AsyncServiceBase

An abstract implementation of System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase aimed at developing Task-based Windows Services. Includes interactive testing facilities.

Supports .NET Framework 4.7.2

Getting started

AsyncServiceBase is an abstraction layer around System.ServiceProcess.ServiceBase and provides a single abstract method called RunServiceAsync() to run any Task-related work.

//your task-based service implementation goes here
public override async Task RunServiceAsync(string[] args, CancellationToken cancellationToken, PauseToken pauseToken)
{
    //define some task
    var task = SomeLongRunningTask(cancellationToken, pauseToken);

    //await completion
    await task;
}

Calls from Service Control Manager (SCM) to OnStart, OnStop, OnPause and OnContinue are handled internally by AsyncServiceBase to appropriately control starting, stopping and pausing of the Task via the CancellationToken and PauseToken.

It's important to await the completion of the internal task.

Upon task-completion, AsyncServiceBase will set the service's ExitCode accordingly based on the completion status of the task and will log any exception to the Windows Application eventlog.

Interactive debugging

AsyncServiceBase provides a static RunInteractive method which can be used to run and debug your specific service implementation interactively within a console application. Depending on the state-changes your service supports, you can start, stop, pause and continue your service.

Usage:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var service = new SomeSampleService();
    if (Environment.UserInteractive)
    {
        AsyncServiceBase.RunInteractive(service);
    }
    else
    {
        ServiceBase[] ServicesToRun;
        ServicesToRun = new ServiceBase[] { service };
        ServiceBase.Run(ServicesToRun);
    }
}

Please see the included SampleService application for a sample implementation.

Acknowledgements

A very special thanks goes to Stephan Cleary for his Nito.AsyncEx library, which is heavily used in AsyncServiceBase.