UPDATE 10/25/2010:
Avoid using Environment.CommandLine. It appears much easier, but isn’t as robust. I learned a while ago that the command line arguments can be accessed using Environment.CommandLine. This is only different than the process below in that it is way easier and the first argument is the full path of the executable. So all this work is not exactly necessary, right? Wrong! I tried Environment.CommandLine for a while and it didn’t last. There are times when this executable is launched by another executable and the Environment.CommandLine is not set even though the other executable launched this executable with parameters. So I had to return to using the steps below anyway.

Ok, so I wanted to handle command line parameters, which is easy in every other language, however, the need for easy was overlooked in WPF. It is not obvious and you are not going to figure it out without being told how to do it.

Microsoft provides a sample here, you can look at.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa972153.aspx

I am going to walk you through creating a new WPF Project in Visual Studio 2008. Then I will walk you through handling command line parameters (arguments).

1. Open Visual Studio 2008.
2. Go to File | New | Project.
3. Under Visual C#, choose WPF Application and give the project a name and then hit OK.
4. Go to Project | ProjectName Properties (where ProjectName is the name of your project).
5. In the Properties of you project, click on Debug.
6. Enter three parameters intothe Command line arguments text field: Param1 Param2 Param3
7. Close the properties window.
8. Double-click on App.xaml to open it. It looks like this:

   <Application x:Class="ParametersForWPF.App"
       xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
       xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
       StartupUri="Window1.xaml">
       <Application.Resources>
   
       </Application.Resources>
   </Application>
   

9. Add a carriage return after StartupUri=”Window1.xaml” and start type inside the bracket the word Startup=. As soon as you see an equals sign you will get a pop up with the words . Double-click on that. The name Application_Startup will automatically be added.

   <Application x:Class="ParametersForWPF.App"
       xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
       xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
       StartupUri="Window1.xaml"
       Startup="Application_Startup">
       <Application.Resources>
   
       </Application.Resources>
   </Application>
   

   Note: This will also automatcially update the App.xaml.cs file which originally looks as follows:

   using System.Windows;
   
   namespace ParametersForWPF
   {
       /// <summary>
       /// Interaction logic for App.xaml
       /// </summary>
       public partial class App : Application
       {
       }
   }
   

   But after adding the Startup=”Application_Startup” line, a function called Application_Startup is automatically added.

   using System;
   using System.Collections.Generic;
   using System.Configuration;
   using System.Data;
   using System.Linq;
   using System.Windows;
   
   namespace ParametersForWPF
   {
       /// <summary>
       /// Interaction logic for App.xaml
       /// </summary>
       public partial class App : Application
       {
   
           private void Application_Startup(object sender, StartupEventArgs e)
           {
   
           }
       }
   }
   

10. Now we only want to work with arguments if there are some, so lets add an if statement inside the Application_Startup function as shown:

            private void Application_Startup(object sender, StartupEventArgs e)
            {
                if (e.Args.Length > 0)
                {
    
                }
            }
    

11. Ok, so the next step is to create a public static string[] member variable to hold the arguments and assign the arguments array to it. I called my member variable mArgs. I use prefix it with m so I know it is a member variable.

    using System;
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    using System.Configuration;
    using System.Data;
    using System.Linq;
    using System.Windows;
    
    namespace ParametersForWPF
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Interaction logic for App.xaml
        /// </summary>
        public partial class App : Application
        {
            public static String[] mArgs;
    
            private void Application_Startup(object sender, StartupEventArgs e)
            {
    
                if (e.Args.Length > 0)
                {
                    mArgs= e.Args;
                }
            }
        }
    }
    

12. Now, in order to access the data in Windows1.xaml.cs, just call the App.mArgs array in the constructor as shown.

            public Window1()
            {
                InitializeComponent();
                String[] args = App.mArgs;
    
            }
    

13. Put a break point on the line and start with debugging and sure enough you will see your arguments properly assigned to the String[] args variable. So you now have your parameters accessible in your WPF application.Hope this helps you.
    

    ---

    Copyright ® Rhyous.com – Linking to this article is allowed without permission and as many as ten lines of this article can be used along with this link. Any other use of this article is allowed only by permission of Rhyous.com.