Topper

Generic Windows service host - makes an ordinary Console Application hostable in the following scenarios:

• To be F5-debugged locally - on your developer machine
• To be installed as a Windows Service - on the servers in your basement
• To be executed as an Azure Web Job - in the cloud!!

Based on Topshelf. Exposes a drastically simplified API, where "services" are simply factories that return something IDisposable.

Getting started

Create YourNewAwesomeWindowsService as a Console Application project targeting at least .NET 4.5.2.

Include the NuGet package 📦

Install-Package Topper -ProjectName YourNewAwesomeWindowsService

and clean up your Program.cs so it becomes nice like this: 🌻

namespace YourNewAwesomeWindowsService
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            
        }
    }
}

and then you configure Topper by going

var configuration = new ServiceConfiguration()
	.Add(.. function that returns an IDisposable ..)
	.Add(.. another function that returns an IDisposable ..);

ServiceHost.Run(configuration);

in Main, which could look like this:

namespace YourNewAwesomeWindowsService
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            var configuration = new ServiceConfiguration()
                .Add(() => new MyNewAwesomeService());

            ServiceHost.Run(configuration);                
        }
    }
}

🐵 Easy!

Topper uses LibLog ⚡ to log things. If you want to use Serilog, you probably want to

Install-Package Serilog.Sinks.ColoredConsole -ProjectName YourNewAwesomeWindowsService

and configure the global 🌍 logger before starting your service:

namespace YourNewAwesomeWindowsService
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            Log.Logger = new LoggerConfiguration()
                .WriteTo.ColoredConsole()
                .CreateLogger();

            var configuration = new ServiceConfiguration()
                .Add(() => new MyNewAwesomeService());

            ServiceHost.Run(configuration);                
        }
    }
}

And that is how you use Topper.

How to run locally?

Press F5 or CTRL+F5 in Visual Studio.

Run the .exe

How to run as Windows Service?

Open an elevated command prompt, and run the .exe with the install argument, like so:

C:\apps\YourApp> YourApp.exe install

and then some Windows Service Control 🚥 stuff will appear and tell you some details on how it was installed.

You can remove it again like this:

C:\apps\YourApp> YourApp.exe uninstall

Not exactly surprising. 👏

How to run as Azure Web Job?

Just run it as you would any other Console Application as a Continuous Web Job.

Topper automatically monitors for the presence of the WEBJOBS_SHUTDOWN_FILE, to be able to shut down gracefully and dispose your IDisposables. ♻️

---