win service or scheduled task to Periodically Call a Web Service?

Question

I have a web service which I would like to call on a scheduled basis. Currently, I have a scheduled task setup to execute the call. Here's a link Jon Galloway's post on the topic.

I'm planning to switch this out with a Win Service, simply to appease my boss, but I'm wondering what the advantages are (aside from keeping my job ;).

I personally like the script method due to its simplicity, but am curious to know what I'm missing over a Win Service approach..

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 27 '09 at 19:09

1

Reliability is higher with a Windows Service. It can be set to start when the system starts, and to restart automatically if it fails.

answered Jul 27 '09 at 19:09

John Saunders

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I think I can do all of that with a Scheduled Task.. No? – madcolor Jul 27 '09 at 19:15
No. Automatic restart on failure? – John Saunders Jul 27 '09 at 19:40
Also, have you seen how easy it is to write a Windows Service in Visual Studio.NET? – John Saunders Jul 27 '09 at 19:41
I've thrown some psuedo try/catch code in my script which logs any failures. I guess for my purposes, I wouldn't want it to retry until I'd be able to review the issue. I also think compiling should be left for bigger code/projects. – madcolor Jul 27 '09 at 19:49
So, you haven't seen how easy it is. Besides, code is easier to refactor and reuse than script is. What kind of script? PowerShell, I hope? – John Saunders Jul 27 '09 at 20:17
Seriously. Time to write some code. No wonder your boss wants this. He may even want maintainable code, who knows? :-) – John Saunders Jul 27 '09 at 20:56
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Still haven't given me a good argument to replace my 20 line script with an X amount of lines/compiled Win Service. – madcolor Jul 27 '09 at 21:01

win service or scheduled task to Periodically Call a Web Service?

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