What to use to make two .net programs transfer information

Question

I currently have two programs that need to comunicate one with another. It doesn't have to be something complicated, it's just passing data from one to another, all very simple. I was thinking of using .net remoting, but I've heard there's a new thing WCF. Should I go for the .net remoting or try WCF? Or is there something simpler to use?

edit: Both applications are simple, I don't want to have anything to do with IIS, services and such.

Thanks

Where are the two programs? On the same computer? And how complex is the data? Just messages? or full RPC? — Marc Gravell, Aug 27 '09 at 05:32
Both on the same computer, and it's just transferring text and bytes from one side to the other. — devoured elysium, Aug 27 '09 at 05:32

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 27 '09 at 05:33

5

use WCF with named pipes binding, here you can find useful examples

answered Aug 27 '09 at 05:33

Arsen Mkrtchyan

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score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 27 '09 at 05:35

WCF has a bit of a learning curve, but it's a very powerful communication framework. If you have some time to learn it, I'd recommend that over .NET remoting.

If you just need a super-simple mechanism, you could just write data to a file, then read it from the other program (assuming same machine). If it has to go over the network, using a plain Socket in .NET isn't too bad.

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

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The magic phrase is "inter-process communication". Then you'll be able to find answers like this.

edited May 23 '17 at 12:26

Community

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answered Aug 27 '09 at 05:40

DSO

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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 27 '09 at 05:33

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I've used .Net remoting for this in the past, and its worked very well for me. Its very simple and straightforward for something like you describe.

answered Aug 27 '09 at 05:33

jsight

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 27 '09 at 05:35

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If you look into WCF now, I really don't think you would regret later. WCF is great and useful for this purpose.

answered Aug 27 '09 at 05:35

Ezombort

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score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 27 '09 at 05:52

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If you want something really simple, just put the data in a database or a file.

answered Aug 27 '09 at 05:52

Lance Roberts

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What to use to make two .net programs transfer information

6 Answers6