Add command line support to Winforms application

Question

i have changed my Main:

[STAThread]
static void Main(string[] args)
{
    if (args.Length == 0)
    {
        Application.EnableVisualStyles();
        Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
        Application.Run(new fForm());
    }
    else
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Yay! I have just created a commandline tool.");
    }
}

But how can i print this massage Console.WriteLine(...) ? currently nothing happen when send argument into my exe file

Are you looking for [`Environment.UserInteractive`](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.environment.userinteractive.aspx)? — Brad Christie, May 01 '14 at 13:07
What kind of Visual Studio project is it? Windows Forms or Console Application? — Patrick Hofman, May 01 '14 at 13:12
user3328870: Did you follow the link Brad gave you to find out? — Ken White, May 01 '14 at 13:12
Windows Forms, user@Ken White: yes i saw but i didn't understand — user3328870, May 01 '14 at 13:14
@BradChristie UserInteractive just tells you that you're running an application within a visible desktop. i.e. not a Windows Service. — Peter Ritchie, May 01 '14 at 14:11
You can create a separate project as a console application that drives the logic for you application and if called with no augments will launch your GUI application — BenCamps, May 01 '14 at 21:35

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered May 01 '14 at 13:27

4

If you're okay with the console always being visible, you can change your project's Output Type (in project properties) to "Console Application."

answered May 01 '14 at 13:27

adv12

8,443
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i don't want to see the console while using form, maybe the best option is to add another console application project into my solution ? – user3328870 May 01 '14 at 13:36
That's a possibility. You could try to keep all the business logic in a project that both UI's reference... – adv12 May 01 '14 at 13:57

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:11

Duplicate question answer here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/15079092/666899

Essentially, what you have to do is manually create the console window via Win32 (pinvoke).

edit: To further clarify, you cannot have a console if your app is set to Windows Application, and you cannot rid of the Console if your app is a console application and you only want UI. Either way you have to call the native Win32 functions to either hide the console, or create it depending on the situation.

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered May 01 '14 at 13:20

0

If you check the Output window in Visual Studio you'll probably find that it has the WriteLine message in it. Because there's nothing after it the application exits at that point which may appear as if nothing has happened

answered May 01 '14 at 13:20

rh072005

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Yes i saw it, and if i want to return a list of the commands to the user (like console application) ? – user3328870 May 01 '14 at 13:23
Then I think Dan's answer above is probably the best thing to look at – rh072005 May 01 '14 at 13:27

Add command line support to Winforms application

3 Answers3