Looking for some thoughts on an image printing app

Question

Hey All, Im looking for thoughts/advice.

I have an upcoming project (all .net) that will require the following:

1. pulls data once a day from an online service provider based on certain criteria.
2. saves data locally for reference and reporting
3. the data thats pulled will be used to create gift cards. So after the data is loaded, a process will run to generate "virtual cards" and send them to a network printer.
4. Once printed, the system will updated the local data recording a successful or failed print.

My initial thought was to create a windows service to pull the data...but then I couldnt decide how I was going to put a "virtual card" together and get it to print.

Then I considered doing it as a WPF app. I figure that will give me access to the graphics and printing ability.

Maybe neither of these are the right direction....Any ideas or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Alex

Answer 1

Printing from a service is not recommended. Printer drivers tend to assume they are invoked from a desktop app and can prompt the user for boring details. That will hang your service, it runs in an invisible desktop.

Sure, WPF will work fine. You don't have to make a window visible. Get it started with a shortcut in the Startup folder. Cards will however remain virtual if nobody logs in.