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Service wizard

Dudi Avramov

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3.39/5 (20 votes)

21 Jan 20041 min read

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Service wizard integrated with the Visual Studio IDE.

Introduction

Service applications always have the same skeleton. Therefore, it would be nice to have a service wizard integrated with the Visual Studio IDE (Integrated Development Environment).

My service wizard was created by the "Custom Wizard" project type. Its output is an AWX file that should be copied to <Visual Studio directory>\Common\MSDev98\Template folder.

Therefore, when creating service projects, choose "Service Wizard" from the project type list.

One wizard step

As seen from the image above, there are 3 parameters for service installation:

Displayed service name - This is the text that will be displayed when opening the service control manager.
Startup type.
Should the service interact with the desktop?

Install and uninstall your service

The wizard writes down code for installing and uninstalling your service. Running your executable with the '/Install' or '/Uninstall' parameter will install or uninstall the service, respectively.

Debugging your service

Since the created project (by the wizard) is a console application, you can debug your service as if it were just a console application and not a service.

TO DO ...

Your application code should be in the method Run() located in service.cpp file. Look for the comment // TO DO: Add code here. This is the place where the service is running.

Updates

9.Apr.2003 - Send WM_QUIT message on service stop request.
18.Jan.2004 -
1. Start the service automatically when the service is installed and defined to have automatic startup.
2. Wait for the service to be stopped when uninstalling the service.

Enjoy...

License

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Written By

Dudi Avramov

Web Developer

Israel

This member has not yet provided a Biography. Assume it's interesting and varied, and probably something to do with programming.

Comments and Discussions

The servise does not working on Vista

coronys20-May-09 20:19

20-May-09 20:19

Do you have any correction? Smile | :)

Smile | :)

What is .awx file?

G Haranadh30-Aug-05 8:46

30-Aug-05 8:46

What is this .awx file?
How to open this .awx file?

Re: What is .awx file?

Dudi Avramov1-Sep-05 1:32

1-Sep-05 1:32

I wrote it above:
My service wizard was created by the "Custom Wizard" project type. Its output is an AWX file that should be copied to <visual studio="" directory="">\Common\MSDev98\Template folder.

Therefore, when creating service projects, choose "Service Wizard" from the project type list.

Re: What is .awx file?

G Haranadh1-Sep-05 9:55

1-Sep-05 9:55

Thanks for your reply. Blush | :O

Blush | :O

Service description?

Unimportant user with important question16-Jun-05 10:29

Unimportant user with important question

16-Jun-05 10:29

I found this incredibly useful and fairly easy to use. Thank you very much. Is there an easy way to set the text description? Service name and displayed name I found. I want to set the text that is displayed in the service manager.
Thanks again.

Difference between wizards

Soron26-Jan-04 5:01

26-Jan-04 5:01

I've find this wizard
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/8632/code/cppservice.html
The structure based on Class is more clean.
And there are many option I don't find in this wizard like OnPause.

But the Message queue is missing.

So since I'm a beginner, I don't knwon what is the Best ...

Can you give me some comments ?

Thanks

Re: Difference between wizards

milkyhonglee3-Mar-06 3:39

3-Mar-06 3:39

I am also a beginner in services. Before this I too found the above mentioned wizard. I found that the previous one was better structured in terms of OOP.

However, I still give high rating for this alternative attempt so that I can compare and learn from these two skeleton. There are no Best, just with different advantages I guess.

About the message queue, I believe we can add it on our own.

Thanks Wink | ;)

Wink | ;)

This is a trash, at least 80%+ are trash

Anonymous22-Jan-04 4:44

22-Jan-04 4:44

Big Grin | :-D

Re: This is a trash, at least 80%+ are trash

Dudi Avramov22-Jan-04 9:00

22-Jan-04 9:00

Tell me, what exactly is trash in this article?
What would you do in order to write a service? After all, service skeleton
is always the same. So why not to have a wizard for that?
What is your suggestion?
Furthermore, this sample can help you to learn how to write any wizard that is integrated to the Visual Studio IDE.

Re: This is a trash, at least 80%+ are trash

Soron26-Jan-04 5:06

26-Jan-04 5:06

Yep it's a good sampe, thanks you for it.

Not working and stoping

Aji Varghese6-Nov-03 22:20

6-Nov-03 22:20

it failed to work and to respond to stop

Re: Not working and stoping

Aji Varghese23-Dec-03 19:23

23-Dec-03 19:23

Soory.... it is working fine now.......

Matt Newman12-May-03 7:02

12-May-03 7:02

I am having problems converting this to UNICODE and I have been problems with vsprintf. My question is what exactly does that section of code do? So far I haven't seen any difference just ignoring that section and running lpszStrings[0] = pFormat and printf(pFormat). I just want to make sure that it won't cause any problems once I switch from console testing to actual service testing.

void CService::LogEvent(LPCSTR pFormat, ...)
{
    TCHAR    chMsg[256];
    HANDLE  hEventSource;
    LPTSTR  lpszStrings[1];
    va_list pArg;

    va_start(pArg, pFormat);
    vsprintf(chMsg, pFormat, pArg);
    va_end(pArg);

    lpszStrings[0] = chMsg;


    if (m_bService)
    {
        /* Get a handle to use with ReportEvent(). */
        hEventSource = RegisterEventSource(NULL, m_szServiceName);
        if (hEventSource != NULL)
        {
            /* Write to event log. */
            ReportEvent(hEventSource, EVENTLOG_INFORMATION_TYPE, 0, 0, NULL, 1, 0, (LPCTSTR*) &lpszStrings[0], NULL);
            DeregisterEventSource(hEventSource);
        }
    }
    else
    {
        // As we are not running as a service, just write the error to the console.
        printf(chMsg);

    }
}

Matt

Re: LogEvent...

Dudi Avramov12-May-03 21:31

12-May-03 21:31

Well, this function sends events (such as "service stopped", service is running", etc...) to the event viewer in case the application runs as a service.
(Open the event viewer and see the events that refer to your service.)

If the application runs as a console one then your events are displayed
on the console window.

You won't have any problems when switching to service application.

Re: LogEvent...

Matt Newman13-May-03 4:02

13-May-03 4:02

Ok, I just wanted to double check before I got to far in the project then had to hurry up and change it Smile | :)

Smile | :)

Thanks for the help.

Matt

Matt Newman9-May-03 16:39

9-May-03 16:39

Any plans to update for VC7?

[EDIT]Unicode would be a nice feature too[/EDIT]

Matt

Dudi Avramov10-May-03 21:05

10-May-03 21:05

Maybe when i get VC7.

Matt Newman11-May-03 3:49

11-May-03 3:49

Maybe if I get some spare time I will work on it for you. Unfortunately with my schedule it will remain a maybe.

Matt

Not a good service skeleton

WoutL6-Apr-03 20:56

6-Apr-03 20:56

When the service receives a control stop it will only sets its status to stop_pending. The service never stops however…

Beside of that it’s a nice idee. Roll eyes | :rolleyes:

Roll eyes | :rolleyes:

Re: Not a good service skeleton

Dudi Avramov7-Apr-03 3:20

7-Apr-03 3:20

Not true.
Look at CService::ServiceMain() where i call
SetServiceStatus(SERVICE_STOPPED);

Re: Not a good service skeleton

WoutL7-Apr-03 3:31

7-Apr-03 3:31

The code SetServiceStatus(SERVICE_STOPPED) in ServiceManin is never called because the Run() function is in an infinite message loop:

MSG msg;
while (GetMessage(&msg,NULL,NULL,NULL))
{
TranslateMessage(&msg);
DispatchMessage(&msg);
}

Re: Not a good service skeleton

Dudi Avramov7-Apr-03 21:02

7-Apr-03 21:02

Not ture.
When the SCM send stop message then GetMessage gets WM_QUIT and therefore
the loop is stopped.
(If GetMessage(...) retrieves the WM_QUIT message, the return value is zero
and therefore the loop is stopped).

Did you try my wizard?
It is quite simple to install/uninstall the service.
Just run your executable file with the argument /Install or /Uninstall.
Start and stop the service and see that it works fine.

Re: Not a good service skeleton

WoutL7-Apr-03 21:13

7-Apr-03 21:13

Yes,

I did try your wizard. But the service generated by the wizard wont't respond to a net stop <servicename>.

The SCM doesn't send a WM_QUIT message. This is because the SCM doesn't know if the service's thread has a message queue. If you want to use a message queue in the thread you will have to send the WM_QUIT message yourself. This isn't in your code (yet). Frown | :(

Frown | :(

Re: Not a good service skeleton

Dudi Avramov8-Apr-03 1:39

8-Apr-03 1:39

Do you try to stop the service from the netwrok?
I didn't check it.
However, when i stop the service by the SCM (local on my computer) the service is stopped. Did you try that?

This means that GetMessage(...) got WM_QUIT message.

Maybe, SCM tries to kill a service in 3 phases:
1) Sending a special message.
2) Sending QM_QUIT
if all those operation fails then
3) SCM calls TerminateProcess.

Now, if you try to kill the service from remote host then the service will
not be able to get WM_QUIT message.

Am i right?

Re: Not a good service skeleton

WoutL8-Apr-03 2:15

8-Apr-03 2:15

I did try to stop the service via the commandprompt (net stop) and via the Services mmc applet. I am using winXP by the way.

Normally the ServiceControlManager uses only the Services ControlHandler to try to stop a service. The SCM itselfs doesn't seems to care about failure or Success.

When a system shuts down however, all running processes will terminate in 20 secs or so, if the don't send updates to the scm about there current state.

I never read anywhere on th PSDK about WM_QUIT messages send to the service. Confused | :confused:

Confused | :confused:

I myself have never used services with a MessageQueue.

Then there is another issuee...

You should set the services state to stopped in the ServiceControlHandler function. Not in the main threads itself. Ofcourse you should only set the stopped state if the main thread has exited...

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