get dynamic access to an already running application in C#

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Hello.
I am writing a piece of code that employs ObjectAPI of an application. The API documentation has examples showing how to dynamically run a new instance of the application. The examples show:

C#

string pathToExe = System.IO.Path.Combine(System.Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("PROGRAMFILES"), "CompanyName", "ProductName", "app.exe");
System.Reflection.Assembly AppAssembly = System.Reflection.Assembly.LoadFrom(pathToExe);
someObject theObject= (someObject)AppAssembly.CreateInstance("someObjectTypeString");
theObject.ApplicationStart();

the last line causes the application to start and further manipulation to the application is provided through objects available inside "theObject".
The object "theObject" is actually responsible for actions like starting and exiting the application.

My intention is: instead of creating a new instance of application (i.e. starting a new session of it) get handle of an already running one and perform custom actions on it.
I guess the "AppAssembly.CreateInstance()" method must be replaced by some other one such as "getInstance()" but my search could not bring any results.

I would be thankful if someone could help me.

Posted 17-Dec-13 4:38am

SAJalal

Updated 17-Dec-13 4:42am

Ron Beyer

v2

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mohitsaxena1 · Answer 1 · 2013-12-17T07:01:00

Hi Ron,

I hope that these chunk resolve the problem.

C#

public static Process RunningInstance()
     {
         Process current = Process.GetCurrentProcess();
         Process[] processes = Process.GetProcessesByName(current.ProcessName);

         //Loop through the running processes in with the same name
         foreach (Process process in processes)
         {
             //Ignore the current process
             if (process.Id != current.Id)
             {
                 //Make sure that the process is running from the exe file.
                 if (Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location.
                      Replace("/", "\\") == current.MainModule.FileName)
                 {
                     //Return the other process instance.
                      return process;

                 }
             }
         }
         //No other instance was found, return null.
         return null;
     }

C#

if (Form1.RunningInstance() != null)
           {
               MessageBox.Show("Duplicate Instance");
               //TODO:
               //Your application logic for duplicate
               //instances would go here.
               Form1.RunningInstance().Kill();
           }
           else
           {
               RunningInstance();
           }

Thanks
Mohit