[dba-VB] A windows Service or Not a service?

jwcolby jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Thu Jun 16 11:32:25 CDT 2011


I too need to know this.  A service cannot directly support a user interface because if there is no 
one logged in there is no place to put the user interface (no screen to draw it).  My guess is that 
the user interface somehow calls functions to get information, or perhaps hooks a data "service" 
channel to read / write to the service application.

John W. Colby
www.ColbyConsulting.com

On 6/16/2011 11:58 AM, Francisco Tapia wrote:
> I wrote a simple application that has a form and two buttons (along with a
> timer).  My initial idea was that I would write this to be a windows service
> so it would auto-start whenever a specific server would reboot etc.  The
> purpose is that I need to get new records created by a "Vendor" application
> and have them sent to a Second "Vendor" system.  I call a custom view that I
> wrote that collects that last set of changes, then record by record calls a
> webservice on our SAP system and pushes in the new changes.  My sql server
> version is Sql Server 2000 so it's not as easy as just writing a soap object
> to make the webservice call, I think it was much easier to just write the
> app in c# and make the call that way, which works.  NOW for the tricky
> part.  I wanted to write up the app to create a windows service installer so
> that my admins could log into the windows server and either start or stop
> the application, I also wanted to provide a gui view to the windows service
> so that they could choose a different timer so it could run every 1 minute
> (every 2 minutes, etc..) what ever they would choose.
>
> after reading MS's description on windows service classes, I noticed that
> supposedly the .Net Studio does not support this, but I've seen other apps
> that DO provide a gui view to the windows service that they introduce.  so
> my question to the group is, have you done this before? and if so how did
> you go about it?
>
> --
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/d56de412%28v=VS.90%29.aspx
>
> The Windows service classes supported by the .NET Framework do not support
> interaction with interactive stations, that is, the logged-on user. The .NET
> Framework also does not include classes that represent stations and
> desktops. If your Windows service must interact with other stations, you
> will need to access the unmanaged Windows API. For more information, see Window
> Stations<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms687096%28v=VS.90%29.aspx>and
> Desktops<http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms682573%28v=VS.90%29.aspx>in
> the Platform SDK documentation.
>
>
> -Francisco
> http://bit.ly/sqlthis   | Tsql and More...
> http://db.tt/JeXURAx | Drop Box, Storage in the Cloud (free)
> _______________________________________________
> dba-VB mailing list
> dba-VB at databaseadvisors.com
> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-vb
> http://www.databaseadvisors.com
>
>



More information about the dba-VB mailing list