Passing command line arguments to WPF Core 3.0 sideloaded application

Question

I have a WPF app that runs on Core 3.0. I published it via Windows Application Packaging Project. Because it's WPF app, I needed to add this to appxmanifest:

<Extensions>
  <uap5:Extension
    Category="windows.appExecutionAlias"
    Executable="MyApp.exe"
    EntryPoint="MyApp">
    <uap5:AppExecutionAlias>
      <uap5:ExecutionAlias Alias="MyApp.exe" />
    </uap5:AppExecutionAlias>
  </uap5:Extension>
</Extensions>

Then I published the WPF app as sideloaded and it works just fine when I start it from the Windows Start menu. The problem is that I need to start it from command line and I need to pass few command line arguments. But, when I start the app from command line by typing the alias, it only passes this argument: -ServerName:App.App7adfdfg54shnsdfh87asrgsdfg1.mca which is not my argument - mine arguments are not passed at all. So then I tried to add this to my WPF .csproj file:

<Reference Include="Windows.Foundation.UniversalApiContract">
  <HintPath>C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\References\10.0.18362.0\Windows.Foundation.UniversalApiContract\8.0.0.0\Windows.Foundation.UniversalApiContract.winmd</HintPath>
  <IsWinMDFile>true</IsWinMDFile>
</Reference>

so I could call this in my WPF App.xaml.cs file:

using test = Windows.ApplicationModel.AppInstance;
...
Windows.ApplicationModel.Activation.IActivatedEventArgs args = test.GetActivatedEventArgs();

But after doing this, args are null. Any ideas how to solve this and actually pass arguments to my WPF app? Thanks.

Hi, You cannot pass parameters to the UWP app via the command line (Even WPF application). You might consider using a URI scheme instead of a command line scheme, this is the [documentation](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/launch-resume/handle-uri-activation) — Richard Zhang, Oct 17 '19 at 01:55
Where are you calling `Windows.ApplicationModel.AppInstance.GetActivatedEventArgs()`? Are you running inside the container when it's `null`? — mm8, Oct 17 '19 at 11:50
I'm calling it at the beginning of the OnStartup method in App.xaml.cs file. — Jiří Batulka, Oct 18 '19 at 12:33
@JiříBatulka Hi, is the answer from mm8 is helpful? if so, please mark it as an answer, thank you — Richard Zhang, Oct 21 '19 at 07:12
@Richard Zhang - MSFT Hi, I had to switch my priority somewhere else, I'll do it as soon as I'll try the solution. — Jiří Batulka, Oct 21 '19 at 13:20

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 22 '19 at 13:29

I was missing few lines in the .appxmanifestlines file. Add he reference:

xmlns:uap5="http://schemas.microsoft.com/appx/manifest/uap/windows10/5"

Add it to the IgnorableNamespaces:

IgnorableNamespaces="uap uap5 rescap desktop4">

And add this to AppExecutionAlias:

<uap5:AppExecutionAlias desktop4:Subsystem="console">
     <uap5:ExecutionAlias Alias="DeploymentScripts.UI.exe" />
</uap5:AppExecutionAlias>

Then it's possible to access arguments even from Environment.GetCommandLineArgs()

Passing command line arguments to WPF Core 3.0 sideloaded application

1 Answers1

Linked