The Windows Services Manager Utility

The WindowsServiceUtil program assists you in setting up any application to run as a Windows Service.

Internally, the program utilizes the NSSM command line utility to create and manage Windows Services. Unlike Microsoft's own tool, srvany, and other service helpers, NSSM effectively handles failures when running a service. It actively monitors the service and will restart it if it crashes, which is crucial for maintaining service availability.

Additionally, NSSM logs its progress in the Windows Event Log, allowing you to diagnose any issues that may arise with the application.

The workspace also includes a template, DFServiceProgram1, to help you build your own DataFlex program that can function as a Windows Service. This is beneficial for both Windows Desktop applications and WebApp applications.

Setup after cloning

After cloning this repository, run setup.bat once from the repository root. It:

• downloads / updates the library submodules under Libraries\ (DFAbout, DigitalCert, RDCToolsLib, vwin32fh) to the versions this workspace expects;
• configures this clone so a normal git pull keeps those libraries in sync automatically from then on;
• runs skip-local-data.cmd so your local Data\ database changes stay on your machine and are never tracked or pushed.

Re-run setup.bat any time the Libraries\ folders look empty or out of date, or when a new submodule is added.

The database tables ship directly in Data\, so the workspace runs out of the box after setup (WinServiceData.zip is just a spare copy of the same baseline).