Control console application from Windows form application C#

Question

I have 2 applications. One of them is console application, the other is normal form application - both written in C#. I want to open (hidden from view) the console application form the windows form application and be able to send a command lines to the console application.

How can i do that?

Answer 1

You can start the background process

ProcessStartInfo startInfo = new ProcessStartInfo();
startInfo.FileName = "Myapplication.exe";
startInfo.WindowStyle = ProcessWindowStyle.Hidden;
Process process = new Process();
process.StartInfo = startInfo;
process.Start();

and after that use the Process.StandardOutput property

// This is the code for the base process
Process myProcess = new Process();
// Start a new instance of this program but specify the 'spawned' version.
ProcessStartInfo myProcessStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo(args[0], "spawn");
myProcessStartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
myProcessStartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
myProcess.StartInfo = myProcessStartInfo;
myProcess.Start();
StreamReader myStreamReader = myProcess.StandardOutput;
// Read the standard output of the spawned process.
string myString = myStreamReader.ReadLine();
Console.WriteLine(myString);

myProcess.WaitForExit();
myProcess.Close();

If you want to send commands to this process, just use Process.StandardInput Property

 // Start the Sort.exe process with redirected input.
 // Use the sort command to sort the input text.
 Process myProcess = new Process();

 myProcess.StartInfo.FileName = "Sort.exe";
 myProcess.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
 myProcess.StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;

 myProcess.Start();

 StreamWriter myStreamWriter = myProcess.StandardInput;

 // Prompt the user for input text lines to sort. 
 // Write each line to the StandardInput stream of
 // the sort command.
 String inputText;
 int numLines = 0;
 do 
 {
    Console.WriteLine("Enter a line of text (or press the Enter key to stop):");

    inputText = Console.ReadLine();
    if (inputText.Length > 0)
    {
       numLines ++;
       myStreamWriter.WriteLine(inputText);
    }
 } while (inputText.Length != 0);

Answer 2

One of possible solutions can be IPC, in particularly

NamedPipes

That is already wrapped in .NET 4.0.

Regards.