Brendan Tompkins [MVP]

This is a great tutorial ! Thank you and please write the Part 3 i really need it !
:D

Please continue with third part. Thanks

This is a useful tutorial ! Thank you and please write the Part 3 we really need it !

Thank you for this article very helpful Brendan, i really need the third part.

What about the case for using Web Service to control Windows Service? I need to start or stop a windows service by sending a SOAP request to the web service on the same machine, haven't figure out how to do it.

The principle should be the same, see part 3.

Hi,

Im trying to implement your code & have a question:

-Your code references a methos 'GateStatus'
"tcp://[SERVER]:8001/GateStatus"

Where is this method implemented?

From my client code (Windows Form app), Im getting an exception of type "Requested Service not found" whn I try to return the object from the GetCurrentStatus() method.

Here is more detail on the problem Im having:

I have a service which periodically pings a remote IP address to determine connectivity. When connectivity is dropped or restored, I want to know the duration of the downtime, so I have a couple of classes storing that data.

I need to be able to remotely query the object which is storing that data, so your code is a big help (if I can get it to go).

Here is the server code which mashalls the object Im trying to use remotely (In OnStart):
// Register the TCP Channel on port 8001
ChannelServices.RegisterChannel(new TcpChannel(8001));

// Register the type
RemotingConfiguration.RegisterWellKnownServiceType (
typeof(ConnectionStateRemotable),
"cConnectionStateChanges",
WellKnownObjectMode.Singleton);

// Now, Marshal it this will make it available to other processes via the TCP remoting channel
try
{
RemotingServices.Marshal(m_ConnectionStatus, "cConnectionStateChanges");
eventLog1.WriteEntry("cConnectionStateChanges Marshalled");
}
catch (System.Exception ex)
{
eventLog1.WriteEntry(ex.Message);
eventLog1.WriteEntry(ex.InnerException.Message );
}

The object does get marshalled (I see an event in the event log & no exceptions).

As a test, I have a small windows forms app with a button which tries to get the remote object. Here is the code from the Click event and the GetCurrentStatus method:

private void button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
PingChecker.cConnectionStateChanges x = new PingChecker.cConnectionStateChanges();
x = GetCurrentStatus();

foreach(PingChecker.ConnectionStateChange item in x)
{
System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine("item.Timestamp=" + item.Timestamp.ToUniversalTime());
}

System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine("Count is: " + x.Count);
}
public PingChecker.cConnectionStateChanges GetCurrentStatus()
{
try
{
// Call GetObject to Activate our Remotable object
PingChecker.ConnectionStateRemotable cscr = (PingChecker.ConnectionStateRemotable) Activator.GetObject(
typeof(PingChecker.ConnectionStateRemotable), "tcp://wired:8001/cConnectionStateChanges");

// Return the inner class that contains the monitoring info
return cscr.ConnectionStateStatus ;
}
catch(System.Exception ex)
{
System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine(ex);
System.Diagnostics.Trace.WriteLine(ex.InnerException);
return null;
}
}

The problem I am seeing is after the call to Activator.GetObject an error in the cscr object stating "Cannot evaluate field of a proxy object". The GetCurrentStatus method returns without an exception, but it comes back empty-handed - no PingChecker.cConnectionStateChanges object.

TIA for your help on this.

Charlie

Thanks Brendan, for our myMailMarket e-marketing tool we needed to have an admin page to control all running background services. This is just what we were looking for!

Thx from the guys of http://www.mymailmarket.be