how to write to text file constantly while site is live

What I'm trying to do is create an asp.net page that runs a random number generator, displays the random number, and writes it to a text file. That part is no worries, the issues is I want the number generation and file writing to continue while the page is live - ie if no one is actually viewing the page, it's just sitting on the server, the process should continue.

Is this possible?

EDIT: Foolishly overlooked using a webservice to generate the number - I've knocked up a basic service that generates a number and writes it to a text file. Can't work out how to schedule/automate it - could I set up a timer, with a given interval, then use开发者_开发问答 timer_Tick?

Scheduling is new to me, any advice is appreciated.

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You can use Window Service to work in backgroud, please see below link:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/dotnet/simplewindowsservice.aspx
http://www.codeguru.com/columns/dotnet/article.php/c6919

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Have you considered the use of scheduled tasks? So, rather than the page calling the updates, the scheduled task does that, and the page viewer is just seeing "latest results" at any specific point. Of course, that may not be feasible, but by the sounds of it, you're after a constantly working service/task with an ability to view the latest number, a little like an RSA token which shows new numebrs even if you dont need one.

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Not sure if this is what you want. But if you are interested in using a scheduler for this task, you can try Quartz.Net. It is a very popular, full-featured and open source sheduling system.

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Please describe what you are trying to achieve. There might be a better way than writing random numbers to a file.

I would not use a service (web or winservice) for this. There is no benefit to use a webservice since it will just do exactly the same as your web would do. A windows service will continue to run independent of your web, and you need to create some kind of IPC and to keep track of several timers/files.

The easiest way to do this is to use a System.Threading.Timer and keep it in a session variable. Also note that you need to kill it when the user session expires.

You should also be aware of that one timer will be created per user that uses the page.

Update

Create a Windows Service application and add a System.Threading.Timer to it. Write to the file in the timer callback.

Then open the textfile in your web app (using FileShare.ReadWrite + FileMode.Read)