WPF / Console Hybrid Application

Question

I writing an application what can either be run on the command line, or with a WPF UI.

[STAThread]
static void Main(string[] args)
{
    // Does magic parse args         


        

Answer 1

Your best bet would be to abstract out the code that actually does the work to a separate class library that has no UI and then create two applications one Console, the other WPF that call this.

A console application and an WPF application have entirely different application models so you can't reuse the same code in both applications.

Having a separate class library allows you do other things like use it in other applications such as a web site or client/server architecture.

Answer 2

You can conditionally start your WPF application by performing the following steps with the sample below.

1. Add another entry point with the 'Main' method declarated with STAThreadAttribute. This is required by WPF.

2. Under your project's 'Build' properties, choose 'Console Application' as your output and your new 'Main' method as the application's 'Startup Object'.

   using System;
   
   public static class Program
   {
       [STAThreadAttribute]
       public static void Main()
       {
           Console.WriteLine("What now?");
           Console.ReadKey(true);
   
           App.Main();
       }
   }
   

Answer 3

I know I'm a little late to the party, but figured I could toss in my two cents. You could always keep it as a console application, and then hide the console as per this answer (https://stackoverflow.com/a/3571628/1059953). There is a moment of the console being displayed, then it disappears and the window shows up.

Answer 4

Create a WPF app and add the following code to your App class:

public partial class App
{
    protected override void OnStartup(StartupEventArgs e)
    {
        if (e.Args.Length > 0)
        {                
            List<string> lowercaseArgs = e.Args.ToList().ConvertAll(x => x.ToLower());
            if (AttachConsole(ATTACH_PARENT_PROCESS))
            {
                // your console app code                

                Console.Write("\rPress any key to continue...");
                Console.ReadKey();
                FreeConsole();
            }
            Shutdown();
        }
        else
        {
            base.OnStartup(e);
        }
    }

    private const int ATTACH_PARENT_PROCESS = -1;

    [DllImport("kernel32", SetLastError = true)]
    private static extern bool AttachConsole(int dwProcessId);

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    private static extern bool FreeConsole();
}