I made some project-template which implements this stuff, using windows-messaging.
The template is huge and contains some other stuff (like localization, updates, formclosing, clipboard, and an interface for documents, this way the actions in the MDI can be easily forwarded to the MDI-children).
If you want to view the template, try this link (or this link)
Some of the code:
Win32.cs:
public partial class Win32
{
//public const int WM_CLOSE = 16;
//public const int BN_CLICKED = 245;
public const int WM_COPYDATA = 0x004A;
public struct CopyDataStruct : IDisposable
{
public IntPtr dwData;
public int cbData;
public IntPtr lpData;
public void Dispose()
{
if (this.lpData != IntPtr.Zero)
{
LocalFree(this.lpData);
this.lpData = IntPtr.Zero;
}
}
}
[DllImport("user32.dll")]
public static extern int SendMessage(IntPtr hWnd, int Msg, IntPtr wParam, ref CopyDataStruct lParam);
[DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
public static extern IntPtr LocalAlloc(int flag, int size);
[DllImport("kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
public static extern IntPtr LocalFree(IntPtr p);
}
Program.cs:
static class Program
{
static Mutex mutex = new Mutex(true, guid());
static string guid()
{
// http://stackoverflow.com/questions/502303/how-do-i-programmatically-get-the-guid-of-an-application-in-net2-0
Assembly assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
var attribute = (GuidAttribute)assembly.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(GuidAttribute), true)[0];
return attribute.Value;
}
static int MainWindowHandle
{
get
{
return Settings.Default.hwnd;
}
set
{
Settings sett = Settings.Default;
sett.hwnd = value;
sett.Save();
}
}
public static string GetFileName()
{
ActivationArguments a = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ActivationArguments;
// aangeklikt bestand achterhalen
string[] args = a == null ? null : a.ActivationData;
return args == null ? "" : args[0];
}
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
if (mutex.WaitOne(TimeSpan.Zero, true))
{
#region standaard
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
#endregion
#region Culture instellen
string cult = CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.Name;
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new CultureInfo(cult);
Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo(cult);
#endregion
MainForm frm = new MainForm();
MainWindowHandle = (int)frm.Handle;
Application.Run(frm);
MainWindowHandle = 0;
mutex.ReleaseMutex();
}
else
{
int hwnd = 0;
while (hwnd == 0)
{
Thread.Sleep(600);
hwnd = MainWindowHandle;
}
if (hwnd != 0)
{
Win32.CopyDataStruct cds = new Win32.CopyDataStruct();
try
{
string data = GetFileName();
cds.cbData = (data.Length + 1) * 2; // number of bytes
cds.lpData = Win32.LocalAlloc(0x40, cds.cbData); // known local-pointer in RAM
Marshal.Copy(data.ToCharArray(), 0, cds.lpData, data.Length); // Copy data to preserved local-pointer
cds.dwData = (IntPtr)1;
Win32.SendMessage((IntPtr)hwnd, Win32.WM_COPYDATA, IntPtr.Zero, ref cds);
}
finally
{
cds.Dispose();
}
}
}
}
}
MainFrom.cs:
[PermissionSet(SecurityAction.Demand, Name = "FullTrust")]
protected override void WndProc(ref Message m)
{
switch (m.Msg)
{
case Win32.WM_COPYDATA:
Win32.CopyDataStruct st = (Win32.CopyDataStruct)Marshal.PtrToStructure(m.LParam, typeof(Win32.CopyDataStruct));
string strData = Marshal.PtrToStringUni(st.lpData);
OpenFile(strData);
Activate();
break;
default:
// let the base class deal with it
base.WndProc(ref m);
break;
}
}
It even works when launching up to 15 files at once.
