Re: Windows Services

From: Jay B. Harlow [MVP - Outlook] (Jay_Harlow_MVP_at_msn.com)
Date: 05/17/04 

Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 10:32:34 -0500

Eric,
Are you doing too much work in the OnStart method?

Have you tried debugging your service:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/vsdebug/html/vxtskdebugginwindowsservice.asp

Normally what I do is include a healthy amount of event log messages (via
.EventLog) especially in any asynchronous events that may be raised within
the service. Plus I will include Debug.Write & Trace.Write in strategic
locations.

Something like:

Public Class MyService
    Inherits System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase

    Private WithEvents Timer1 As System.Timers.Timer

    Public Sub New()
        MyBase.New()

        ' This call is required by the Component Designer.
        InitializeComponent()

        ' Add any initialization after the InitializeComponent() call

        AddHandler AppDomain.CurrentDomain.UnhandledException, _
            AddressOf AppDomain_UnhandledException
    End Sub

    Protected Overrides Sub OnStart(ByVal args() As String)
        ' Add code here to start your service. This method should set things
        ' in motion so your service can do its work.
        Timer1.Start()
    End Sub

    Protected Overrides Sub OnStop()
        ' Add code here to perform any tear-down necessary to stop your
service.
        Timer1.Stop()
    End Sub

    Private Sub Timer1_Elapsed(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As
System.Timers.ElapsedEventArgs) Handles Timer1.Elapsed
        Try
            EventLog.WriteEntry("Timer elapsed handler started",
EventLogEntryType.Information)
            ' Do work here
            EventLog.WriteEntry("Timer elapsed handler finished",
EventLogEntryType.Information)
        Catch ex As Exception
            EventLog.WriteEntry(ex.ToString(), EventLogEntryType.Error)
        End Try
    End Sub

    Private Sub AppDomain_UnhandledException(ByVal sender As Object, _
            ByVal e As UnhandledExceptionEventArgs)
        EventLog.WriteEntry(e.ExceptionObject.ToString(),
EventLogEntryType.Error)
    End Sub

End Class

Note EventLog is inherited from ServiceBase and will be the normal event log
for your service, you can override ServiceBase.EventLog if you want to use a
different Event log.

I configure Debug & Trace to go to a log file.

In your app.config of your Windows Service project:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
 <system.diagnostics>
  <trace autoflush="true" indentsize="4">
   <listeners>
    <add name="myListener" type="System.Diagnostics.TextWriterTraceListener"
initializeData="MyService.log" />
   </listeners>
  </trace>
 </system.diagnostics>
</configuration>

Note the UnhandledException event is not working as I expected in the above,
so I put the Elapsed event in its own Try/Catch.

Hope this helps
Jay

"Eric" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:2A1EF895-7623-42B4-85EA-3FFD9925EA0C@microsoft.com...
> Hi,
>
> I built a service that watch file in a directory. I use a simple
filewatcher and add a handler to do something when a file is created. I have
the following problem. I can build it, I can install it, I can start it but
when I start it I have a message that the service is stop because it does
nothing and it doesn't execute the code in the service. Please if you have
any idea it will be appreciate.
>
> Thanks you
>

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