Windows Services in C#: Controlling Your Service from Another Application (part 6)

If you’ve ever used SQL Server, you know it comes with a little control program that allows you to start and stop the SQL Server service. Wouldn’t it be cool if you could write a small program to do the same with your service? Well you can, and today we’ll learn how.

Before we begin, I made a few little tweaks to the TimeLoggerService source code that will make it a bit easier to work with, and implement some of the things we’ll want to do in our control program.

    public TimeLoggerService()
    {
      InitializeComponent();
      // Set the timer to fire every twenty seconds
      // (remember the timer is in millisecond resolution, 
      //  so 1000 = 1 second. ) 
      _timer = new Timer(20000);
 
      // Now tell the timer when the timer fires 
      // (the Elapsed event) call the _timer_Elapsed 
      // method in our code
      _timer.Elapsed += new 
        System.Timers.ElapsedEventHandler(_timer_Elapsed);
    }
 
    private void WriteToLog(string msg)
    {
      EventLog evt = new EventLog(“ArcaneTimeLogger”);
      string message = msg + “: “
        + DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString() + ” “
        + DateTime.Now.ToLongTimeString();
      evt.Source = “ArcaneTimeLoggerService”;
      evt.WriteEntry(message, EventLogEntryType.Information);
    }
 
    protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
    {
      _timer.Start();
      WriteToLog(“Arcane Start”);
    }
 
    protected override void OnStop()
    {
      _timer.Stop();
      WriteToLog(“Arcane Stop “);
    }
 
    // This method is called when the timer fires
    // it’s elapsed event. It will write the time
    // to the event log. 
    protected void _timer_Elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
    {
      WriteToLog(“Arcane Timer”);
    }

In the class constructor, the only change I made was to change the time from 60 seconds (60000 milliseconds) down to 20 seconds (20000 milliseconds). To be honest I got tired of waiting on it to log for my tests.

Next, I created a “WriteToLog” method that handles the actual writing of a message to the event log. This code is identical to what was previously in the timer_Elapsed event, except I take a passed in message and append the current date/time to the log. Note one other change, I modified it to use the LongTimeString instead of ShortTimeString, so I could get the seconds to display.

I then modified the OnStart and OnStop to log start and stop messages for me, which is probably a good idea for your service to do too. Finally I modified the _timer_Elasped event where I’d taken the WriteToLog code from, and made a call to our new method. OK, that takes care of changes to the windows service.

Now, let’s add a new project to our solution. In the Solution Explorer, right click on the solution name and pick Add Project, then pick Windows Application. Note that we could do this with a command line app or class library as well, but for this demo we’ll use a windows form. I gave my new app the imaginative name of “TimeLoggerManager”.

I renamed the Form1 to TLManager, and allowed VS to rename all the occurances of Form1 for me. I’m now going to add a few basic controls, one label (lblStatus), and two command buttons (btnStart and btnStop). I’m also going to add a timer control, tmrRefresh. Set the timer to enabled and pick a reasonable time, maybe every 10 or 15 seconds (10000 or 15000 in the Interval property, remember it gets set in milliseconds as well).

In order to use some of the classes we’ll need, we must set a reference to the System.ServiceProcess assembly. Right click on the TimeLoggerManager and Add Reference, then on the .Net tab scroll down to System.ServiceProcess, click on it and press OK.

Now switch to code view on the form, and in the using area add a “using System.ServiceProcess” reference.

The first thing we need to do is find out what the status is of the service event. To do this we’ll first get a reference to our service by creating a ServiceController object, note in the “new” area we have to pass in the name of our service in order to get a reference to it. Once our object is created, I’ll pass it to a method that will set everything up for the form.

      ServiceController sc = new ServiceController(“ArcaneTimeLogging”);
      SetDisplay(sc);

Set Display is a custom method I wrote, here’s it’s code:

    private void SetDisplay(ServiceController sc)
    {
      sc.Refresh();
      if (sc.Status == ServiceControllerStatus.Stopped)
      {
        btnStop.Enabled = false;
        btnStart.Enabled = true;
        lblStatus.Text = “Stopped”;
      }
      if (sc.Status == ServiceControllerStatus.Running)
      {
        btnStart.Enabled = false;
        btnStop.Enabled = true;
        lblStatus.Text = “Running”;
      }
    }

The first thing called is sc.Refresh, this will cause the ServiceController to update all of the properties in our sc object with the correct values. Next I can query the Status property of our SC object, and set my command buttons and labels appropriately.

Starting and stopping our service is just as easy, all we have to do is create an instance of a service controller object, and then call it’s Start or Stop method.

    private void btnStart_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
      ServiceController sc = new ServiceController(“ArcaneTimeLogging”);
      sc.Start();
      btnStart.Enabled = false;
      btnStop.Enabled = true;
      lblStatus.Text = “Running”;
      sc.Refresh();
    }
 
    private void btnStop_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
      ServiceController sc = new ServiceController(“ArcaneTimeLogging”);
      sc.Stop();
      btnStop.Enabled = false;
      btnStart.Enabled = true;
      lblStatus.Text = “Stopped”;
      sc.Refresh();
    }

Because you can also start and stop the service from other locations, like VS or the MMC, it’s important to keep the display in sync. In the event for the timer, all we have to do is create another reference and pass it to the same SetDisplay method so everything stays in sync.

    private void tmrRefresh_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
      ServiceController sc = new ServiceController(“ArcaneTimeLogging”);
      SetDisplay(sc);
    }

Go ahead and give it all a try. Start your service, then check it in the MMC. Use MMC to stop the service, then watch the app automatically update to reflect the status.

Tomorrow we’ll look at sending commands to our windows service, then to wrap up the series we’ll look at integrating the event log into our application. Stay tuned!

Arcane Holiday

Today in the US we are celebrating Memorial Day, where we remember all of the soldiers who fell in battle. So let me first start by thanking the families and those men who sacrificed themselves for the greater good.

In keeping with the holiday theme, I thought I’d take a brief holiday from the Windows Services series and catch up on a few things.

First, there’s been an update to my favorite Windows add-on, TouchCursor. The new version fixes the issue I mentioned with Virtual PC’s. The only issue since I’ve run across is in using it with Visual Studio and DevExpress CodeRush add-in. CodeRush also wants to use the spacebar for activation. However, I was able to easily change the activation key from CodeRush to something else, and problem was solved. Check it out at http://touchcursor.com/ or see my initial review at http://shrinkster.com/pf4 .

Next, about a week ago I mentioned some great music to program to by a group called Midnight Syndicate. Shortly after posting I found out the Haunted Voices Radio podcast did an entire weekend of Midnight Syndicate, including playing their music and complete interviews. Check out Haunted Voices Radio at http://www.hauntedvoicesradio.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=6 or http://shrinkster.com/pf2 . Each banner ad is to a separate MP3 (the weekend was broken up into 2 hour chunks for easy downloads). I believe there are 17 in all.

Finally I have to confess to a guilty pleasure. I recently received a gift certificate to a book store, and used it to purchase “Windows Developer Power Tools” by James Avery and Jim Holmes. (Amazon link: http://shrinkster.com/pf5 )

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while you know I’m a “tool freak”, I love add-ins and tools for Windows and Visual Studio. As such I’ve been wanting this book for a while, but since I’ve already got a huge stack of books I’m still reading through I was having problems justifying yet another book. The gift certificate gave me just the opportunity I needed to get this cool new book. At over 1200 pages it’s chock full of toys, can’t wait to dig in!

Windows Services in C#: Controlling Your Service from Visual Studio (part 5)

In part 3 of this series I documented how to use the Microsoft Management Console to control your service and view the event log. But did you know you can do it right inside Visual Studio?

Inside Visual Studio, open the Server Explorer (I keep mine docked over on the left). Under any database servers you may have should be your computer, click the + symbol to expand the tree.

Now you can see quite a few items, including Services and Event Logs. Expand the services tree, and let’s scroll down to our service, ArcaneCodeTimeLogger. Right clicking will show us the various commands available to us. Since the service is already running, you can pause or stop it.

Having this functionality right within Visual Studio makes it very easy when it’s time to debug and test your various methods such as OnStart, OnStop, OnPause, etc. But wait, there’s more!

Just as with services, you can also examine the event log. Scroll up to the event log node and expand it. If you read my earlier series on event logging (http://shrinkster.com/p6d), you know I suggest creating your own distinct event log instead of shoving everything into the Application log. Now you can see why, it makes it very easy to pick out the messages for your app. Expand the two nodes for our service and you can see the first part of the messages appearing in the tree.

To see the complete message, simply double click on it. It will appear, along with other associated data, in the Properties window of Visual Studio.

One thing you should note, when you use Visual Studio to debug your Windows Service, VS “helpfully” hides a lot of your windows, including the Server Explorer. You can get it back though, simply go to the View and pick the Server Explorer to make it appear again.

Now, you may be wondering why way back in part 3 we went through the MMC (Microsoft Management Console) instead of doing it this way. There are often multiple ways to accomplish tasks, and it’s often useful to know them all. For example, let’s say you have your service installed on a users PC and need to stop it or look at its events. If you don’t have Visual Studio installed on the box, what are you going to do?

When you do have VS, using the Server Explorer from within Visual Studio can make it easy to develop and debug your Windows Services. Take a few minutes to explore it’s capabilities, so you’ll have a second way to work with your services.

Windows Services in C#: Debugging Windows Services (part 4)

In part 1 of this series I mentioned debugging a windows service was a little different than normal debugging of an application. Today we’ll look into how you can debug your windows service.

First, open Visual Studio and have your project loaded, if it’s not already there. Now go over to the MMC (as I described in part 3) and make sure it’s logging events.

Now comes the neat part. Under the Debug menu in Visual Studio, select “Attach to process…”. When the dialog below appears, you will need to check the “Show processes from all users” and “Show processes in all sessions” boxes. Now your list should update correctly.

Scroll down and look for the process with the same name as your executable, in my case it was TimeLogger.exe. Click on it, and the click the “Attach” button in the lower left.

If all went well Visual Studio should shift to “Run” mode. Your code will be locked (sorry, no edit continue with windows services). But you can go in and create breakpoints, as I’ve done here (click on the pic to see a larger version of it):

Now sit back and wait a minute, when our service fires the _timer_Elapsed event it will fall into the standard debug mode you’re used to, as you can see below.

In the screen above you can see where I took one step and am now on the line of code “string message =…”. I have access to my locals, as well as the call stack and other debugging tools. From here I can do the normal debug tasks, including stepping or just hitting F5 to continue.

When you are done debugging and are ready to disconnect from the service, simply return to the Debug menu and this time pick “Stop Debugging” (or hit Shift+F5). Visual Studio disconnects you from the running service and returns you to normal code editing mode.

Resetting for another test is still a bit painful. You’ll want to stop your service, then in your Visual Studio Command Prompt window run InstallUtil, this time with the /u option to uninstall it. (instalutil /u timelogger.exe). Then you can build, then reinstall your service.

I said this yesterday, but I want to stress it again. If you are developing under Vista, it is vitally important you run VS Command Prompt as the Administrator (simply right click on the menu option and pick run as administrator). If you don’t do this, instalutil will fail every time.

And that’s how you debug an windows service. It’s not really that difficult, now that you know the steps involved.

Windows Services in C#: Adding the Installer (part 3)

OK, you’ve crafted your service, now you’re ready to install it so you can test. To do so you’ll need to create an installer for your project. However, you don’t create an installer in the traditional fashion.

Instead, switch to the “TimeLoggerService.cs [Design]” tab. Now in that big gray area right click, and pick “Add Installer”.

Visual Studio will do some magic and you’ll have a new ProjectInstaller.cs added to your project. It also added a few new references to the solution. If the “ProjectInstaller.cs [Design]” tab is not up, bring it up, and click on the serviceInstaller1 item.

Let’s start by giving it a decent name, I chose ArcaneTimeLoggerServiceInstaller. Now for the Description property I entered “The Arcane Code Time Logging Service”. For DisplayName I gave it “Arcane Code Time Logger”. Finally, I’m leaving the StartType property to Manual, you may wish to alter this for your “real world” service.

Now go back and click on the serviceProcessInstaller1. We’ll change it’s name to ArcaneTimeLoggerServiceProcessInstaller. If you remember the discussion from part 1, you will recall a discussion about the security. Here in the Account property is where you will want to set that. Since all this sample does is a minimal amount of logging, I can go with a fairly low level of security and set to “LocalSystem”.

OK, we’re almost done. Right click the project name (in my case TimeLogger) and select properties from the menu. (Note, make sure to click the project, not the solution!) Now on the Application tab, under “Startup object” pick TimeLogger.Program. Now save everything and build your project.

Assuming your build was successful, you can now install and test your windows service. There are two ways to install, we can use the installutil.exe, or create a full blown MSI installer. Since we are just at the point of debugging, we will use the simple installutil.exe.

To preset all the pathing you’ll need for install util, we’ll need to open a Visual Studio Command Window. Start, All Programs, Microsoft Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio Tools, Visual Studio Command Window. If you are running under Vista, STOP! Do NOT click on Visual Studio Command Window. Instead, right click and pick “Run as Administrator”. Again that’s for Vista, for XP just click since you likely have Admin rights.

The moral is without Admin rights InstallUtil fails every time, and it drove me up the wall trying to figure this out.

Now in the command window navigate to the bin\debug folder where your project compiled. Type in installutil TimeLogger.exe (or whatever you named your exe).

If everything goes well, you s hould get the messages “The Commit phase completed successfully” and “The transacted install has completed”. Now let’s go see if we were successful.

Open the Microsoft Management Console (Start, Run, MMC)). When it opens, pick the Services and EventViewer snap-ins. Under Services, you should easily find the ArcaneTimeLogger, just double click on it and start it. Once it starts you can close the dialog.

Now head over to the Event Viewer. Click on the “Create Custom View”, to make it easy to find our log events. In the “Create Custom View” dialog, select “By source” and in the drop down check the ones for ArcaneTimeLogging. Click OK to close.

Your view should now update to look something like this:

Congratulations, you’ve now coded and installed a basic windows service, and more over logged events from your service. This sample app we just created can serve as a basic template for all of your future windows services.

By the way, we should probably not get carried away with the euporia. Let’s take a moment and clean up. Return to the services area of the MMC and double click on our ArcaneTimeLogger. Now Stop the service, so it won’t be continually logging the time.

Now that it’s not running, let’s uninstall it. Return to the Visual Studio Command Window and simply type the command “installutil /u TimeLogger.exe”. The /u switch will tell InstallUtil to uninstall our service named TimeLogger.exe. And with that you’ve take care of your clean up work. Tomorrow we’ll talk a bit about debugging a windows service.

Windows Services in C#: Getting Started (part 2)

Yesterday we covered the basics you need to understand in order to write Windows Services. With that out of the way, it’s time to roll up our sleeves and write some code.

To get started, open Visual Studio and select new project. Windows Service won’t appear in the top level list of Visual C# items, instead you’ll need to drill down and in the tree under Visual C# select Windows. Now you should see “Windows Service” appear in the list of templates. Pick it, then go down and key in a name. For this demo I’m going to do something very simple, so let’s call it “TimeLogger” and press OK.

Now let’s take a moment to see what has been created for us. Over the in the solution explorer, beside the properties and references you’ll see two files, program.cs and service1.cs. Let’s look inside Program.cs, shall we?

    static void Main()
    {
      ServiceBase[] ServicesToRun;
 
      // More than one user Service may run within the same process. To add
      // another service to this process, change the following line to
      // create a second service object. For example,
      //
      //  ServicesToRun = new ServiceBase[] {new Service1(), new MySecondUserService()};
      //
      ServicesToRun = new ServiceBase[] { new Service1() };
 
      ServiceBase.Run(ServicesToRun);
    }
 

This simple code does an incredible amount. First, it creates an array of ServiceBase objects named ServicesToRun. This will hold the list of all the services this project will hold. Next it adds the single service that was automatically generated for you, Service1, to the array, and finally it calls the Run method to launch all of the services.

The first thing we’ll want to do is change the name of Service1 to something more meaningful. Click on the file name in Solution Explorer, and change it’s name from Service1 to TimeLoggerService. You’ll then be asked if you want to change all references, say Yes to let VS take care of all the work for you. You should now see that Program.cs has been updated:

      ServicesToRun = new ServiceBase[] { new TimeLoggerService() };

If you had other services to run, you’d add them to the array prior to the ServiceBase.Run command. What’s important to note though is the Run command launches the service file in it’s own thread, then keeps on trucking returning control back to windows.

Specifically, it’s the Service Control Manager (SCM) which is launching your app via the Main method in program.cs, then expecting control back. If you didn’t use Run, but instead tried to process a bunch of time consuming commands, the SCM would eventually time out and report your service failed to start. For that reason it’s important to put no extra code in the Main method other than what’s needed to get to the ServiceBase.Run command.

Now let’s take a look at the TimeLoggerService class. Double click on it in the Solution Explorer, and you will see a new editor tab appear with “TimeLoggerService.cs [Design]” in the title. The big gray area doesn’t show you much, so let’s ignore it for right now and look at the Properties window.

The most important property is ServiceName. This is the one you really want to change, as it’s the one that shows up throughout the Windows infrastructure. Windows can only have one version of a service going, so if you don’t change it the next project you start will also have the default name “Service1” and the two will collide like an iceberg with the Titanic. I’m changing the name to ArcaneTimeLogger.

AutoLog is another property to note, when true (the default) messages for the starting, stopping, etc. of your service will be taken care of for you. Since you can never have too much info, I would leave this set to true.

Next are a series of “Can” properties: CanHandlePowerEvent, CanHandleSessionChange, CanPauseandContinue, CanShutdown, and CanStop. If any of these are set to true, you will have to then insert a method to handle the event (or events in the case of Pause and Continue).

OK, that handles all of the important properties we need to examine. Let’s look at some code. Open the TimeLoggerService.cs so you can see the code.

  public partial class TimeLoggerService : ServiceBase
  {
    public TimeLoggerService()
    {
      InitializeComponent();
    }
 
    protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
    {
      // TODO: Add code here to start your service.
    }
 
    protected override void OnStop()
    {
      // TODO: Add code here to perform any tear-down necessary to stop your service.
    }
  }

The first thing you should notice is our class inherits from ServiceBase. The ServiceBase has two methods you must implement, OnStart and OnStop, and you’ll notice Visual Studio has helpfully created them for you. If you want to start your own service class from scratch, be sure to inherit from ServiceBase and implement these two methods.

Now let’s add a little code. We’ll add a timer and log the time every minute. Here’s the complete class:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.ServiceProcess;
using System.Text;
using System.Timers;
 
namespace TimeLogger
{
  public partial class TimeLoggerService : ServiceBase
  {
    // Note we had to add System.Timers to the using area
    private Timer _timer = null;
 
    public TimeLoggerService()
    {
      InitializeComponent();
      // Set the timer to fire every sixty seconds
      // (remember the timer is in millisecond resolution, 
      //  so 1000 = 1 second. ) 
      _timer = new Timer(60000);
 
      // Now tell the timer when the timer fires 
      // (the Elapsed event) call the _timer_Elapsed 
      // method in our code
      _timer.Elapsed += new 
        System.Timers.ElapsedEventHandler(_timer_Elapsed);
    }
 
    protected override void OnStart(string[] args)
    {
      _timer.Start();
    }
 
    protected override void OnStop()
    {
      _timer.Stop();
    }
 
    protected override void OnContinue()
    {
      base.OnContinue();
      _timer.Start();
    }
 
    protected override void OnPause()
    {
      base.OnPause();
      _timer.Stop();
    }
 
    protected override void OnShutdown()
    {
      base.OnShutdown();
      _timer.Stop();
    }
 
    // This method is called when the timer fires
    // it’s elapsed event. It will write the time
    // to the event log. 
    protected void _timer_Elapsed(object sender, ElapsedEventArgs e)
    {
      EventLog evt = new EventLog(“ArcaneTimeLogger”);
      string message = “Arcane Time:” 
        + DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString() + ” “ 
        + DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString();
      evt.Source = “ArcaneTimeLoggerService”;
      evt.WriteEntry(message, EventLogEntryType.Information);
    }
  }
}

The code is pretty self explanatory; I added OnContinue, OnPause (which are the implementations of CanPauseAndContinue), and OnShutdown (for CanShutdown) methods and set those properties to true. I then added a method, _timer_Elapsed, that will do all the work when the timer fires. Also note I had to add a reference to System.Timers to be able to use them.

OK, we now have a spiffy new service just eager and ready to be run. Well, if you recall from part 1 you simply can’t run a windows service, you have to install it. And that’s a big subject we’ll cover tomorrow in part 3!

Windows Services in C#: Getting Started (Part 1)

On occasion you have need for an application that will run all of the time on a workstation or server, whether anyone is logged into that workstation, or perhaps running in the background. For those requirements you’ll want to create a Windows Service.

There are a few things you have to keep in mind when creating a Windows Service. The first, and most important is that there is no user interface. Because Windows Services run in the background, even when no user is logged in, most times (especially when running on a server) there is no one to display a user interface to. As such, things like MessageBoxes and Forms are not allowed. Instead, if you need to log messages and the like it’s recommend you use the Event Logger. (For more info see my series on event logging, it started on January 16 of this year and ran to the 19^th, http://shrinkster.com/p6d).

The next thing you will want to decide is how you’d like your service to start. You have three choices; in Manual mode (which is the default) either a user or some program event must start the service. In Automatic mode, windows will automatically kick off the event for you, and start it running when Windows itself starts up. Finally, in Disabled mode, nobody can start it until the start up type is changed.

Now you need to think about security, what permissions will your service need? LocalService is the most secure, it gets sandboxed on a local station and any access to insecure tasks, such as writing to the hard disk, are restricted. This is a good choice when you want to create an app that monitors something on the box and logs it’s output to the event log, but needs little other in the way of resources.

For a server you might wish to bump up to NetworkService. This will allow communication with other PCs on the network, but still manages any potentially harmful access to the machine.

If you need unlimited privileges, you’ll need to set your security to LocalSystem. I encourage you to really think about this before you pick LocalSystem as your level, as you open yourself up to severe vulnerabilities if anyone were to hack your code. However I do recognize there are some cases where it’s the only way to make it work, or perhaps you are in a situation where it’s safe to do so (perhaps your machine is not on the internet).

The final, and default choice is User. With User, you pass in a user id and password, and your service has the same permissions as that user. The ideal situation would be to create a special user account just for this service, and set the permissions just high enough to get the job done, and no higher. Also you’ll likely want to setup an ID with a non-expiring password. If you omit a user id/password then the person who launches the service will be prompted for a valid user id/password at run time, probably not a desirable option.

You should also be aware that debugging a windows service is very different from your typical debugging, whether you are used to WinForms or ASP.Net coding. We’ll cover debugging in a post of its own later in this series.

Just as debugging is different, so is installation. Because of its nature a Windows service has to be installed, you can’t just copy it and run it. Fortunately Visual Studio makes it easy for you by generating a setup project you can use. Again, we’ll cover that later in the series.

OK, you now have all the background you need under your belt, tomorrow we’ll start generating some code!

Arcane Recommendation: Coding Horror

I’m on the road again, so sporadic posts this week, but wanted to recommend something to you. I’m a big fan of Jeff Atwood’s Coding Horror site, http://www.codinghorror.com. Jeff has some really great insights into the coding process.

Recently Jeff was a guest on a great podcast, Dot Net Rocks. May I suggest it’d be well worth your time to listen to episode 232 (http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=232)? Jeff has some great insights, and some great lines as well. I intend to expound on a few of these, so consider this a little “homework” for my upcoming post.

Arcane Thoughts: Thinking Inside the Box

Today I’m at an offsite meeting, talking about a new project. I won’t get into too many specific details, but we have to pull data from a web service and update an Oracle database. We can use a vendor provided Java API that runs on a Unix box to do the updates, or we can write to the database directly as long as we handle integrity issues.

So we spent the day brainstorming, to come up with possible solutions. Here is the list of contenders:

Write a Java app that runs on Unix that uses the vendor API’s.
Write a Java app that runs on Unix and updates the database directly.
Write a C# app that runs on a Windows Server, where a Batch Scheduler will kick it off.
Write a C# app that runs as a Windows Service under XP (we haven’t taken the Vista plunge at work yet).
Write a SQL Server Integration Services package that is run by the SQL Server job scheduler. It will use the web service as the input and update Oracle.
Use one of the above methods to pull the data then let BizTalk process it from there.

We haven’t made a decision yet, and my point was not so much to talk about the pro’s and cons of each solution. Instead it’s to get you to think creatively when it comes to new solutions for your company. Sitting down and cranking out yet another C# or VB.Net app may not always be the best approach. You may have a task you can accomplish with less code by using SQL Server Integration Services. Or maybe BizTalk might fit the bill.

All too often as programmers our first answer to any solution is to pull up Visual Studio and start grinding out code. Take some time though, to explore a few other options. There’s a rich set of tools out there, and sometimes the best solution to a programming problem may not be programming.

Orcas and SQL Server Compact Edition

The new beta of Orcas (the next version of Visual Studio) is now out. You can download it either as an installer or as a Virtual PC image. I opted to download the VPC image (I would have put it in a VPC anyway, so why not save some work?).

The main info page for Orcas is at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700831.aspx or http://shrinkster.com/oqp. From there you can pick the download type you want. As I mentioned before, there’s an installer version and the VPC version. If you have a spare machine lying around, you can use the installer, otherwise I highly recommend the Virtual PC version. (I grabbed the Visual Studio Team Suite Only – VPC).

It’s very very VERY important you completely read the instructions. Did I mention it was important to read the instructions? Well in case I didn’t, be sure to read the instructions.

There’s actual two VPC images you have to download. The first is named Orcas, the second though is called BASE (it’s in an exe). When you run the Orcas VPC the first time, it will ask you to point to the base VPC. In addition, you will need to know the user id and password to login, both available on the download page and buried in the instructions. (See, I told you it was important to read the instructions!)

Like most people playing with Orcas, the first thing I did was tested what I already knew. In this case, I loaded in some of the SQL Server Compact Edition samples I’ve published here in the past few weeks. Most notably the code in my post on April 13^th (http://shrinkster.com/oqq).

In some ways I wish I had a lot of new technical content to share with you. Harrowing tales of how I was able to fight the bugs and to conquer the evil things lurking in Orcas. But I can’t. It just worked. And, I’m happy to say worked without any flaws. I didn’t have to install any special add-ins (Orcas comes with SSCE assemblies preinstalled) or make special references.

I’ll keep playing with it, but for now I’m quite happy to report that while I don’t see any radical changes with SSCE in Orcas, I don’t see any issues so far either.

Arcane Thoughts: Programming Heroes

When Jeff Atwood was on DotNetRocks recently, he mentioned his programming heroes. It got me to thinking back on some of my own heroes, and thought what the heck. So if you’ll indulge me as I head down memory lane…

My Dad

I guess my earliest hero was my own dad, Ron. He brought home a TRS-80 Model 1 when I was around 12. He wrote a little Star Wars game on it (all ASCII graphics) in BASIC. His downfall was letting me, an clueless kid and geek in the making get his hands on a 2000 dollar (US) computer to play the game.

And not just that, but letting me go in and look at the source! I wound up having more fun tinkering with the source code than playing the game. Primarily I hacked it to make it harder for my sister to win. 😉 But it set me down the path of software development, and so for being crazy enough to let a 12 year old kid put his hands on one of the earliest of the home computers, Dad makes my first coding hero.

Mark Westbrook

I mention Mark’s full name in hopes he’ll find this and give me a shout out. I knew Mark when we lived in southeast Alabama together, he was the first guy I ever met who was really passionate about programming. He ate, sleep, and drank computers. His house was just a place to keep his computer, an IBM PCjr.

Mark was the guy who reinforced my belief in software as a craft, an art form, and not just a 9 to 5 job. To say he was an enthusiast was something of an understatement.

Ethan Winer

For those who don’t remember Ethan (http://www.ethanwiner.com/index.htm), you may recall his company Crescent Software. Crescent made all sorts of really cool libraries to work with QuickBasic. His stuff rocked, and made it possible to do really serious (and cool) things with QuickBasic. I remember writing several TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) programs with one of his libraries.

Dan Appleman

Most people include Dan Appleman because of his Win32 API book for VB Coders, but for me it was his book “Developing ActiveX Components With Visual Basic 5.0: A Guide to the Perplexed” which put him into the hero category. It was after reading this book I felt like I’d turned the corner into true understanding of a lot of the guts behind VB and COM.

Carl Franklin

Back in the early days of VB there was one place to go for all your really good VB Tips: Carl & Gary’s. My memory is a little foggy, but about the time I found the site Gary took a sabbatical and Carl picked up the bulk of the work. (I don’t have anything against Gary, he just wasn’t around.) At any rate, I learned so much and got so many cool coding tidbits Carl makes the list as one of my early heroes.

Dan Fox

Dan Fox wrote a book called Pure Visual Basic (http://shrinkster.com/opa), back in the VB6 days. This was a great book, because it contained everything you needed to know to write professional level applications. It was great both for teaching and as a reference.

I used it to teach a series of VB6 classes that started at the basics and went all the way through to advanced topics, and for the entire series Dan’s book was all I needed. At work, I used it as a reference to look up the “how to” for those things I didn’t do on a daily basis.

Bill Vaughn

No list would be complete without the original database Hitchhiker, William R. “Bill” Vaughn. His books over the years have taught me and many others the ins and outs of programming against the database, primarily SQL Server. His early works combined with his current (and fabulous) version of the Hitchhiker guide and SQL Server Compact Edition E-Book make Bill a hero, and a good transition from my early heroes to my current ones.

Deborah Kurata

Much like Bill, Deborah has been around a little while writing books since the VB5 days. She has turned out many books on objects, and still continues with one of my favorites, her “Best Kept Secrets of .Net’ book (http://shrinkster.com/oph). I’ve also heard her speak at conferences, and was impressed with her depth of knowledge and instructional capability.

Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell

Carl gets to make the list twice, this time with his cohort Richard Campbell. Their work on Dot Net Rocks (http://www.dotnetrocks.com) has taught me an incredible amount on the .Net world. I also have to get shout outs to Rory Blyth and Mark Dunn, Carl’s earlier co-hosts, as I’ve been working through the older shows. When I started listening though, Richard had taken the co-host helm.

Through the podcasts I’ve been exposed to so much good info, and gotten to do it while stuck in traffic or stopping at my local grocery store. Great job guys!

Mark Miller

My final, and most current coding hero is Developer Express’ head of developer tools, Mark Miller. I first saw Mark at VSLive in Orlando. He wasn’t just enjoying himself, he was excited about writing code. Not since my old friend, the afore mentioned Mark Westbrook have I seen anyone that passionate about writing code! (Maybe it’s something about the name Mark?)

His presentation was also one of the more useful I’ve ever seen, it was on practical ways to measure the user experience. Measuring the number of twips a mouse had to move to click various user elements, for example.

After the show I went and watched him at the DevExpress booth, and wound up standing for an hour watching Mark and his coworker (can’t recall if it was Julian or Dustin, sorry) interact with the crowd.

Again, Mark’s enthusiasm continued, you could tell he was thrilled to be there demoing CodeRush and cranking out code. It was his enthusiasm that rekindled my own tech interests, and led me down my current career path. I became inspired to start blogging, and speaking at code camps and user groups.

And there you go

There’s my list, starting in my youth and working toward today. I thank you for indulging me in my trip down memory lane, and hope it brought up some fond memories for you as well. As for tomorrow’s heroes, who knows? Maybe it’ll be you.

SQL Server Compact Edition To Be Shipped With Windows Mobile 6.0!

I was relaxing Monday evening, watching some of Channel 9 videos I’d downloaded (yeah, I know, but I really do find it relaxing). In this video on Windows Mobile 6: http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=303900 Rory is interviewing Mel Sampat who showed off some cool stuff with Windows Mobile 6.0.

One of the coolest things is that WM6 includes both SQL Server Compact Edition and .Net Compact Framework 2.0. What this means for you as a developer is that you don’t have to worry about deploying all the SSCE plumbing. How sweet will that be!

They also demoed some cool voice capabilities that you have to see. Very very awesome.

Now if they’d just hurry up and release Windows Mobile 6!!

Arcane Events: Upcoming Tech Events in the Birmingham AL Area

Today we’re having a big staff meeting at work, and the organizers are graciously allowing me to mention some of the upcoming tech events happening in the Birmingham, Alabama area. I’m also providing this info here, so everyone can benefit.

Tech Birmingham’s (http://www.techbirmingham.com/) Tech Mixer (http://www.techmixer.org) is the huge gathering for anyone in the local tech industry. Vendors, user groups, geeks, and nerds of every type will descend upon the McWane Center in downtown Birmingham on May 1^st. Entry and parking is free, go to the third floor entrance on the parking deck. If you pre-register you will be eligible for a special door prize, so jump online now it’s quick and easy.

https://www.itsbits.com/TechMixer/Default.aspx

The Birmingham Software Developers Association (BSDA) meets the second Thursday of every month at 6:30 pm. The BSDA meets in the computer center of Virginia Tech college, which is located on the backside of the Palisades shopping center in Homewood. While most of the club presentations are Microsoft centric, we do stray into other areas from time to time. For more info go to the club website at http://www.bsda.info/

The Birmingham Dot Net User Group (Bug.Net) meets the second Tuesday of every month, also at 6:30. With a heavy emphasis on Microsoft dot Net development, the club meets in the CTS offices in Riverchase. Details and directions can be found at http://www.bugdotnet.com/

So you say night meetings are hard for you to attend? Well for the lunch time crowd there’s the Internet Professional Society of Alabama, or IPSA. Meeting at St Vincent’s Bruno Conference Center, IPSA meets once a month to discuss internet development, and they’re even sponsored by Alabama Power! See the club site at http://ipsaonline.org/ for meeting times and directions.

These are just a few of the groups in the Birmingham Area. There are user groups for Linux, Oracle, DB2, Perl, Java, Ruby, and much, much more. See a complete list at http://shrinkster.com/oe1.

Whatever your interest is, there’s a tech group for you. Just do a google on “user group” and the name of your town and I bet you’ll find a match.

SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition – Important Component

In my post on Getting Started with SQL Server ( http://shrinkster.com/nsk ), I mentioned 3 things you need. SQL Server CE, Visual Studio 2005 SP 1, and the SQL Server CE Books on Line. As it turns out there’s an important fourth item.

The missing component is the “Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition Tools for Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1”, available at http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=877C0ADC-0347-4A47-B842-58FB71D159AC&displaylang=en or http://shrinkster.com/oam .

This service pack fixes a few things using SSCE with VS, one of them I consider critical. When you do a Project, References from VS, in the .Net list you will now be able to find a selection for System.Data.SqlServerCe.

Second, all of the Create Database dialogs now correctly read “SQL Server Compact Edition” instead of “SQL Server Mobile”. It also updates device CAB files correctly and includes new features such as Click Once support.

This should be installed fourth in your list, so if you’ve already done the other components, you are good to go for installing this. To recap:

Install SQL Server Compact Edition components. (http://shrinkster.com/l9f).
Install Visual Studio Service Pack 1. (http://shrinkster.com/lel )
Install SQL Server CE Books On-line. ( http://shrinkster.com/lem )
Install SSCE for VS SP1, as I’ve described here. ( http://shrinkster.com/oam).

A special thanks to Doug Tunure, our regional MS Developer Evangelist who helped me communicate with the SSCE team to figure out what was missing, and thanks to the SSCE team for a great tool.

System Views in SQL Server Compact Edition: Provider Types

The last view we’ll discuss is the INFORMATION_SCHEMA.PROVIDER_TYPES. Strictly speaking, this does not provide a view into your particular database, but into SQL Server Compact Edition. As such, it probably won’t be very useful in day to day queries into the database.

What it may be useful for is in automating database code generation. This table lists all of the valid database types that SQL Server CE supports. Presumably if Microsoft chooses to add new data types to SSCE they will show up here.

Let’s take a look at the query that’ll return some useful info, and what each field means.

select type_name, data_type, column_size, 
       literal_prefix, literal_suffix,
       is_nullable, case_sensitive, 
       unsigned_attribute, fixed_prec_scale,
       minimum_scale, maximum_scale, is_fixedlength 
 from information_schema.provider_types
 

type_name contains the list of valid datatypes, such as int, real, nvarchar, etc.

data_type contains a numeric representation of the type of data stored in the field. Note this is not unique, for example nchar and nvarchar, and ntext all have the same data_type of 130.

Column_size indicates the max size for a data_type.

Literal_prefix / literal_suffix indicates what you should use to wrap a literal value. This is probably one of the more useful items in this table. Let’s say you have a static text value you want to insert into a SQL statement, perhaps a system name such as the word arcanecode.com. Looking up the literal_prefix for a ntext item I see that it is N’ (the letter N followed by a single quote). The literal_suffix is just a single quote mark, so to include in a SQL statement I’d need to put N’arcanecode.com’ .

Is_nullable is obvious, a 1 indicates the field is allowed to hold null values, a 0 means it can’t. As of this writing, all the field types in SSCE are nullable.

Case_sensitive is similar, 1 shows the field is case sensitive, 0 not. Again, as of this writing none of the fields in SSCE are case sensitive.

Unsigned_attribute is null for non-numeric type, but for numbers a 1indicates the data_type is unsigned only (i.e. no negative values allowed). A 0 indicates negative values are valid.

Fixed_prec_scale is another Boolean field. A 1 indicates the precision (the number of positions after the decimal point) is fixed. A 0 indicates you can change the precision.

Minimum_scale, maximum_scale is tied to the fixed_prec_scale. For items like int’s where the precision is always the same, this is null. However on numerics the user (i.e. you) can set the scale, and these fields indicate the valid range.

Is_fixedlength is a Boolean that flags whether the data_types length is fixed. For numerics this is going to be 1 (true), and for most text types this is 0 (false).

If nothing else this table makes a great quick reference. Since SSCE only supports a subset of the SQL Server data types, it’s handy to have a place to see which types are supported.

In your application, you could use this to build code generators or build SQL statements to create new databases. For example you could use it to look up the prefix / suffix types for a data_type.

And there you go, this completes a week long look at the various views built into SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition, and how you can use them within your applications.