.NET Outlook Add-in and WCF/Inter-process communication

Question

Hi,

I need a tip/advice/recommendation.

I'm finishing up a Outlook Add-in developed in C#. I would like this add-in to communication with another application (let's call it Client.exe).

Client.exe and the add-in will always be running on the same computer. Client.exe is a single instance application.

What would be the easiest/most convenient way for me to allow the Add-in to communicate with the Client.exe?
Would that be WCF?
Any good resource you can recommend?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Yes, WCF is probably the way to go. MS has said themselves that the older .NET Remoting is deprecated in favor of WCF. Obviously, the core docs are on MSDN.

This link might help with WCF for IPC in .NET 4.0. (IPC = Inter-Process Communication)

Answer 2

Yes, use WCF. You can host a WCF service inside of client.exe, and the add-in can call the service. You can use any transport, but in your situation could take advantage of named pipes sending binary data.