Question

I need to access a static property from a console application (NServiceBus selfhost) while the console application is running. Is this possible?

When the NServiceBus console is executed, a static property is set in my starup class:

    public static IBus Bus { get; private set; }

    public static void Init()
    {
        Bus = NServiceBus.Configure.With()
            .Log4Net()
            .DefaultBuilder()
            .XmlSerializer()
            .MsmqTransport()
                .IsTransactional(false)
                .PurgeOnStartup(false)
            .UnicastBus()
                .LoadMessageHandlers()
                .ImpersonateSender(false)
            .CreateBus()
            .Start();
    }

Another class within the NServiceBus console application calls for the static bus property. I am only referencing the associated console application dll to obtain this message object. I create this message object to call it’s public method “SendRouteMessageReceived”. However, I need to set the bus here to the bus that was instantiated during execution of the NServiceBus console (shown in code above).

public class OrderMessaging
{
    public IBus Bus { get; set; }

    public void SendRouteMessageReceived(LabRoutingUpdateMessage routingUpdateMessage)
    {
        Bus.Send(new RouteMessageReceived(routingUpdateMessage));
    }

}

C# code from my WPF application to instantiate the message object and send the message to NServiceBus:

MyBus.OrderManagement.OrderMessaging routeMessageReceived = new MyBus.OrderManagement.OrderMessaging();

I use the following code from my WPF application to start the NServiceBus (selfhost)console application:

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("MyApplication.exe");

Can someone provide example code how I might execute a console application from within a WPF application and access a static property that was instantiated in the console app?

Update: I must add that the Bus object is started a separate host console exe, while I also start the “Message” NServiceBus console separately via this code:

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("MyApplication.exe"); (this is the exe where the bus is instantiated – this is the selfhost service bus console application)

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("NServiceBus.Host.exe"); (this is the service host where my message object class is used in my wpf application)

Is there a better way to start both services outside visual studio to keep the static bus property shared between both hosted services?

Answer 1

My advise: Don’t. You want interprocess communication through messaging (ie via NServiceBus and MSMQ). Not via windows api and other complicated stuff.
Define your messages in a separate assembly. Define your Init function (bootstrap method) in a shared assembly and give each application its own static IBus, wich is initialized once at the start of each application through the Init function.
I suspect you want a basic publisher / subscriber construction. A nice example to accomplish this is given here.