Installing a Windows Service

Open the project StepByStep6_1. Access the design view for the OrderService component. Click anywhere on the background of the designer to select the service itself, rather than any of its components. Access the Properties window for the service. In the gray area below the list of properties, you see a hyperlink named Add Installer (refer to Figure). Click on the hyperlink.

The preceding step adds a component named ProjectInstaller.cs to the StepByStep6_1 project. Access the design view for ProjectInstaller.cs to see that it has two components: serviceProcessInstaller1 and serviceInstaller1.

Access the properties for the serviceProcessInstaller1 component. You'll note that this component is an instance of the ServiceProcessInstaller class. Change its Account property from User to LocalSystem.

Access the properties for the serviceInstaller1 component. You'll note that this component is an instance of the ServiceInstaller class. Change its DisplayName and ServiceName properties to OrderService and the StartType property to Automatic.

Build the project StepByStep6_1. The Windows service is now ready to be installed.

Open the Visual Studio .NET command prompt by selecting Start, Programs, Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, Visual Studio .NET Tools, Visual Studio .NET Command Prompt. This opens a command window with necessary environment variables set to run the .NET Framework SDK tools. Change the directory to the bin\debug directory of the StepByStep6_1 project where the .exe file for the Windows service application is stored.

Issue the following command; you see the results as shown in Figure:

installutil StepByStep6_1.exe

Create a directory c:\orders. This is the directory where the incoming orders will be created as an XML file.

Restart the computer; the OrderService is started automatically when Windows is started.

Right-click on the My Computer icon and select Manage from its shortcut menu. In the Computer Management window, navigate to System Tools, Event Viewer, Application. You'll see that OrderService has written an informational message to the Application event log. Double-click to open the message; you'll see that the message is about the successful start of OrderService, as shown in Figure.

Create an XML file named Orders.xml and store the following information in this file:

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?>

<dsOrders xmlns="http://www.tempuri.org/dsOrders.xsd">

  <Orders>

    <CustomerID>VINET</CustomerID>

    <EmployeeID>5</EmployeeID>

    <OrderDate>2002-10-11</OrderDate>

    <RequiredDate>2002-10-21</RequiredDate>

    <ShippedDate>2002-10-18</ShippedDate>

    <ShipVia>3</ShipVia>

    <Freight>22.38</Freight>

    <ShipName>Vins et alcools Chevalier</ShipName>

    <ShipAddress>59 rue de l'Abbaye</ShipAddress>

    <ShipCity>Reims</ShipCity>

    <ShipRegion>MI</ShipRegion>

    <ShipPostalCode>51100</ShipPostalCode>

    <ShipCountry>France</ShipCountry>

  </Orders>

</dsOrders>

Copy this file to the c:\orders directory. You'll note that in a few moments the Orders.xml file is moved from c:\orders to a new subdirectory, c:\orders\updated.

Query the Orders table in the Northwind database. You'll find that a record has been added to the Orders table with the information in the Orders.xml file.

Create another orders file in the c:\orders directory. You'll note that the file is moved again to the updated subdirectory and the Orders table is updated with the information in the XML file.

Add a new Visual C# .NET Windows Service application named GuidedPracticeExercise3_1 to the solution.

Add references to the .NET assembly System.Runtime.Remoting, and to the project StepByStep3_9 and StepByStep3_10 that you created in Chapter 3 (the interface to the remotable class and the remotable class itself).

In the Solution Explorer, rename the default Service1.cs to DbConnectSingletonServer.cs. Click on the designer surface, and then in the Properties window. Set the Name and ServiceName properties to DbConnectSingletonServer. Note the CanPauseAndContinue property is already set to false.

Switch to the code view and change all occurrences of Service1 to DbConnectSingletonServer. Add the following using directives to the code:

using StepByStep3_9;

using StepByStep3_10;

using System.Runtime.Remoting;

using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels;

using System.Runtime.Remoting.Channels.Http;

In the code, search for the skeleton of the OnStart() method and modify it as follows:

protected override void OnStart(string[] args)

{

    // Register a TCP server channel that

    // listens on port 1234

    TcpServerChannel channel =

        new TcpServerChannel(1234);

    ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(channel);



    // Resgister the service that publishes

    // DbConnect for remote access in Singleton mode

    RemotingConfiguration.RegisterWellKnownServiceType

       (typeof(StepByStep3_10.DbConnect), "DbConnect",

       WellKnownObjectMode.Singleton);

}

Access the Properties window for the DbConnectSingletonServer component. Click on the Add Installer hyperlink. This adds a component named ProjectInstaller.cs to the project. Access the design view for ProjectInstaller.cs to see that it has two components: serviceProcessInstaller1 and serviceInstaller1.

Access the properties for the serviceProcessInstaller1 component. You'll note that this component is an instance of the ServiceProcessInstaller class. Change its Account property from User to LocalSystem.

Access the properties for the serviceInstaller1 component. You'll note that this component is an instance of the ServiceInstaller class. Change its ServiceName and DisplayName properties to DbConnectSingletonServer and the StartType property to Automatic.

Set DbConnectSingletonServer.cs as the startup object for the project.

Build the project. This step creates a remoting server that is capable of using the Singleton activation mode via the TCP channel to register the StepByStep3_10.DbConnect class for remote invocation.

To install the Windows service, open the Visual Studio .NET command prompt and change the directory to the bin\debug directory in the project folder. Execute the following command:

installutil GuidedPracticeExercise6_1.exe

Use the command prompt to execute the following command to start the Windows service:

NET START DbConnectSingletonServer

Run the executable file StepByStep3_12.exe for the project created in Step-by-Step 3.12 in Chapter 3. In the window that appears type queries for retrieving data from the Northwind database.