- Enables
you to create long-running executable applications that run in their own
windows session.
- Can be
automatically started when the computer boots, can be paused and restarted
without any user interaction.
- Easily
installable by running the command line utility InstallUtil.exe and
passing the path to the service's executable file.
One of the most common requirements of some businesses is long-running scheduled jobs based on some time interval. For example: sending a newsletter everyday afternoon or send an email alert to the customer for every one hour.
So building a Windows Service could be one of the reliable solutions to do the goal that can do the required job in the behind the scenes without interfering others users on the same computer.
Introduction
This article explains a step-by-step process of developing and installing a Windows Service to do a scheduled job based on a time interval.
Open Visual Studio and from the menus select "File" -> "New" -> "Project...".
A New Project window will open. Choose "Visual C#" >> "Windows" project type and select "Windows Service" from the right hand side and name the project "TestWindowsService" as shown in the following screenshot.
After you click "OK", the project will be created and you will see the design view of the service as shown in the following screen. Right-click the "Service1.cs" file in Solution Explorer and rename it "to" Scheduler or any other name that you want to give it. Then click “click here to switch to code view”.
In
the code view, you can see two methods called OnStart() and OnStop(). The
OnStart() triggers when the Windows Service starts and the OnStop() triggers
when the service stops.
Right-click
the TestWindowService project, add a new class and name it
"Library.cs". This class will be useful to create the methods that we
require in the project. If your TestWindowService is a big project, you can
create a ClassLibrary project and reference it to your TestWindowService.
Library.cs
Make the class public and declare it as a Static class.
Make the class public and declare it as a Static class.
Create
a log method (WriteErrorLog) to log the exceptions.
Create
one more log method (WriteErrorLog) to log the custom messages.
Scheduler.cs
Now return to our Scheduler.cs file and declare a Timer.
Now return to our Scheduler.cs file and declare a Timer.
Write
the following code in the OnStart() method and timer1_Tick():
Write
the following code in the OnStop() method:
Scheduler.cs [Design]
Now return to the Scheduler.cs [Design] and right-click on the editor window then click "Add Installer".
Now return to the Scheduler.cs [Design] and right-click on the editor window then click "Add Installer".
Then
you can see that there will be a new file called
"ProjectInstaller.cs" as shown in the following.
Right-click
on the "serviceInstaller1" and click "Properties".
Change
the ServiceName to "Test Windows Service" (or your own name) and
StartType to "Manual" (or you can choose "Automatic" if you
need this service to be automatic).
Right-click the serviceProcessInstaller1, go to the
properties window and change "Account" to "LocalSystem".
Build
the project to see the .exe file at the location where you created the
solution.
That's all. Your Windows Service is all ready to install in
your machine.
Installing the Windows Service
Go to "Start" >> "All Programs" >> "Microsoft Visual Studio 2012" >> "Visual Studio Tools" then click "Developer Command Prompt for VS2012".
Type the following command:
cd <physical location of your TestWindowService.exe file>
in my case it is :
cd C:\Sandbox\WindowServices\TestWindowService\TestWindowService\bin\Debug
Installing the Windows Service
Go to "Start" >> "All Programs" >> "Microsoft Visual Studio 2012" >> "Visual Studio Tools" then click "Developer Command Prompt for VS2012".
Type the following command:
cd <physical location of your TestWindowService.exe file>
in my case it is :
cd C:\Sandbox\WindowServices\TestWindowService\TestWindowService\bin\Debug
Next type the following command:
InstallUtil.exe “TestWindowService.exe”
InstallUtil.exe “TestWindowService.exe”
and press Enter.
Here
you go, the TestWindowService is installed successfully.
How
to start the Windows Service
Since we chose StartType = Manual, we must start the Windows Service manually by visiting the "Services and Applications" window in the computer.
Since we chose StartType = Manual, we must start the Windows Service manually by visiting the "Services and Applications" window in the computer.
Select
the Test Windows Service and click "Start" to start the service. Go
to the "TestWindowService.exe" location to see the logs.
LogFile.txt
Since we are tracking our Windows Service by writing some logs to a .txt file called LogFile.txt, we can test the working condition of our Windows Service by looking at this log file.
LogFile.txt
Since we are tracking our Windows Service by writing some logs to a .txt file called LogFile.txt, we can test the working condition of our Windows Service by looking at this log file.
As you can see in the preceding screen, you can find the
LogFile.txt file at the physical location that your TestWindowService solution
exists.
Click the LogFile.txt to see the logs, whether our service is doing the job that we set it to do for every 30 seconds.
Click the LogFile.txt to see the logs, whether our service is doing the job that we set it to do for every 30 seconds.
If you look at the preceding log file, we can prove that our
Windows Service is running and doing the job that we wanted on a 30 seconds
interval.
Stop the Windows Service
To stop the Windows Service, just click "Stop" link in the Services window by selecting our TestWindowService.
Logfile after stopping our service:
Stop the Windows Service
To stop the Windows Service, just click "Stop" link in the Services window by selecting our TestWindowService.
Logfile after stopping our service:
Type the following two commands in the "Developer
Command Prompt for VS2012" to uninstall the TestWindowService.exe.
- cd
<physical location of your TestWindowService.exe file>
and press Enter. In my case it is:
cd C:\Sandbox\WindowServices\TestWindowService\TestWindowService\bin\Debug - InstallUtil.exe
/u “TestWindowService.exe”
And press enter.
After executing the preceding commands, the TestWindowService will be uninstalled from your computer.
Summary
In this article, I explained how to develop a Windows Service and install it using InstallUtil.exe from a command prompt.
In this article, I explained how to develop a Windows Service and install it using InstallUtil.exe from a command prompt.
