How to send data between Class Library and Winforms (both are different projects)

Question

I'm currently working on a scenario where I am developing an activity for UiPath. The class library is a project setting where I am creating this activity. Specifically, for this activity, I am using Winforms, and the class library (activity) will launch and pass a DataTable to the WinForms project. My question is: How can I establish communication between two different projects, each having its own DLL file?

One potential solution I considered is to include both projects in the same solution. However, the activity is implemented as a class library (.NET Framework), and the WinForms project is separate. How can I reference System.Activities and System.ComponentModel in the class file that I am manually creating in the WinForms project?

Class library (Activity):

using System;
using System.Activities;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;

namespace Datatable_Visualizer_Activity
{
    public class DatatableVisualizer : CodeActivity
    {
        [DisplayName("Datatable")]
        public InArgument<DataTable> Datatable { get; set; }

        protected override void Execute(CodeActivityContext context)
        {
            DataTable dt = Datatable.Get(context);
        }
    }
}

Winforms:

using MaterialSkin;
using MaterialSkin.Controls;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing.Drawing2D;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Windows.Forms;

namespace Data_Table_Visualizer___Editor
{
    public partial class MainForm : Form
    {
        

        public MainForm()
        {
            this.DoubleBuffered = true;
            InitializeComponent();
            dataGridView.Visible = false;
            ShowLoading(true); // Show the circular progress bar
            InitializeDataGridViewAsync();
        }

        private void ShowLoading(bool show)
        {
            // Show or hide the circular progress bar based on the 'show' parameter
            progressBar.Visible = show;
        }

        private async void InitializeDataGridViewAsync()
        {
            // Use the DataTable from the event
           private DataTable dataTable = ;//Datatable which i wanted to get from activity;

            await Task.Run(() =>
            {
                // Simulate a delay for loading data (replace this with your actual data loading logic)
                System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(3000);

                // Invoke on UI thread to update UI controls
                Invoke(new Action(() =>
                {
                    // Bind the DataTable to the DataGridView
                    dataGridView.DataSource = dataTable;
                    dataGridView.DoubleBuffered(true);
                    // Auto resize columns
                    dataGridView.AutoResizeColumns();

                    // Set labels based on the initial state
                    label_TotalNoColumns.Text = "Total No Of Columns = " + dataTable.Columns.Count.ToString();
                    label_TotalNoRows.Text = "Total No Of Rows = " + dataTable.Rows.Count.ToString();
                    ShowLoading(false); // Hide the circular progress bar
                    dataGridView.Visible = true; // Show the DataGridView
                }));
            });
        }

        /* private void CreateDataTable()
        {
             int totalRows = 10000; //Billion No Rows Count 1000000000
             int totalColumns = 100;  // Ten Lakhs no rows count 1000000
             int batchSize = 10000;

             // Create columns
             for (int i = 1; i <= totalColumns; i++)
             {
                 dataTable.Columns.Add($"Column{i}", typeof(int));
             }

             // Batch processing with parallelization
             Parallel.For(0, (totalRows - 1) / batchSize + 1, batch =>
             {
                 DataTable tempTable = new DataTable("MyDataTable");

                 // Add columns to tempTable
                 foreach (DataColumn column in dataTable.Columns)
                 {
                     tempTable.Columns.Add(column.ColumnName, column.DataType);
                 }

                 for (int row = 1; row <= batchSize && (batch * batchSize) + row <= totalRows; row++)
                 {
                     DataRow dataRow = tempTable.NewRow();

                     // Assign sample values to each column
                     for (int col = 0; col < totalColumns; col++)
                     {
                         dataRow[col] = (batch * batchSize) + row;
                     }

                     tempTable.Rows.Add(dataRow);
                 }

                 lock (dataTable)
                 {
                     dataTable.Merge(tempTable);
                 }
             });
         }*/

        private void dataGridView_ColumnAdded(object sender, DataGridViewColumnEventArgs e)
        {
            e.Column.FillWeight = 10;    // <<this line will help you
        }
    }

    public static class ExtensionMethods
    {
        public static void DoubleBuffered(this DataGridView dgv, bool setting)
        {
            Type dgvType = dgv.GetType();
            PropertyInfo pi = dgvType.GetProperty("DoubleBuffered", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);
            pi.SetValue(dgv, setting, null);
        }
    }
}

And in the end both the dll file will be added into a nuget pakage for use in uipath

Answer 1

Add a reference to the class library in your WinForms project and/or write

using [location and name of class in classlibrary = namespace]

above the code in which you want to use those classes.

The classes, properties and/or methods from the class library you want to use, need to be set to public in order to be able to use them across different projects. So

public [class name] or public [propery name]