Need help with a Windos Service

[jlwilliams1]

Need help with a Windows Service

 

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, but I didn't see any category that included Windows Services.

I'm trying to write a windows service routine in VB.NET and I'm using code taken straight from several examples that I've gotten from the web. The problem is that I can compile and install the service ok--it shows up in the services window from the admin tools, but it doesn't seem to be doing what it's supposed to do. Basically, I just wrote a routine that uses a timer with a 10 second tick and on every tick, an entry is supposed to written to the event log and to a text file. The strange thing is that, if I have this service up and running and I then run the program in the VS.NET IDE in debug mode, then it does what it's supposed to do--write an entry to the event log and to a text file every 10 seconds. Very strange. It just seems like nothing is happening when it is just running as a service.

 

Here's my code:

 

   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.Enabled = True
       Timer1.Start()
   End Sub

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

   Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
       Dim i As Integer
       Dim na() As String
       Dim DataWatcherLog As New EventLog

       SelectStatement = "SELECT * FROM Test WHERE Newrecord = 'Y'"
       UpdateStatement = "UPDATE Test SET Newrecord = 'N' WHERE Newrecord = 'Y'"
       cmd.CommandText = SelectStatement
       cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text
       da.SelectCommand = New SqlCommand(SelectStatement, connect)
       da.SelectCommand.Connection.Open()
       da.Fill(ds, "Test")
       If ds.Tables(0).Rows.Count <= 0 Then
           da.SelectCommand.Connection.Close()
           Exit Sub
       End If
       numrecs = ds.Tables(0).Rows.Count
       For i = 1 To numrecs
           ' na(numrecs) = ds.Tables("Test").Rows(numrecs - 1).Item("Address")
           emailmsg = emailmsg + "  " + "New Record"
       Next
       If Not DataWatcherLog.SourceExists("DataWatcher") Then
           DataWatcherLog.CreateEventSource("DataWatcher", "DataWatcher Log")
       End If
       DataWatcherLog.Source = "DataWatcher"
       DataWatcherLog.WriteEntry("DataWatcher Log", emailmsg)
       da.SelectCommand.Connection.Close()

       ' Create an instance of StreamWriter to write text to a file.
       Dim sw As StreamWriter = New StreamWriter("TestFile.txt")
       ' Add some text to the file.
       sw.Write("This is the ")
       sw.WriteLine("header for the file.")
       sw.WriteLine("-------------------")
       ' Arbitrary objects can also be written to the file.
       sw.Write("The date is: ")
       sw.WriteLine(DateTime.Now)
       sw.Write(emailmsg)
       sw.Close()

   End Sub

 

Can someone toss me a clue or hint please. Thanks.

Edited March 16, 2005 by jlwilliams1

[PlausiblyDamp]

You may want to look at using a System.Threading.Timer instead of the timer component - I think the problem lies with the service not having a wnidow and therefore not responding to the WM_TIMER message windows should be sending.

[jlwilliams1]

Any idea on how I would incorporate that into my code? I looked through the sample provided by Microsoft and as usual, just got lost as their samples usually are not very easy and simple to read.

[jlwilliams1]

Problem solved. I used the System.Timer instead and it works fine.