如何在Visual Studio中的网站上使用控制台应用程序？

Question

Please read the following in the Visual Studio 2012 context:

I have two projects--one is a website (File --> New Website) and another is a console application (File --> New Project --> Windows --> Console Application). I am the author of the former.

The standalone app fakes the input by hardcoding it, runs through some code, and creates an output. It uses dlls from a local installation of software that I have installed on my machine to generate this output.

I read on MSDN that I cannot add a console app to a website solution in a useful manner. So, if I compile the console app to output a dll instead of an exe, can I reference that dll in my website? How can I do this exactly? I would need to pass the input value from the website to the dll, and return meaningful results from the dll. Is this possible?

Answer 1

Yes, you describe a feasible way to solve this. You need to create a class library project, add source code from console application to it, except the the class that has static Main method and modify (add to) that source code such that there is a class that you will be able instantiate from the code in your web application after you add the class library assembly to the web application as a reference. This class will have a method with appropriate parameters, that you will call. All this assuming that the task that console application code performs is fast and will not create noticeable delay in the web application response. If the task takes a long time, you will either have to run it in a background thread or move it outside the web application - the latter is significantly more involved.