So, I keep getting asked - here and on other sites, how to generate random characters - say, for creating a new password or creating a unique identifier - or just because you want to generate random characters for no specific reason, but to have them at your disposal. So, I started looking around and didn't really find anything here - or on the other sites that I belong to. With that in mind, I created this simple example on how to generate the random password - and email it to someone.
It's a simple process and I hope you find it helpful.
SO! Essentially what I did, first, was create a "public string" called "GeneratePassword()" and had it return a value that I called later in my project.
While, yes it is true, that I COULD do this all in one function... but where's the fun in that? For this tutorial, it also shows how to call one thing into another.
Also, please note that I do realize that this is not the only way to do it... it's just one way that I thought would be easy for most people.
public string GeneratePassword()
{
//Since I'm big on security, I wanted to generate passwords that contained numbers, letters and special
//characters - and not easily hacked.
//I started with creating three string variables.
//This one tells you how many characters the string will contain.
string PasswordLength = "12";
//This one, is empty for now - but will ultimately hold the finised randomly generated password
string NewPassword = "";
//This one tells you which characters are allowed in this new password
string allowedChars = "";
allowedChars = "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0";
allowedChars += "A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,S,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z,";
allowedChars += "a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,l,m,n,o,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y,z,";
allowedChars += "~,!,@,#,$,%,^,&,*,+,?";
//Then working with an array...
char[] sep = { ',' };
string[] arr = allowedChars.Split(sep);
string IDString = "";
string temp = "";
//utilize the "random" class
Random rand = new Random();
//and lastly - loop through the generation process...
for (int i = 0; i < Convert.ToInt32(PasswordLength); i++)
{
temp = arr[rand.Next(0, arr.Length)];
IDString += temp;
NewPassword = IDString;
//For Testing purposes, I used a label on the front end to show me the generated password.
//lblProduct.Text = IDString;
}
return NewPassword;
}
Now, let's take this to the next step and have it sent to someone who just forgot their password and needs it reset.
For the sake of argument, there's a form on this website where a user had to put in some information and their email address... and just clicked the "Send New Password" button.
Here's the code-behind:
protected void btnSendPassword_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//create your variables
string strSubject = "Your Password Has Been Reset";
string strFromEmail = "me@mywebsite.com";
string strFromName = "My Website Administrator";
string strNewPassword = GeneratePassword().ToString(); //This is where you'd call the new password string.
try
{
//create the new mail message[/color]
MailMessage MailMsg = new MailMessage();
//cretate the FROM[/color]
MailMsg.From = new MailAddress(strFromEmail);
//create the subject[/color]
MailMsg.Subject = strSubject;
//We obviously need to create the TO - otherwise it goes nowhere.
MailMsg.To.Add(txtEmail.Text); //assuming there was a form to fill out and they put the right email address in.
MailMsg.IsBodyHtml = true; //I decided to make it html - so I could format the text.
MailMsg.Body = "<h1>The following email was sent to you by " + strFromName + ".</h1><br />";
MailMsg.Body += "<p>Apparently, you needed your password reset - So here it is: <br />";
MailMsg.Body += "New Password <b>" + strNewPassword + "</b><br />";
MailMsg.Body += "If you didn't request this, then - oops, you might wanna think about changing it, now. "</b>";
MailMsg.Body += "<p>Click the following link to change your password:</p>";
MailMsg.Body += "<p>http://www.mywebsite.com/passwordChangeThing/Default.aspx</P>";
//utilizing SMTP (simple mail transfer protocol)
SmtpClient smtp = new SmtpClient();
smtp.Host = "email.mywebsite.com"; //if my domain had a way of sending out emails.
smtp.Send(MailMsg); //send it
lblMessage.Text = "Message Sent Successfully"; //tell the person that the email was sent.
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
lblMessage.Text = "Error: " + ex.ToString(); //or tell the person that they screwed up and it's all their fault.... or what the actual error was.
}
}
That's it. Enjoy! If this tutorial was helpful in any way, and you thought it was good, then I was happy to do it.
Please feel free to leave comments at the bottom and, even boost my reputation.
If not, than please tell me ("nicely") that you hated it and never want me to do another one as long as I live under penalty of Bobo the Clown - King of the Underworld, where no amount of peanut M&M's will get me out of there.
Have a great day!
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