using timer within windows service

Question

I would like to use a timer instead of sleep within a windows service that should perform an action at a constant interval.

Lets say that I have the following class.

class MailManagerClient
{

    //fields
    string someString

    //Constructor
    public MailManagerClient()
    { 
          aTimer = new System.Timers.Timer(30000);
          aTimer.Elapsed += new ElapsedEventHandler(OnTimedEvent);
          aTimer.Enabled = true
    }
    //methode

    public bool DoSomthingIncConstantInterval()
    {
        //Do Somthing
        return true;
    }


    private static void OnTimedEvent(object source, ElapsedEventArgs e)
    {
       DoSomthingIncConstantInterval()
    }
}

And I also have a windows service with the OnStart method.

I understand that in the OnStart method I will need to start a new thread for the type MailManagerClient.

But how do I start the thread? Which method should be the entry point for the new thread?

How should the thread stay alive?

Maybe you should have a look at quartz.net, I think it'll serve your purpose much better. — alxbrd, Apr 04 '12 at 15:21
Observable.Timer in [System.Reactive.Linq](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh229435(v=vs.103).aspx) is something else to look into as well. — Austin Salonen, Apr 04 '12 at 15:22

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 04 '12 at 15:41

1

In the OnStart method you could have -

MailManagerClient m;
var th = new Thread(()=>m=new MailManagerClient());
th.Start();

answered Apr 04 '12 at 15:41

ilias

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score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 04 '12 at 15:42

Because you are starting the timer in the constructor than all you really need to do is instantiate a MailManagerClient in OnStart. You do not need to manually create a thread because System.Timers.Timer executes the Elapsed event handler on a thread from the ThreadPool.

public class MyService : ServiceBase
{
  private MailManagerClient mmc = null;

  protected void OnStart(string[] args)
  {
    mmc = new MailManagerClient();
  }

}

I should point out that it would not be obvious to the next programmer looking at your code that MailManagerClient.ctor is actually doing anything. It would be better to define a Start method or something similar that enables the internal timer.

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:49

1

You might also consider defining a Windows Task, as explained in this SO answer: What is the Windows version of cron?. The Windows OS will take care of scheduling and threading.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:49

Community

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answered Apr 04 '12 at 16:59

Philipp Schmid

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using timer within windows service

3 Answers3