sending values to a VB.Net exe

26 Apr 2006 8:50 PM

javier.gomez

is it possible to send values to a VB.Net exe? For example can I run
an exe sending the value of 5 and having the application show a message
box with a number 5?

26 Apr 2006 9:23 PM

Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]

<javier.go***@gmail.com> schrieb:

> is it possible to send values to a VB.Net exe? For example can I run
> an exe sending the value of 5 and having the application show a message
> box with a number 5?

There are different ways to archive this: .NET Remoting, IPC mechanisms
such as named pipes etc., 'SendMessage' + 'WM_COPYDATA' (Win32), old DDE,
....

--
M S Herfried K. Wagner
M V P <URL:http://dotnet.mvps.org/>
V B <URL:http://classicvb.org/petition/>

26 Apr 2006 9:43 PM

Jim Wooley

> is it possible to send values to a VB.Net exe? For example can I run
> an exe sending the value of 5 and having the application show a
> message box with a number 5?

If you just want to start an application and pass parameters, that is relatively
easy. You would just check the System.Environment.CommandLine values and
act on them accordingly.

If you want to send the value to an already running application, there are
two main options for you here. Neither are the easiest to deal with. In the
first option, your application creates a remoting channel which another application
would use and send the message through the channel including the new value.

You could also do this with a single instance application (easier in 2005)
by using a combination of the above. You send the arguments through the commandline
to start a "new" instance of the application. The new application checks
to see if it is already running. If so, it passes the parameters through
a channel to the running instance and then kills itself. The running instance
can then act on the message appropriately.

I have an article on Single Instance Winforms at http://devauthority.com/blogs/jwooley/archive/2005/07/28/318.aspx

Jim Wooley