Convert Image to byte[]
image.Save(ms, format)
Dim imageBytes As Byte() = ms.ToArray()
' Convert byte[] to Base64 String
Dim base64String As String = Convert.ToBase64String(imageBytes)
Return base64String
End Using
End Function
Then you add the image to your HTML using something like this (where yourImage is an instance of the Image-class):
dim imageString = "<img src=""data:image/png;base64," + ImageToBase64(yourImage, ImageFormat.Png) + "="" />"
That way you would get around adding the image as resource. This worked for me in several places, even though I must admit that I haven't tryed it on hmlt emails.
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