Wrapping a C# service in a console app to debug it

Question

I want to debug a service written in C# and the old fashioned way is just too long. I have to stop the service, start my application that uses the service in debug mode (Visual studio 2008), start the service, attach to the service process and then navigate in my Asp.Net application to trigger the service.

I basically have the service running in the background, waiting for a task. The web application will trigger a task to be picked up by the service.

What I would like to do is to have a console application that fires the service in an effort for me to debug. Is there any simple demo that anybody knows about?

Answer 1

You can do something like this in the main entry point:

static void Main() { #if DEBUG     Service1 s = new Service1();     s.Init(); // Init() is pretty much any code you would have in OnStart(). #else     ServiceBase[] ServicesToRun;     ServicesToRun=new ServiceBase[]      {          new Service1()      };     ServiceBase.Run(ServicesToRun); #endif } 

and in your OnStart Event handler:

protected override void OnStart(string[] args) {     Init(); } 

Answer 2

The approach I always take is to isolate out all of your application's logic into class libraries. This makes your service project really just a shell that hosts your class libraries as a service.

By doing this, you can easily unit test and debug your code, without having to deal with the headache of debugging a service by attaching to a process. I'd recommend unit testing of course, but if you're not doing that then adding a console application that calls the same entry point as your service is the way to go.