I've read a few topics about programs that combine Windows Forms and console applications, but it seems my question hasn't been solved yet. Is it possible to run a program from cmd-line and to be able to control the application via forms and via cmd-line commands? It means:
for ordinary users of the application to control the application via (Windows Forms) forms,
for debugging and advanced users to control the application via the console (and optionally see what's happening in Windows Forms))
I know that what I want is quite a big deal, and it will probably mean a lot of work, but still I would like to know how to do it properly.
It isn't difficult, just P/Invoke the AllocConsole() API function to create your own console. For example, make your Program.cs source code file look like this:
static class Program {
[STAThread]
static void Main() {
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
#if DEBUG
CreateConsole();
#endif
Application.Run(new Form1());
}
static void CreateConsole() {
var t = new System.Threading.Thread(() => {
AllocConsole();
for (; ; ) {
var cmd = Console.ReadLine();
if (cmd.ToLower() == "quit") break;
// Etc...
}
FreeConsole();
});
t.IsBackground = true;
t.Start();
}
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
private static extern bool AllocConsole();
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
private static extern bool FreeConsole();
}
You just need to start your Windows Forms application with an ApplicationContext instead of a form itself. You are then not depending on the main form to be shown and can act like an console application.
You could also just create a command-line executable and link with the Windows Forms libraries yourself to use them.
Another way would be to use some kind of starter, that fires up the Windows Forms application, and a command line tool that communicates with the Windows Forms application over local networking, or some other inter-process communication, D-Bus or similiar systems - many ways lead to Rome...
Yes, what you want is very possible. You have options. Some I can think of...:
Use UI Automation to write a controller application that can connect to the Windows Forms application and control it. This is new in Windows Vista. There are managed classes packaged in the System.Windows.Automation namespace, which first shipped in WPF, which arrived in .NET 3.0. (Now that I think about it, I'm not sure "new in Windows Vista" is true. It may be "new in .NET 3.0" which implies it also works on Windows XP. Hmmm....) UI Automation requires no code change to the Windows Forms application, but it can be sort of low-level, because you need to program each mouse click or cut/paste. See the answer to Stack Overflow question Is there a way to control a third-party EXE file from VB.NET?.
Modify your Windows Forms application to expose its function via a WM_COPYDATA interface. Then your client application can communicate with it. Again, the model here is two distinct applications, one of which can control or interrogate the other. The .NET Reflector tool is a good example of this approach. There's a ReflectorController, available as part of the ReflectorAddins project on CodePlex. The controller is a command-line tool, that can send WM_COPYDATA messages to Reflector, to tell it to open a new assembly, navigate to a particular class, and so on.
The code for the controller:
http://reflectoraddins.codeplex.com/sourcecontrol/network/Show?projectName=reflectoraddins&changeSetId=29526#19979
This approach will work for any Windows Forms application. You will need to override the WndProc method. To see how, check The Code Project article Use WM_COPYDATA to send data to/from C++ and C# Windows processes.
I also used this approach to build a Windows Forms-based progress monitor that can visually display the progress of long-running tests.
Within your application, expose a COM server object that can be programmed. This is exactly how Microsoft exposes Office function to applications. Office Automation allows any COM-capable program (C#, VBScript, PowerShell, Perl, PHP, etc.) to "drive" Office applications. The Office application is visible while that is happening. This approach would also require additional code in your Windows Forms application; specifically you have to host a COM object and hook it up to your UI layer. This may be preferable if you want maximum flexibility for superusers - they can write their own scripts to drive that component.
I'm sure there are other options.
I remember seeing IronPython being used in a demo controlling Windows Forms from Python's command line interface (IDLE).
Edit:
I could not find the original video but this one should show what is possible without too much effort. See this video and jump to 19:00.
This would be possible. You will have to look into threading the Windows Forms form, possibly with the use of a separate application domain within the same process. You might look into creating a proxy object (a kind of message class inheriting MarshalByRefObject).
Normally when looking at your application, you have an UI layer and a business layer (and a data layer, and who knows many more layers). You can think of the console client as an UI layer (with simple command inputs) and the Windows Forms client as another one.
Simply check at application startup for command-line arguments. If there are arguments specified, instantiate the simple console classes, otherwise instantiate the (probably more complex) Windows Forms classes.
If you want your changes to reflect in the Windows Forms application (while controlling it from the console application) setup your applications as much as you can with databinding. Let your business layer reflect what's actually going on in your application.
Related
I would like to monitor button clicks in an external Windows Forms application from my own application.
I have found examples that allow me to 'click' buttons in an external application (using Windows API), but this is not what I want to do.
The reason for this is that I would like to do some logging on an external application that a company made for us. They are willing to program the logging into that application, but it is overly expensive.
Can anyone help me with this?
Regards,
Reinier
Usually this is done by installing a Windows hook. The API is SetWindowsHookEx (see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms644990(v=vs.85).aspx).
It's a really advanced task. The monitoring code can be implemented using .NET Framework and C# or VB.NET, but it would be better to use C or C++ for this.
I need to write a very small application which writes some system data to a file and then exits. I could do this in a console application but I have no need or desire for a console window to appear during this process.
I would normally use a Windows Forms application with no forms, execute the code in the Main method and then allow the application to exit, however, this time I couldn't help but wonder if this is the best way to do it and whether you could do it with a WPF application instead, what the differences are and whether or not once you've remove any forms/windows and unnecessary reference, it matters or not.
WPF and WinForms are two different libraries that show UIs.
If you never show a UI, you aren't using either of them.
You should start with a WinForms project (WPF projects set extra project metadata that you don't want), then delete the reference to System.Windows.Forms.dll.
Alternatively, start with a console project, then change the Output type to Windows Application.
Windows Forms with no window or console app with the type changes to windows application will give you the same result which is a simple app with Main() method and now windows.
WCF will only make sense if you actually want to display something as you're not going to use any of its features in your case.
I need to be able to run a Windows Forms function or event (for example a button click) from a command line. How could I do this?
I can't use a console or windows service due to certain constraints.
If you mean re-use a method in your Windows Forms application in a command line (Console) application, then simply reference the assembly containing the class and call that method, a bit like this
static void Main()
{
Form1 form = new Form1();
form.SomeButton_Click();
}
Note that for this to work the SomeButton_Click method and the Form1 class must be public. If this is what you want to do then this is a good indication that the logic contained in SomeButton_Click should be refactored to some common utility class.
If alternatively you want to simulate a button click in a running Windows Forms application then you have a couple of options
Windows Automation (simulating mouse & keyboard events from code)
Inter process communication (sending a message from your command line program to your Windows Forms program to ask it to run that method)
There are many different ways to achieve either of these however both are more complex than just calling a method - it would help if you provided more detail on your problem.
You may be able to do this with a Powershell script: UI Automation with Windows PowerShell
I am writing a plugin for a C# application and would like to add a dialog window. I have no control over the application, rather, the application loads plugins dynamically using reflection. I am a newbie with windows forms (this is a forms application) but would like to have a dialog window come up to control my plugin. How can I accomplish this?
If I just add a windows form to my application via visual studio no form appears. Application.Run has presumably already been called by the main application. I am almost completely new to forms.
How can I start the form with with my plugin (the plugin has a method that is called when it is started) and make it active?
Edit: I should clarify, the main application application window will not respond (even to minimize or maximize the window) when a plugin is running, so presumably whatever thread is devoted to handling windows messages is used to run the plugin and is, temporarily, not handling any windows messages. Thus my form needs its own thread handling windows messages.
You will need to initialize your code from whatever method the plugin architecture defined as the entry point (where the application will call your plugin).
To show a form, you can call the Show method on it.
// In a method that the plugin framework calls
myPluginForm.Show();
The application that loads your plugin should have some facility to load a window. Check the API documentation. Also, do you know if there are other plugins that can create arbitrary new windows? Usually, the host application can allow the plugin to create certain predefined (by the host) types of windows (such as config, load a file, etc...).
It might also be possible to programmaticaly create a new form and then load it. See here for an example: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.form.aspx and look for the "examples" section.
I have a GUI C# Windows form program that I would like to start as a service when the computer starts and perhaps have an icon in the system tray that when clicked maximizes the program. Is this possible without major rework?
Thanks
Windows Services cannot have a GUI, at least not directly. You will have to separate your application to a presentation layer/process and a service layer/process:
The presentation layer will remain a WinForms application
The service layer will run as a Windows Service
The two of them will have to communcate with each other with some means of inter-process communcation, like named pipes or sockets.
You can use a third party app, such as FireDaemon (http://www.firedaemon.com/), to start any program as a service. There are many options available in FireDaemon, such as form visibility, restart on failure, etc. However, it will not automatically create a tray icon for your app. So your app will have to be changed to have its own tray icon functionality and FireDaemon will just start the program and manage the process.
FireDaemon costs about $40 (USD). I imagine there are many other similar applications available.
I would first look into creating an actual service project as mentioned by other answerers, but keep this approach in mind. It has worded well for me in a handful of situations.
It depends on how the code is currently written. I have several WinForm apps that double as services, but the bulk of the work I have separated into another assembly. My solutions for those apps generally have 3 projects: WinApp, Service, and Library (I'm oversimplifying here).
If you feel that your WinForm app could make a good service then you probably have your code in such a state that you could probably separate it out easily enough. Adding a service project is pretty simple, adding the installer for it is a little more challenging but still well documented. The trickiest part is making a deployment package for it that installs the service properly, but again... its well documented as long as you know you need to look for it.
Edit: Just to clarify, in general I wouldn't consider this a major project.
You can write the code to have it run as a service, but I think the more important question is, what does it provide? There are ways of minimizing an application to the tray, and you can start said applications at launch to the system tray.
This is the link that I always refer back to about doing windows services. It is WCF based, but I think with a little modification you could make it work for you:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/317421
As to minimizing to a tray, there's an excellent answer in this question:
What's the proper way to minimize to tray a C# WinForms app?
You could use Task Manager within windows and setup a task that would execute your application's .exe per windows boot.