I got a system of console applications written in C# running on different machines. I use MSMQ.
My questions is, how do I make my console applications communicate to each other?
I'm asking because I want to create a new console application that can be queried by other applications to know the number of messages in MSMQ.
Edit 1: Thanks for the replies and comments! About the requirements, I'm estimating maybe about 10-50/sec of queries
You need to use a pipe to achieve this: see Named pipe and anonymous pipe
A pipe works like this: The host application (the one launching the console application) has to create a pipe to catch the concole application's std output and an other one to write to the console application's std input.
There is plenty of code example in the link I gave you
Also here is a code example (using existing pipes StandardInput and StandardOutput): it starts a cmd.exe console but it is a layer over: not the actual console...see for yourself:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
using System.Threading;
namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
class Program
{
private static StreamReader reader;
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Process cmd = new Process();
cmd.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
cmd.StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
cmd.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
cmd.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
cmd.Start();
reader = cmd.StandardOutput;
StreamWriter writer = cmd.StandardInput;
Thread t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(writingThread));
t.Start();
//Just write everything we type to the cmd.exe process
while (true) writer.Write((char)Console.Read());
}
public static void writingThread()
{
//Just write everything cmd.exe writes back to our console
while (true) Console.Write((char)reader.Read());
}
}
}
You can achieve the same result by replacing the StreamReader and the StreamWriter by a port connection (socket) buffer for remote communication between two process http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.sockets.socket.aspx
It is recommended to secure the communication to minimize intrusion possibility
Here is an example of communication through a sockets...now this is running in one program but everything is on separate threads and it would work if the communication was to be on two separate machines: the server is the one controlling the process cmd.exe and the client is a viewer/writer
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
using System.Threading;
using System.Net.Sockets;
using System.Net;
namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
class Program
{
private static StreamReader reader;
private static StreamWriter writer;
static void Main(string[] args)
{
//Server initialisation
Process cmdServer = new Process();
cmdServer.StartInfo.FileName = "cmd.exe";
cmdServer.StartInfo.RedirectStandardInput = true;
cmdServer.StartInfo.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
cmdServer.StartInfo.UseShellExecute = false;
cmdServer.Start();
reader = cmdServer.StandardOutput;
writer = cmdServer.StandardInput;
Thread t1 = new Thread(new ThreadStart(clientListener));
t1.Start();
Thread t2 = new Thread(new ThreadStart(clientWriter));
t2.Start();
Thread t3 = new Thread(new ThreadStart(serverListener));
t3.Start();
Thread t4 = new Thread(new ThreadStart(serverWriter));
t4.Start();
}
public static void clientWriter()
{
Socket sock = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
Int32 size = 0;
Byte[] buff = new Byte[1024];
sock.Connect(IPAddress.Parse("127.0.0.1"), 4357);
Console.WriteLine("clientWriter connected");
while (true)
{
String line = Console.ReadLine();
line += "\n";
Char[] chars = line.ToArray();
size = chars.Length;
if (size > 0)
{
buff = Encoding.Default.GetBytes(chars);
//Console.WriteLine("Sending \"" + new String(chars, 0, size) + "\"");
sock.Send(buff, size, 0);
}
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Local client that listens to what the server sends on port 4356
/// </summary>
public static void clientListener()
{
Socket sock = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
sock.Bind(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 4356));
sock.Listen(0);
Int32 size = 0;
Byte[] buff = new Byte[1024];
Char[] cbuff = new Char[1024];
while (true)
{
Console.WriteLine("clientListener Waiting for connection");
sock = sock.Accept();
Console.WriteLine("clientListener Connection accepted " + ((sock.Connected)?"Connected" : "Not Connected"));
while ((size = sock.Receive(buff)) > 0)
{
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) cbuff[i] = (Char)buff[i];
Console.Write(cbuff, 0, size);
}
sock.Close();
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Remote server that listens to what the client sends on port 4357
/// </summary>
public static void serverListener()
{
Socket sock = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
sock.Bind(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 4357));
sock.Listen(0);
Int32 size = 0;
Byte[] buff = new Byte[1024];
Char[] cbuff = new Char[1024];
while (true)
{
Console.WriteLine("serverListener Waiting for connection");
sock = sock.Accept();
Console.WriteLine("serverListener Connection accepted " + ((sock.Connected) ? "Connected" : "Not Connected"));
while ((size = sock.Receive(buff)) > 0)
{
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) cbuff[i] = (Char)buff[i];
//Console.WriteLine("Received \"" + new String(cbuff,0,size) + "\"");
writer.Write(cbuff, 0, size);
}
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Remote server that writes the output of the colsole application through the socket
/// </summary>
public static void serverWriter()
{
Socket sock = new Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp);
Int32 size = 0;
Byte[] buff = new Byte[1024];
Char[] cbuff = new Char[1024];
sock.Connect(IPAddress.Parse("127.0.0.1"), 4356);
Console.WriteLine("serverWriter connected");
while (true)
{
size = reader.Read(cbuff, 0, 1024);
if (size > 0)
{
for (int i = 0; i < size; i++) buff[i] = (Byte)cbuff[i];
sock.Send(buff, 0, size, 0);
}
}
}
}
}
testable and extendable - can be easily changed to work between computers.
you have a few methods. "named pipes" can be achieved easily using WCF. its nice because its very testable.
best performance you can use memory mapped files http://weblogs.asp.net/gunnarpeipman/archive/2009/06/21/net-framework-4-0-using-memory-mapped-files.aspx
they have AMAZING performance. BUT less harder to test.
easiest - if you have very low traffic you can use the registry. theres a Regisrty class in C# its threadsafe and fast.
WCF. WCF, WCF, WCF, WCF.
Don't bother reinventing the wheel, just use WCF for communications, and let it worry about the details (whether using a pipe or some other mechanism).
