Configure Windows Service with UI

Question

4.00/5 (1 vote)

See more:

I have a Windows Service that needs a significant amount of user input. Yes, I can put those values in the app.config file but then that seems lazy. This UI includes the ability to configure the service, start/stop the service and a log viewer. So, I'd like the Windows Service to pick up the values entered by the UI. Does anyone have a "standard" or "best practices" way of doing this? Or, even just a better idea than my own.

My current approach:
The UI's data context is an object that contains all of my UI entries. Serialize the object as XML using XmlSerializer. Then whenever the Windows Service cycles, go to this XML file and deserialize it. Then, use that object in the Windows Service.

>My question on this approach is... what is the best way to tell the Windows Service where the UI was installed? I don't want to hard code this because the installer could put it it on the D:\ or who knows where? Once again, I think making the user enter this value in the app.config is a lazy approach on the developer front.

Ideas:
I attempted to use the Process of the UI to find the Environment.CurrentDirectory of the UI process but that doesn't seem to exist. Remember, the UI starts/stops the service so I know the UI will be opened when the service first starts. Anyone have ideas on this front?

When the UI is installed or starts the first time, I could save the directory to a registry setting... but that seems pretty old school. Is there a better way to do this?

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks,
Joel

Posted 16-Jun-11 5:08am

Joel Palmer

Updated 16-Jun-11 5:23am

Kim Togo

v2

Add a Solution

Comments

Kim Togo 16-Jun-11 14:14pm

Please use "Add Comment" under the solution :-)

2 solutions

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-16T06:04:00

Solution 1

I have developed some approach related to it.

First of all, Windows Service cannot have UI. It should keep working when a user logs off and when nobody has logged in. It does not mean that the same assembly cannot be used it two modes: interactive and Windows Service.

I've created WPF components to be usable from a library (this is some problem by itself, XAML application can not be used). A UI application can start of not, depending on the mode of operation. If the same application is started under Service Controller, the UI is not started.

The difference between two modes of operations is easily detected by the static property System.Environment.UserInteractive. (!)

Now, the UI mode is used for installing the service, for starting/stopping it; and you can use it for communication with the another instance of the application run as a Windows Service. Best way to communicate is probably WCF self-hosted by the Service with the channel based on named pipes (IPC), because both instances work on the same computer. Of course you can make them interacting via network as well.

More than that, I implemented the option to run the core of the service in the interactive mode. Unfortunately, there is no interface if the service which encapsulates the Service methods OnContinue, OnPause, OnPowerEvent, OnSessionChange, OnShutdown, OnStart, OnStop and ServiceFeatures Features. I simply created such interface. The user of the library is supposed to implement this interface instead of implementing the Service itself.

The library hosting my dual-mode service runs the implementation of this interface in one of two modes. If the mode is Windows Service, the implementation of the interface is used to implement the correspondent methods of the Service. If the mode is interactive, the method runs inside the simulated Service environment modeling all those Start, Stop, etc. One point of interest: the host provides API for logging. In the case of Windows Service mode, the logging uses System.EventLog and log data goes to the system log. In case of interactive mode, logging goes to the Window component (a list box) and is visualized immediately.

Implementation of industrial-grade application controlling hardware in production had proven effectiveness of this approach during debugging of the Service: most of the debugging was done in interactive mode which is of course much more convenient.

—SA

Posted 16-Jun-11 6:04am

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov

Comments

Kim Togo 16-Jun-11 14:13pm

[From OP]
Thanks for the response SA. I'll think do some research on your approach.

What I maybe didn't make as clear as I should have in my initial writeup is that I am not trying to tie the Servce and the UI together for direct messaging. I'm simply trying to take the output from the UI and save it off. Then, the service needs to use the data.

What I haven't tried is a self hosted WCF service. This sounds like a good approach. However, I can't assume that I will always have IIS installed on the machine. If you have a link or something that gets me started on understanding this approach, I'd appreciate it.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 16-Jun-11 14:31pm

Wait, wait... Self-hosted WCF means that you don't need anything except .NET with its standard libraries. Nothing else. This is pretty much like classical remoting, simplified; for basic usage it's easier to get started, for a tricky cases classical remoting (which is just be on the low-level side) could be better (many say it's obsolete, but I disagree; and officially it is not obsolete).

Now, you don't have to have dual application I described; you can have two different applications (Windows Service and UI for Web Service control); they would simply share some of the referenced assemblies. I described the benefits of my approach (first of all, debugging), but it certainly the more investment in code base.

So, are you going to formally accept this solution (green button)?
Thank you.

Feel free to ask you follow-up questions. I just could not cover more in one post before having any feedback.
--SA

thatraja 17-Jun-11 11:40am

Simple Suggestion SA.
I think you should have replied this to OP(I know that Kim brought OP's comment to your answer) below his question or you could update your comment in your answer & simply added a comment like "Check my updated answer".
Because most OPs never find these things. They are looking at only answers.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 18-Jun-11 2:12am

Thank you for the note.
First of all, misplaced level of comment happen all the time.
This is not a problem as far as I can see. OP gets this comment anyway.
Finally, I sometime use deeper level of comment to notify two or more people at once. This time I had no choice as there is not OP's comment. I hope Kim won't find my reply too annoying.
--SA

P.S.: few times I have a long conversation with other expert under the comment of OP -- comparison of our native cultures, humor, funny stories, philosophy of programming, plans for writing articles, a car accident... Poor OP could have been annoyed very much -- to our sins. :-)

thatraja 18-Jun-11 2:20am

/*I hope Kim won't find my reply too annoying.*/
No I don't mean that(Authorities know that you are replying for their comment[OP's]). The thing is OP couldn't get the notification for your reply.
I'm always doing my way(which is in my suggestion) & also left a note for authorities(like Kim here)....It worked sometimes for me. So I have suggested you.

thatraja 18-Jun-11 2:21am

/*P.S.: few times I have a long conversation with other expert under the comment of OP -- comparison of our native cultures, humor, funny stories, philosophy of programming, plans for writing articles, a car accident... Poor OP could have been annoyed very much -- to our sins. :-)*/
Yeah, Also me there sometimes & I have enjoyed those. Please Keep continue. :)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 18-Jun-11 2:42am

Thank you. As I understand, OP gets notified anyway.
Another off-topic conversation was about playing guitar -- what software project could be developed to help it. But that was a follow-up in response to OP's question (like "I have a semester project in programming, what would you suggest?").

I suggested OP to remember some hobby, and some other experts joined the idea... :-)
--SA

thatraja 18-Jun-11 2:59am

Looks Interesting :)

Also Couple of time I had off-topic conversation with Sandeep & Rarely with others.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 20-Jun-11 1:40am

I see. What language did you used? :-)
--SA

thatraja 20-Jun-11 1:50am

you mean my article?

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 20-Jun-11 2:00am

No, off-topic conversation :-) Was that English?
--SA

thatraja 20-Jun-11 2:03am

Yes, BTW I don't know any other languages(Except English & Tamil)

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 22-Jun-11 17:19pm

I was recently discussing how many people in India know Hindi; on next day I saw your comment and immediately checked in Wikipedia. Well, it looks like my Soviet stereotype is not working. In the Soviet Union nearly everyone could talk to everyone in Russian, good or poor. Dravidian languages seem very mysterious me, this family looks so unique. And you have a completely separate writing system (Tamil script)...
--SA

thatraja 22-Jun-11 23:41pm

But there is big difference between Russia & India. In India totally we have 14 official regional languages. Clickety Every state using different language. Totally 30 states in our country. But mostly all people of North India speaking Hindi(other than regional language). BTW how many languages can you speak? I want to know which language is easy to learn. In future I want to learn some languages like French, Hindi, etc.,

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 23-Jun-11 1:01am

Or yes, I understand it well. As I say, my stereotype did not work. I knew there is over 100 languages, by the way.

I speak English and Russian (a real expert in Russian, one of the rare kind of 100% "born" literacy people; used to detect native region of Russians by their speech); and I also started French (two foreign languages was strictly required in our university), but failed to manage my time (it was very tough) and gave up, very sorry now. That's it. I know good deal about language classification, relationships, history and etymology, but don't actually understand or speak them.

I think the easy-to-learn languages are Spanish or Portuguese, many Turkic languages. French has one relatively low barrier: there is not pronunciation in the dictionaries as orthography is considered to be pretty complex but strict: you're supposed to learn all rules at once to read correctly. I learned them in couple of lessons and never made mistakes later (but not mostly forgot). Remembering genders of all words confuses me, mainly because of interference with Russian (we also have 3 genders but they are sometimes the same as French, sometimes opposite/different, so it confuses).

Russian is... nearly impossible to learn. Enormously hard to learn. They say, Hungarian is even more difficult, but hard to imagine that. Tarun tried to translate several phrases from English to write to me some short sentences in Russian -- never was correct usage or even syntax. Automatic translation and even Word dictionary suggestions is a permanent source of jokes.

thatraja 24-Jun-11 8:43am

Great suggestion. Now Hindi, Spanish & French in my wishlist. At least I want speak & even no need to read/write. English is enough for all over world.
Yes, already I heard that Russian is tough to learn. Any more suggestions for me? Thanks.
BTW I asked Manfred about his favorite movies & songs but he said he will let me know later & put message in my CP profile page. Now I'm asking you the same, please let me know when you free. I'm going to post my favorites as a thread in my CP profile page.

Thank you SA.

Kim Togo 16-Jun-11 14:14pm

Good answer SA. My 5.

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 16-Jun-11 14:31pm

Thank you, Kim.
--SA

thatraja 17-Jun-11 11:36am

Nice Answer, 5!

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 17-Jun-11 13:34pm

Thank you, Raja.
--SA

Raul Iloc 12-Sep-14 2:42am

You have my 5+!

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 12-Sep-14 10:44am

Thank you, Raul.
—SA

#realJSOP · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-16T07:34:00

Solution 3

A service can't have a UI. You have to do like SA said - create a separate app (that lives in the system tray) that can communicate with and control the service.

Posted 16-Jun-11 7:34am

#realJSOP

v2

Comments

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov 16-Jun-11 14:47pm

Sure, a System Tray is the best location for such UI. Good point, a 5.
--SA