CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#winformsapiloggingipc
Festivejelly
Festivejelly

Reputation: 690

How to send strings to a WinForms application from another application using methods

I have an EXE that I've created called logger which is a simple WinForms application. It has a richtextbox and that's pretty much it.

I then also have a suite of other applications. What I want to be able to do with these apps is to be able to get them to write output to the logger.exe I have full control over the code of all applications.

I understand I could do a process.start and specify arguments but I want these apps to be able to write to the richtextbox at will based on the methods being called within them.

I was hoping I could create an api in the logger.exe that would expose a method for appending the richtextbox.

Does anyone have any tips on how I might achieve this?

EDIT: This is what I have so far:

namespace ScreenLog
{
  [ServiceBehavior(ConcurrencyMode = ConcurrencyMode.Reentrant, InstanceContextMode = InstanceContextMode.Single)]
  public partial class Logger : Form, IFromClientToServerMessages
  {
      public Logger()
      {
          InitializeComponent();
      }

      public void DisplayTextOnServerAsFromThisClient(string text)
      {    
          LogConsole.AppendText(Environment.NewLine + text);
      }
  }
  [ServiceContract(SessionMode = SessionMode.Allowed)]
  public interface IFromClientToServerMessages
  {
      [OperationContract(IsOneWay = false)]
      void DisplayTextOnServerAsFromThisClient(string message);
  }
}

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1194

Answers (1)

Kurubaran
Kurubaran

Reputation: 8902

As you might have already guessed you would need any of IPC(Inter Process Communication) mechanism to send messages between different processes(Applications). WCF is one of the option, You could implement a simple WCF service module which uses net.pipe binding. This service can be hosted in managed application. In your case this service can be hosted in your logger application.

Note: If you want to host a WCF application in a managed application, Particular managed application(Logger) should have admin privilege.

Implementation of Logger Form

partial class declaration

[ServiceBehavior(ConcurrencyMode = ConcurrencyMode.Reentrant, InstanceContextMode = InstanceContextMode.Single)]
public partial class Logger: Form, IFromClientToServerMessages

Introduce Interface for communication

This interface should be added to a assembly which is accessible by both Logger application and any other application which sends message to logger.

[ServiceContract(SessionMode = SessionMode.Allowed)]
   public interface IFromClientToServerMessages
   {
       [OperationContract(IsOneWay = false)]
       void DisplayTextOnServerAsFromThisClient(string message);
   }

Implementing Interface

Add the following method implementation to your Logger form

public void DisplayTextOnServerAsFromThisClient(string text)
{
  //Add proper logic to set value to rich text box control.    
  richtextbox = text;
}

Hosting the WCF service in logger application

Invoke HostTheNetPipeService() within the constructor of Logger Form

private void HostTheNetPipeService()
{
  serverHost = new ServiceHost(this);
  serverHost.AddServiceEndpoint((typeof(IFromClientToServerMessages)), new NetNamedPipeBinding(), "net.pipe://127.0.0.1/Server");
  serverHost.Open();
}

Call the service from other applications to send message/text

private void SendMessageToLogger()
{
    using (ChannelFactory<IFromClientToServerMessages> factory = new ChannelFactory<IFromClientToServerMessages>(new NetNamedPipeBinding(), new EndpointAddress("net.pipe://localhost/Server")))
    {
       IFromClientToServerMessages clientToServerChannel = factory.CreateChannel();
                try
                {
                    clientToServerChannel.DisplayTextOnServerAsFromThisClient("Message to be displayed");
                }
                catch (Exception ex)
                {                   
                }
                finally
                {
                    CloseChannel((ICommunicationObject)clientToServerChannel);
                }
            }
        }

Closing the communication channel

private void CloseChannel(ICommunicationObject channel)
{
  try
  {
     channel.Close();
  }
  catch (Exception ex)
  {

  }
  finally
  {
     channel.Abort();
  }
}

Upvotes: 2

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