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

Question

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.