Programming Windows Services with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008

Book excerpt: Get the practical reference to developing Windows services with Visual Basic 2008. Addressing the leading trend of software as a service, this guide illustrates how developers with intermediate Visual Basic skills can design and implement Web services. It addresses a critical gap in the developer literature today, showing that services can be developed with Visual Basic 2008?and are not restricted to XML-based applications or Microsoft Visual C#®. Software as a service is changing the dynamic between rich and thin clients. As device types multiply, users expect ?always-on” connectivity to link them to the robust Web and corporate applications they use on the desktop. Services, which offload data storage and processing tasks to a server, run efficiently on Web platforms on any device. Services do not need to be a complex coding task?and this is the ideal resource for creating modern, service-oriented applications. It covers integration of services with other Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft BizTalk® Server, Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), and Microsoft SQL Server™. Plus, you'll get extensive code snippets and sample applications.