TaskMonitor

VB6-to-.NET 10 migration of the legacy store synchronization receiver.

A self-contained Windows desktop application that imports product-master sync packages and posts inter-store inventory transfers. Built as a behavior-preserving replacement for the legacy VB6 TaskUpdateTransfer application.

What It Does

TaskMonitor watches C:\DL-SYNCH for incoming packages and processes them:

Package Type	File Pattern	Action
Product Sync	N SynProducts.rar	Upserts products, barcodes, departments, vendors, users, and home-store quantities into the target SQL Server database
Store Transfer	N Itemtrans.rar	Posts received inventory transfers: updates QuantityOnHand, writes audit trail records, validates destination store routing

Product packages always complete before any transfer package is processed.

Architecture

TaskMonitorModern.sln
├── TaskMonitor.Domain/          — Core models, settings, sync value objects
├── TaskMonitor.Application/     — Services, interfaces, orchestration
│   ├── Services/                — SyncExportService, SyncImportService,
│   │                              SyncProcessingService, SyncSchedulerService,
│   │                              TransferPostingService, SyncPackageNameService
│   └── Abstractions/            — 16 interfaces (repository, file, settings)
├── TaskMonitor.Infrastructure/  — SQL Server, file I/O, archive, settings
│   ├── Persistence/             — DbOperationExecutor (retry), SQL builders,
│   │                              repositories, connection factories
│   ├── Files/                   — File staging, archive extraction, package discovery
│   └── Settings/                — JSON settings store with atomic writes
├── TaskMonitor.Desktop/         — WPF UI, ViewModels, composition root
│   ├── ViewModels/              — MainViewModel orchestrates focused SettingsViewModel,
│   │                              ActivityPanelViewModel, diagnostics, scheduler, sync
│   └── Composition/             — Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection (AppCompositionRoot)
└── TaskMonitor.Tests/           — 41 console-based self-tests + ops CLI
└── TaskMonitor.Tests.Unit/      — 18 xUnit tests (CI-discoverable)

• Target: .NET 10 (net10.0-windows)
• UI: WPF + Windows Forms interop
• Database: SQL Server via Microsoft.Data.SqlClient 7.0.2
• Archives: Standard ZIP (.rar extension retained for legacy compatibility)
• ~4,745 lines of C#, clean architecture, interface-driven design

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Windows x64
• .NET 10 SDK (for building from source)
• SQL Server (SQL Server 2022 or compatible)

Build

dotnet build TaskMonitorModern.sln --configuration Release

Run Tests

dotnet run --no-build --configuration Release --project TaskMonitor.Tests/TaskMonitor.Tests.csproj

# CI-discoverable unit tests
dotnet test --configuration Release --project TaskMonitor.Tests.Unit/TaskMonitor.Tests.Unit.csproj

Publish (Self-Contained)

dotnet publish TaskMonitor.Desktop/TaskMonitor.Desktop.csproj \
    --configuration Release \
    --runtime win-x64 \
    --self-contained true \
    --output artifacts/publish/TaskMonitor-win-x64

The published output is a fully self-contained ~180 MB directory — copy it anywhere, no .NET runtime required. appsettings.json is included in the publish output; review and adjust it for the target environment before first run.

Configuration

All settings live in appsettings.json alongside the executable.

Quick DB setup on a new machine: run Set-DbCredentials.ps1 to set the server, database, and authentication without hand-editing JSON. See the script's -? help for examples (Windows auth, SQL login, and runtime password via TASKMONITOR_DB_PASSWORD).

Safety Gates

Setting	Default	Description
Mode	"Recording"	"Database" to write to SQL Server
ActivationApproved	false	Must be true before Database mode starts

Mode is also editable from the UI. The Settings window has an Application Mode selector (Recording / Database) with an explanatory note. Changing it writes to appsettings.json and takes effect after an application restart.

Sync Control

Setting	Default	Description
TaskMonitor.SyncBehaviour	"ExecuteSync"	"CreateSync", "ExecuteSync", or "Both"
TaskMonitor.IntervalTime	"30"	Scheduler interval amount
TaskMonitor.IntervalType	"Minutely"	"Minutely" or "Hourly"
DisableCreateSync	false	Suppress outgoing package creation
DisableExecuteSync	false	Suppress incoming sync processing
DisableTransferProcessing	false	Product sync only, hold transfers
LocalStoreId	0	Receiving store ID for destination routing
RequireDestinationStoreRouting	true	Reject transfers addressed to other stores

Polling

• WPF incoming polling: Every 30 seconds (hardcoded) — fires while the app window is open
• Scheduler polling: Configurable via IntervalTime/IntervalType

Database

"Database": {
    "Server": "HPWIN11",
    "DatabaseName": "PVSQLDBN",
    "UseIntegratedSecurity": true,
    "UserName": "",
    "Password": "",
    "Encrypt": true,
    "TrustServerCertificate": false
}

Database passwords are never persisted to disk — the Settings window always saves an empty password, and any plaintext value already in appsettings.json is ignored on save.

Authentication options:

• Windows Integrated Security (UseIntegratedSecurity: true, preferred on domain-joined machines). On a workgroup machine the SQL client must negotiate Kerberos, which fails with "Cannot generate SSPI context" — use SQL authentication instead.
• SQL authentication (UseIntegratedSecurity: false + UserName): supply the password at runtime through the TASKMONITOR_DB_PASSWORD environment variable (checked at process/user/machine scope), or set Password temporarily in the file (it is cleared on the next save). Set-DbCredentials.ps1 automates this.

Key Features

Safety

• Activation gate: Database mode blocked until ActivationApproved is true — prevents accidental writes during setup
• Non-blocking startup validation: The database schema check runs at startup but never bricks the UI — any mismatch is surfaced as an error row in Diagnostics, so the Settings window stays usable and connection problems can be fixed in-app
• SQL transient retry: 3 retries with exponential backoff (500ms → 1s → 2s) for deadlocks, timeouts, and connection drops
• SHA-256 fingerprinting: Identical packages are quarantined, never double-posted
• Atomic settings writes: Write-then-rename with FileOptions.WriteThrough
• Destination routing: Rejects transfers not addressed to this store

Package Processing

• Product sync: Upserts via IF EXISTS … UPDATE … ELSE INSERT — idempotent, re-runnable
• Transfer posting: Single transaction per package — audit header + product QOH update + audit trail for each item line
• Duplicate detection: SHA-256 fingerprint receipts prevent replay attacks
• Quarantine: Duplicate packages moved to Quarantine folder
• Monthly archiving: Completed packages archived to Archive\Mth-MM-yyyy

Sync Package Naming

Create Sync generates sequentially numbered SynProducts.rar packages:

• Sequence: 1 → 2 → … → 99 → wraps to 1
• Increment tracked in LastSyncIncrement setting
• Collision avoidance: if the cloud upload system is down and packages accumulate in UL-SYNCH, the next available sequence number is used and the increment is synced back

Logging

Only error/failure entries are written to tblServerLog:

• Download Folder Error — missing required folders
• Package Processing Failed — sync or transfer failure
• Duplicate Package — SHA-256 match quarantined
• Transfer Processing Deferred — product sync failure blocks transfers

Informational noise (folder paths, routine processing, row counts) is excluded by design — if the log is quiet, processing is healthy.

Folder Layout

C:\DL-SYNCH\          — Incoming sync directory
├── _work\             — Isolated extraction workspace
├── Archive\           — Completed product packages (by month)
├── Failed\            — Packages that failed processing
├── Processed\         — Fingerprint receipts + completed transfer packages
├── Quarantine\        — Duplicate packages
└── Logs\              — Log files (auto-cleaned, 30-day retention)

C:\UL-SYNCH\           — Outgoing sync directory (Create Sync packages)

Production Deployment

1. Review appsettings.json — server, database, store ID, sync behavior
2. Set ActivationApproved to false during initial setup
3. Run Diagnostics from the UI — confirm zero errors
4. Set ActivationApproved to true
5. Restart the application
6. The scheduler starts with the "Start" button or via --start-scheduler flag

CLI Flags

Flag	Action
--execute-sync	Run one sync cycle and exit
--create-sync	Create one product sync package and exit
--start-scheduler	Start the scheduler on launch

Code Quality

• 59 automated tests — 41 self-tests (all passing) covering sync, transfer, archive, XML, settings, SQL builders, and polling, plus an 18-test xUnit suite (TaskMonitor.Tests.Unit) that runs under any standard test runner for CI
• Clean architecture (Domain → Application → Infrastructure → Desktop)
• Interface-driven design with dependency injection (Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection)
• No static mutable state
• SqlOperation value objects for testable SQL generation
• Recording* test doubles for all repositories

License

Proprietary. Built for Park View Drugs, Trinidad.