Open window designed in WPF from external exe and receive return values from methods

Question

Is there some "new/better" way to open a WPF window and get some return object when it closes than using COM?

Or is it still - in year 2014 - the way to go?

Something like this:

[Guid("14B55D90-E07B-4DC9-B2EE-25F15607518B")]
[ComVisible(true)]
public interface ComInterface
{
    [DispId(0)]
    void ShowWindow();
}

[Guid("CC01974D-82E2-4E9E-A48C-562D3ED83459")]
[ComVisible(true)]
[ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.None)]
[ComDefaultInterface(typeof(ComInterface))]

public class ComClass: ComInterface
{
    public void ShowWindow()
    {
        MainWPFWindow window = new MainWPFWindow();
        window.Show();
    }
}

You could use [C++/CLI](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163852.aspx) for example. Depends on what the "external exe" is. — floele, Apr 10 '14 at 18:01
@floele The other exe would be a second wpf application and a excel/word addin. — Rand Random, Apr 10 '14 at 19:20
Well, from a second WPF application you can just reference the other DLL and call whatever classes you like? If the addin is also developed using .NET you can do the same. So why even consider COM? — floele, Apr 10 '14 at 20:04
@floele I cannot reference to a DLL i need to be able to tell a running exe to open a window and get some values that this instance of the application already holds. — Rand Random, Apr 10 '14 at 20:23
OK then we are talking about inter process communication. There are many options... .NET remoting, Windows messages, named pipes, etc. If you just want to tell another app to open a Window, a simple SendMessage() will suffice though. — floele, Apr 10 '14 at 20:25
@floele could you provide some links? For the topics you mentioned. — Rand Random, Apr 10 '14 at 20:30

score 1 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:27

1

What you are apparently looking for is inter-process communication. With .NET, you have various options, among the following:

Windows messages (it boils down to SendMessage and handling these in WPF, or WM_COPYDATA if you need to transfer more data than just integers)
Named pipes
.NET remoting
Other libraries built on top of these like XDMessaging

Here is another list for IPC methods: Interprocess Communications

edited May 23 '17 at 12:27

Community

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answered Apr 10 '14 at 20:37

floele

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Thanks, will have a look at it, if its what I need I gona accept your answer for now a +1 must be enough. :) – Rand Random Apr 10 '14 at 20:50

Open window designed in WPF from external exe and receive return values from methods

1 Answers1