Sharing Data between 2 applications

Question

Hi I thought it would be a very common problem to share data between 2 (let's say C#) applications on the same machine. There are many solutions on the web but I guess better solutions might exist. I don't want solutions like: Remoting Piping Sockets Data files Clip Board or Databases. I want an asynchronous way of sharing data without using the file system (files or database). The best technique I've seen so far is MSMQ. Are there any better ways for doing that? Thanks in advance

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Where did I say  language nobody else uses ? You said  it's different from everyone else's  and I replied with  probably using it incorrectly . Use of the correct terminology is critical to getting assistance. If no one understands what you need you will be very lucky if you get a useful answer. A possible alternative to MSMQ is Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS). I am still not sure what your requirements are but BITS is used for many things; for example I think BITSis used by Windows Update to download updates.

Dee Jay · Answer

Dear Sam Please accept my apologies if my reply offended you. I had a resource discussing the problem and I got this term from it. However I went back to it to check and found out that I was wrong and that the term used to describe my case is different than synchronous. So I admit that I was wrong but I still believe that describing someones' question as a language nobody else uses is inappropriate for somebody trying to help. Thanks for helping

Sam Hobbs · Answer

You won't get much help with that attitude. I am familiar with the term asynchronous and you are probably using it incorrectly. Can you find an example use of the term in the manner you are using it? See Synchronous and Overlapped Pipe I/O ; it says that pipes can perform I/O  either synchronously or asynchronously . Therefore your statement that pipes cannot be asynchronous is incorrect. See also Asynchronous serial communication ; in Asynchronous start/stop operation it says the sender and receiver must agree; in other words there is both a sender and a receiver executing for the asynchronous operation. See also Asynchronous I/O ; in  Implementation  it says that most implementations of I/O uses either polling or interrupts  both of which require a program at both ends.

Dee Jay · Answer

Believe me I didn't invent the word  asynchronous.. it's the term used in this context and if it's different from your definition then it doesn't mean that it's different from everyone else's.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Perhaps your definition of asynchronous is different from everyone else's. You say  applications might be turned off  and if I understand what you are saying then that is not what asynchronous is. I am only vaguely familiar with MSMQ but I assume you are saying it could work because it will (if it does) store the data until your application is ready for it. Is that what you mean? I cannot help much more but I think you will have better success finding what you need if you are more clear about what you need.

Dee Jay · Answer

The bid disadvantage of Remoting Piping and Sockets in my case is that I need an asynchronous way which they don't provide. One of the 2 applications might be turned off while the other application is sending/writing data. Plus there's a considerable performance issue in here. My case might include many start/kill for the applications/processes and therefore many construction/deconstruction in the case of the sockets. In the case of Remoting each call of the wanted procedures implies many protocol messages back and forth between the 2 processes and therefore an unnecessary overhead. That's how I see it please correct me if I'm wrong. However the shared memory idea sounds reasonable I'll start reading about it.

Sam Hobbs · Answer

Remoting Piping and Sockets do not use the file system so I don't understand the problem. A very common alternative is shared memory but since I don't know why you don't want to use Remoting Piping or Sockets I don't know if shared memory would be better.

mihir soni · Answer

You can use xml because its very light and it ll work fine.