Creating Windows Services and using Migrated Code

When you want to create a windows service, you can take the long route as described in the articles below - or take the short route which is:

Creating a windows service, the short story

Step 1 add a reference

Add a reference to System.ServiceProcess

Step 2 Create the Service Class

Add the MyService class

class MyService : System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase
    {
        System.Threading.Thread theThread;
        protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
        {
            theThread =  ENV.Common.RunOnNewThread(() => {
                Application.Run();
            },false);
        }
        protected override void OnStop()
        {
            // you are welcome to stop the service in a less agressive way then killing the thread :)
            // just set some static field that is used as the Exit condition of the controller with the loop
            theThread.Abort();
        }
    } 

Step 3, run the service when the application starts

In the Program.cs add the following lines:

[System.STAThread]
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            try
            {
                Init(args);
                if (!System.Environment.UserInteractive)
                {
                    System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase.Run(new MyService());
                    return;
                }
                Application.Run();
                ENV.UserSettings.FinalizeINI();
            }
            catch(System.Exception e)
            {
                ENV.ErrorLog.WriteToLogFile(e, "TOTAL CRASH");
                System.Environment.ExitCode = 1;
                ENV.Common.ShowExceptionDialog(e);
            }
        } 

Setup the Service:

simply use the sc.exe to register the service. Here's an example

sc.exe create "Northwind Service"  binpath="c:\Northwind\Northwind.exe"

And you're done.

Creating windows service, the long way

Here are a set of videos i've created a few years ago with a more conventional explanation on how to create a windows service.

• Creating and installing a windows service
• Configuring service project to stop and start the service
• Adding functionality to a windows service
• Preparing a program in the migrated code for the service demo
• Calling migrated code from a windows service

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