Question

i have a code to restart a service in an event which does other functions too.

I have a try catch in the event for everything within the event like this:

private void btnApply_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        try
        {               
            applyChangesAndCheckRestartService();
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            MessageBox.Show("Error loading page.", "Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error);
        }
    }

private void applyChangesAndCheckRestartService()
    {
        string svrPortNo = CommonCodeClass.getTagValue(CommonCodeClass.xml_SvrPortNoTag, CommonCodeClass.configLocation + CommonCodeClass.configXML);               

        if (!ApplyChangesForSettings())
        {                
            return;
        }

        if (svrPortNo != tbSvrPortNo.Text)
        {               
            CommonCodeClass.CheckToRestartService();
        }
    }

Now if there is an error during ApplyChangesForSettings() i will get an error popup “Error loading page”.

If there is an error in CheckToRestartService() i will get the same error because of the try catch.

Is there a better way to handle this.

Like i dont mind the error loading page for ApplyChangesForSettings() but for CheckToRestartService() i would like to see an error like “unable to restart service”.

Any suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks

internal static void CheckToRestartService()
    {
        DialogResult result = MessageBox.Show(CommonCodeClass.resartServiceMessage, "Warning", MessageBoxButtons.YesNo, MessageBoxIcon.Warning);
        if (result == DialogResult.Yes)
        {
            CommonCodeClass.RestartService(CommonCodeClass.serviceName, 60000);
        }
    }

Answer 1

Do they throw different exceptions? If they do you could use exception filtering:

private void btnApply_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    try
    {               
        applyChangesAndCheckRestartService();
    }

    // catch service start exceptions
    catch (InvalidOperationException ioex)
    {
        // display message that couldn't start service
    }

    // catch rest
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        MessageBox.Show("Error loading page.", "Error", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error);
    }
}

UPDATE this is assuming you’re calling something like ServiceController.Start() which throws InvalidOperationException on failure, you could easily throw this yourself on your own error condition or create your own custom exception.

if (/* service didn't start */)
{
    throw new InvalidOperationException("Could not start service.");
}