>I have a need to periodically identify records in a table with specific content in specific fields and, when any such are found, send data to a partner company and get a reply back (using WinSock).
>
>The idea would be to run a SQL every nn (say 10) seconds and if records were found, ship them off one-by-one. Connect/send/receive/disconnect for each record. NO UI action whatever in this "process".
>
>Now this "process", I am hopeful, can be a "COM server", set up as a Win2000 "service". This "process" ("service") would be expected to run continually without intervention.
>
>First question, then is: Can this be done?... Can a COM Server do work on behalf of NO ONE, or does it have to be instantiated by someone in order to actually process?
>
>Now the "process" would maintain certain statistics regarding the work performed within it.
>
>I would like some way to "report" the activity of that "process" to a user on a display, using a regular old VFP form.
>While I'm confident that I could have the stats put to a table that this other application would read as it needs, I am hopeful that there might be some way to interact with the "process" and get its current statistics for display. The user would intermittently hit a "Update" button on the form to get the latest stats.
>So question 2 is: Is there a way to access the statistics being maintained by that "process"? My thought had been to simply have a method that I would call from the form, but then I realized that I would be accessing a separate instance and that any stats would be meaningless.
>
>Thanks in advance

Hi Jim,

See some stuff about it in Thread#601302, MSKB#Q137890

For the second question, yes, that can be done. I will send you some samples and materials tonight.