Question

Well my windows service has to send out automated emails when the sql database has been updated.

How Exactly would i go about doing this? any code or tutorials would really help me

Answer 1

Solution 1 – Using sp_send_dbmail

Here is an example of creating a trigger that sends an email when an INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE event occurs on a specific table:

USE AdventureWorks2008R2;
GO
IF OBJECT_ID ('Sales.reminder2','TR') IS NOT NULL
    DROP TRIGGER Sales.reminder2;
GO
CREATE TRIGGER reminder2
ON Sales.Customer
AFTER INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE 
AS
   EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail
        @profile_name = 'AdventureWorks2008R2 Administrator',
        @recipients = '[e-mail]',
        @body = 'Don''t forget to print a report for the sales force.',
        @subject = 'Reminder';
GO

Source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189799.aspx

sp_send_dbmail was introduced in SQL Server 2005. More info: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms190307.aspx

Note:

Before use, Database Mail must be enabled using the Database Mail
Configuration Wizard, the SQL Server Surface Area Configuration tool,
or sp_configure.

Solution 2 – Using xp_cmdshell

If you can’t set up Database Mail you have another option: xp_cmdshell.
With it you can run command line commands within SQL statements e.g. a small email sending tool.

This one is a small example how to send emails using System.Net.Mail in a C# application: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2005/12/10/432854.aspx

How to use xp_cmdshell: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa260689%28v=sql.80%29.aspx

So you create a small C# console app that sends email then you execute it with xp_cmdshell right from your SQL statement.

Solution 3 – Using a windows service (as he wants)

A Windows Service can’t determine by itself whether a rows gets updated in an MSSQL database. You need to log the changes. To do so you may create an trigger for a specific table to record changes. By recording changes I mean inserting a new row into a log table withing the trigger like this:

USE MyDatabase;
GO
IF OBJECT_ID ('Products.TRRowUpdated','TR') IS NOT NULL
    DROP TRIGGER Products.TRRowUpdated;
GO
CREATE TRIGGER TRRowUpdated
ON Products
AFTER INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE 
AS
   INSERT INTO log ('Message', 'Date') VALUES ('Products table got modified', GETTIME())
GO

Creating a Windows Service Project is as easy as creating a Console Application using Visual Studio.

Your service will then read the ‘log’ table like every minute and send out emails if there were any rows in it (and deletes them of course).

It is possible to determine what kind of change happened: INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE. See the comments on this site for more details: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms189799.aspx