Develop Reference

Threading concept to improve the webbrowsers URL navigation process in C#

I have developed a simple Id checking windows forms with C# application to check a set of given Ids valid or not by passing to a webpage using webbrowser control and getting the reply and everything is working fine,its taking 40 - 60 seconds for 20 Ids.one by one.Now i want to speed up the same process using advance threading concept in C# .
Code is working fine i want to improve the performance using threading. any simple suggestion would be great help today
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string url = "https://idscheckingsite.com";
WebBrowser wb = new WebBrowser();
wb.ScriptErrorsSuppressed = true;
wb.DocumentCompleted += new WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler(Final_DocumentCompleted);
wb.Navigate(url);
}
private void Final_DocumentCompleted(object sender, WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs e)
{
WebBrowser wbs = sender as WebBrowser;
wbs.Document.GetElementById("pannumber").InnerText = ListsofIds[ids];
wbs.Document.GetElementById("frmType1").SetAttribute("value", "24Q");
HtmlElement btnlink = wbs.Document.GetElementById("clickGo1");
btnlink.InvokeMember("Click");
//string response = wbs.DocumentText;
wbs.DocumentCompleted -= new WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler(Final_DocumentCompleted);
wbs.DocumentCompleted += new WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler(Final_result);
}
private void Final_result(object sender, WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs e)
{
WebBrowser wbResult = sender as WebBrowser;
string status = wbResult.Document.GetElementById("status").InnerText;
string name = wbResult.Document.GetElementById("name").InnerText;
wbResult.DocumentCompleted -= new WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler(Final_result);
wbResult.DocumentCompleted += new WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler(Final_DocumentCompleted);
DataRow dr = dt.NewRow();
dr[0] = PANNumber[ids];
dr[1] = status;
dr[2] = name;
dt.Rows.Add(dr);
++ids;
if (ids < 20)
wbResult.Navigate(vurl);
else
{
dataGridView1.DataSource = dt;
}
}
Working fine but need to improve the performance to the max using advance C# threading concepts if any .

Here is my suggestion. When the button2 is clicked, a number of worker tasks are started. A reasonable number is 4, but you can try different numbers until you get the best performance. Each worker task will use its own WebBrowser control, and will invoke a subset of the ids. For example the worker task #0 will invoke the ids 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20, the worker task #1 will invoke 1, 5, 9, 13, and 17 etc. Then all worker tasks will be waited to complete, and then the DataGridView can be updated. There is no multithreading involved. Everything happens in the UI thread. No locking or other thread synchronization is required.
private async void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
string url = "https://idscheckingsite.com";
const int WORKER_TASKS_COUNT = 4;
var workerTasks = new Task[WORKER_TASKS_COUNT];
for (int i = 0; i < WORKER_TASKS_COUNT; i++)
{
workerTasks[i] = DoWorkAsync(i);
}
await Task.WhenAll(workerTasks);
dataGridView1.DataSource = dt;
async Task DoWorkAsync(int workerIndex)
{
using (var wb = new WebBrowser())
{
wb.ScriptErrorsSuppressed = true;
for (int i = 0; i < ListsofIds.Length; i++)
{
if (i % WORKER_TASKS_COUNT != workerIndex) continue;
wb.Navigate(url);
await wb; // await for the next DocumentCompleted
wb.Document.GetElementById("pannumber").InnerText = ListsofIds[i];
wb.Document.GetElementById("frmType1").SetAttribute("value", "24Q");
HtmlElement btnlink = wb.Document.GetElementById("clickGo1");
btnlink.InvokeMember("Click");
await wb; // await for the next DocumentCompleted
string status = wb.Document.GetElementById("status").InnerText;
string name = wb.Document.GetElementById("name").InnerText;
DataRow dr = dt.NewRow();
dr[0] = PANNumber[i];
dr[1] = status;
dr[2] = name;
dt.Rows.Add(dr);
}
}
}
}
The code above uses an interesting technique to simplify the navigation of the WebBrowser control. Instead of subscribing and unsubscribing manually to the DocumentCompleted event, it is doing it automatically by awaiting the WebBrowser control. Normally this is not possible, but we can make it possible by creating an extension method that returns a TaskAwaiter:
public static class WebBrowserExtensions
{
public static TaskAwaiter<Uri> GetAwaiter(this WebBrowser wb)
{
var tcs = new TaskCompletionSource<Uri>();
WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler handler = null;
handler = (_, e) =>
{
wb.DocumentCompleted -= handler;
tcs.TrySetResult(e.Url);
};
wb.DocumentCompleted += handler;
return tcs.Task.GetAwaiter();
}
}
Update: After using my code myself I found await wb to be a bit confusing, because the WebBrowser control has many events that could be awaited. So I made it more explicit and extensible be creating an async version of the event (instead of an awaiter):
public static class WebBrowserExtensions
{
public static Task<Uri> DocumentCompletedAsync(this WebBrowser wb)
{
var tcs = new TaskCompletionSource<Uri>();
WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler handler = null;
handler = (_, e) =>
{
wb.DocumentCompleted -= handler;
tcs.TrySetResult(e.Url);
};
wb.DocumentCompleted += handler;
return tcs.Task;
}
}
It can be used like this:
await wb.DocumentCompletedAsync();
Then it becomes trivial to create more extension methods like NavigatedAsync or DocumentTitleChangedAsync for example.
Update: Waiting endlessly is not very nice, so a timeout (expressed in milliseconds) could be added as an argument in the awaited extension method. Since the whole code is intended to run exclusively in the UI thread I used a System.Windows.Forms.Timer, although a CancellationToken would be propably more convenient in general. The code is a bit involved to avoid memory leaks, that could be an issue for an application intended to run for many hours, and do thousands web requests.
public static class WebBrowserExtensions
{
public static Task<Uri> DocumentCompletedAsync(this WebBrowser wb, int timeout)
{
var tcs = new TaskCompletionSource<Uri>();
WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventHandler handler = null;
var timeoutRegistration = WithTimeout(tcs, timeout,
() => wb.DocumentCompleted -= handler);
handler = (_, e) =>
{
wb.DocumentCompleted -= handler;
timeoutRegistration.Unregister();
tcs.TrySetResult(e.Url);
};
wb.DocumentCompleted += handler;
return tcs.Task;
}
public static Task<Uri> DocumentCompletedAsync(this WebBrowser wb)
{
return wb.DocumentCompletedAsync(30000); // Default timeout 30 sec
}
private static TimeoutRegistration WithTimeout<T>(
TaskCompletionSource<T> tcs, int timeout, Action eventRemove)
{
if (timeout == Timeout.Infinite) return default;
var timer = new System.Windows.Forms.Timer();
timer.Tick += (s, e) =>
{
timer.Enabled = false;
timer = null;
eventRemove();
eventRemove = null;
tcs.SetException(new TimeoutException());
tcs = null;
};
timer.Interval = timeout;
timer.Enabled = true;
return new TimeoutRegistration(() =>
{
if (timer == null) return;
timer.Enabled = false;
// Make everything null to avoid memory leaks
timer = null;
eventRemove = null;
tcs = null;
});
}
private struct TimeoutRegistration
{
private Action _unregister;
public TimeoutRegistration(Action unregister)
{
_unregister = unregister;
}
public void Unregister()
{
if (_unregister == null) return;
_unregister();
_unregister = null;
}
}
}
Update: As a side note, I see that you are suppressing script errors by using wb.ScriptErrorsSuppressed = true. Are you aware that you can configure the Internet Explorer version emulated by the WebBrowser control? To make the control emulate the latest (and final) version of Internet Explorer, the version 11, add this code at the start of your program:
Registry.SetValue(#"HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_BROWSER_EMULATION",
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.FriendlyName, 11000); // IE11

C# Background Worker Append TextBox

first off I'd like to say I'm brand new to C# so I am not too aware with how the background worker is supposed to be implemented. I have a GUI program that basically pings a domain a returns the response to a textbox. I am able to get it to work normally, however, it freezes the code because it is running on the same thread which is why I am trying to implement a background worker.
Here is the basic setup
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
url = textBox1.Text;
button1.Enabled = false;
button2.Enabled = true;
bgWorker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(bgWorker_DoWork);
bgWorker.RunWorkerAsync();
}
private void bgWorker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
do
{
if (bgWorker.CancellationPending)
break;
Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate { monitor(); });
} while (true);
}
public void monitor()
{
textBox2.AppendText("Status of: " + url + "\n");
Status(url);
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(30000);
}
private void Status(string url)
{
// This method does all the ping work and also appends the status to the Text box as it goes through , as OK or down
}
I have not worked with bgworkers before and as you can imagine it's confusing. I've looked at tons of other articles and I can't seem to get it. Sorry if the code looks crazy, I'm trying to learn.

Use Microsoft's Reactive Framework (NuGet "System.Reactive.Windows.Forms" and add using System.Reactive.Linq;) and then you can do this:
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var url = textBox1.Text;
Observable
.Interval(TimeSpan.FromMinutes(0.5))
.SelectMany(_ => Observable.Start(() => Status(url)))
.ObserveOn(this)
.Subscribe(status => textBox2.AppendText("Status of: " + status + "\n"));
}
You then just need to change Status to have this signature: string Status(string url).
That's it. No background worker. No invoking. And Status is nicely run on a background thread.

You've got several mistakes. First,
Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate
{
monitor();
});
will call monitor() on your UI thread. In almost all cases you should not call methods on other threads. You especially should not call methods that block or do anything that takes more than a few milliseconds on your UI thread, and that is what this does:
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(30000);
Instead of calling a method on another thread; submit immutable data to the other thread and let the thread decide when to handle it. There is an event already built in to BackgroundWorker which does that. Before you call bgWorker.RunWorkerAsync() do this:
url = new Uri(something);
bgWorker.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
bgWorker.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
bgWorker.ProgressChanged += Bgw_ProgressChanged;
private void Bgw_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
textBox2.AppendText("Status of: " + url + ": " + e.UserState.ToString()
+ Environment.NewLine);
}
Your bgWorker_DoWork should look more like this:
void bgWorker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
while (!bgw.CancellationPending)
{
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(new TimeSpan(0, 0, 30));
var status = ResultOfPing(e.Argument as Uri);
bgw.ReportProgress(0, status);
}
e.Cancel = true;
}
and you should call it like this:
bgWorker.RunWorkerAsync(url);
You've got a second problem. BackgroundWorker creates a thread, and your thread is going to spend most of its time blocked on a timer or waiting for network responses. That is a poor use of a thread. You would be better off using completion callbacks or async/await.

The background worker is running on a thread pool thread, but your call to Status and Sleep is running on the UI thread. You need to move that stuff back into bgWorker_DoWork.

Try this code:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
bool cancel;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
public void StartPinging()
{
this.cancel = false;
startButton.Enabled = false;
stopButton.Enabled = true;
responseBox.Clear();
responseBox.AppendText("Starting to ping server.");
responseBox.AppendText(Environment.NewLine);
var bw = new BackgroundWorker
{
WorkerReportsProgress = false,
WorkerSupportsCancellation = true
};
bw.DoWork += (obj, ev) =>
{
while (!cancel)
{
// Ping Server Here
string response = Server.PingServer();
this.Invoke(new UiMethod(() =>
{
responseBox.AppendText(response);
responseBox.AppendText(Environment.NewLine);
}));
}
};
bw.RunWorkerCompleted += (obj, ev) =>
{
this.Invoke(new UiMethod(() =>
{
responseBox.AppendText("Stopped pinging the server.");
responseBox.AppendText(Environment.NewLine);
startButton.Enabled = true;
stopButton.Enabled = false;
}));
};
bw.RunWorkerAsync();
}
delegate void UiMethod();
private void startButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
StartPinging();
}
private void stopButton_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
responseBox.AppendText("Cancelation Pressed.");
responseBox.AppendText(Environment.NewLine);
cancel = true;
}
}
public class Server
{
static Random rng = new Random();
public static string PingServer()
{
int time = 1200 + rng.Next(2400);
Thread.Sleep(time);
return $"{time} ms";
}
}

Erwin, when dealing with C# - threads and UI elements usually you will come across cross-thread operations i.e. Background thread with UI threads. This interaction needs to be done in thread safe way with the help of Invoke to avoid invalid operations.
Please look into below resource: InvokeRequired section.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/winforms/controls/how-to-make-thread-safe-calls-to-windows-forms-controls

Understanding cross-threading Controls access C#

I'm having some trouble accessing the UI from an another thread.
I understand the basics on cross-threading limitations, but I can't seem to write the code that will work. More specifically, I can't access the ListView from a static method (thread).
I'm trying to make it work with backgroundWorker.
Here's my code:
private void start_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ServicePointManager.DefaultConnectionLimit = 20;
var tasks = new List<Task<int>>();
foreach (ListViewItem item in listView1.Items)
{
string currentUrl = item.SubItems[1].Text;
int i = item.Index;
tasks.Add(Task.Factory.StartNew(() => { return GetWebResponse(currentUrl, i); }));
}
Task.WaitAll(tasks.ToArray());
}
private static int GetWebResponse(string url, int itemIndex)
{
int statusCode = 0;
HttpWebRequest httpWebRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);
Task<HttpWebResponse> responseTask = Task.Factory.FromAsync<HttpWebResponse>(httpWebRequest.BeginGetResponse, asyncResult => (HttpWebResponse)httpWebRequest.EndGetResponse(asyncResult), null);
backgroundWorker = new BackgroundWorker();
backgroundWorker.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
backgroundWorker.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
backgroundWorker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(backgroundWorker_DoWork);
backgroundWorker.ProgressChanged += new ProgressChangedEventHandler(backgroundWorker_ProgressChanged);
backgroundWorker.RunWorkerAsync();
return statusCode;
}
private void backgroundWorker_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
listView1.Items[0].ImageKey = "green";
}
private void backgroundWorker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
while (!e.Cancel)
{
Thread.Sleep(5000);
backgroundWorker.ReportProgress(0);
}
}
This code doesn't work because backgroundWorker_DoWork and backgroundWorker_ProgressChanged are not static, but if I make them static then I can't access listView1
EDIT: Got it working. Code below for review
public delegate void delUpdateListView(int itemIndex, int statusCode);
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void start_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ServicePointManager.DefaultConnectionLimit = 20;
var tasks = new List<Task<int>>();
foreach (ListViewItem item in listView1.Items)
{
string currentUrl = item.SubItems[1].Text;
int i = item.Index;
tasks.Add(Task.Factory.StartNew(() => {
//return GetWebResponse(currentUrl, i);
int statusCode = 0;
HttpWebRequest httpWebRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(currentUrl);
Task<HttpWebResponse> responseTask = Task.Factory.FromAsync<HttpWebResponse>(httpWebRequest.BeginGetResponse, asyncResult => (HttpWebResponse)httpWebRequest.EndGetResponse(asyncResult), null);
statusCode = (int)responseTask.Result.StatusCode;
object[] invParams = new object[2];
invParams[0] = i;
invParams[1] = statusCode;
if (InvokeRequired)
{
BeginInvoke(new delUpdateListView(UpdateListView), invParams);
}
else
{
Invoke(new delUpdateListView(UpdateListView), invParams);
}
return statusCode;
}));
}
Task.WaitAll(tasks.ToArray());
}
public void UpdateListView(int itemIndex, int statusCode) {
listView1.Items[itemIndex].ImageKey = "green";
}

I see several problems here:
1) I don't see why GetWebResponse needs to be static. The easiest solution would be to make it an instance method.
2) Why are you using the background worker anyway?
3) It doesn't make much sense to use Tasks and then wait for them to finish right after you spawn them. This blocks your application where it should be responsive.
As for 3): To keep the UI responsive and updatable, disable everything the user may not click before spawning the tasks, add a continuation action to each task that re-enables the UI components. The task may update the list using the usual Invoke calls.

Background worker stealing main thread

So I can't say for sure this is the issue but I'm just about positive it is. I have a recordset of IVR calls to make. I put the data for each one in a concurrent queue and start 5 background workers to start working from the queue. However, after making 2 calls, the calls stop coming until one person hangs up, then it moves on to call number 3,4,5 etc. Are the any issues with this code?
It seems like the background workers are blocking eachother from calling the same method...? Is that possible?
private ConcurrentQueue<DataTable> _ivrCallsQueue = new ConcurrentQueue<DataTable>();
private List<BackgroundWorker> _ivrCallers = new List<BackgroundWorker>();
public overrid void Process()
{
foreach(DataRow row in _tblRecordsToProcess.Rows)
{
_workingActionItem = actionItemDAL.GetActionItemFromId(Convert.ToInt32(row["FNActionItemId"].ToString()));
var workingActionItemsTable = actionItemDAL.GetActionItemParamValues(Convert.ToInt32(row["FNActionItemId"].ToString()));
ivrCallsQueue.Enqueue(workingActionItemsTable);
}
StartCalls();
while (_ivrCallers.Count != 0)
{
testurls = testurls;
}
}
private void StartCalls()
{
int maxLines = 5;
if (_ivrCallsQueue.Count < maxLines)
{
maxLines = _ivrCallsQueue.Count;
}
for (int i = 0; i < maxLines; i++)
{
DataTable workingCall = new DataTable();
_ivrCallsQueue.TryDequeue(out workingCall);
BackgroundWorker ivrCaller = new BackgroundWorker();
_ivrCallers.Add(ivrCaller);
ivrCaller.DoWork += delegate(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
RequestIVR(workingCall, Convert.ToInt32(workingCall.Rows[2][0].ToString()));
_ivrCallers.Remove(ivrCaller);
};
ivrCaller.RunWorkerCompleted += (bw_AnalyzeResults);
ivrCaller.RunWorkerAsync();
}
}
private void bw_AnalyzeResults(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
DataTable workingCall = new DataTable();
if (_ivrCallsQueue.Count != 0)
{
_ivrCallsQueue.TryDequeue(out workingCall);
BackgroundWorker ivrCaller = new BackgroundWorker();
ivrCaller.DoWork += delegate(object completeSender, DoWorkEventArgs completeArgs)
{
RequestIVR(workingCall, Convert.ToInt32(workingCall.Rows[2][0].ToString()));
_ivrCallers.Remove(ivrCaller);
};
ivrCaller.RunWorkerCompleted += (bw_AnalyzeResults);
ivrCaller.RunWorkerAsync();
}
else
{
}
}
private void RequestIVR(DataTable workingTable,int fnActionItemID)
{
var urlRequest = "http://uccx_http_trigger:9080/test?strTestMode=1&strTaskID=" + fnActionItemID;
var webClient = new WebClient { UseDefaultCredentials = true, Proxy = WebRequest.DefaultWebProxy };
DecodeResponseType(GetValueFromElement("Response Code was ", webClient.DownloadString(urlRequest)));
}

This will spawn at most five threads that each attempt to pull the next item from the queue and process it. If the queue is empty the attempt will fail and the thread will simply exit:
private List<System.Threading.Thread> Threads = new List<System.Threading.Thread>();
private ConcurrentQueue<DataTable> _ivrCallsQueue = new ConcurrentQueue<DataTable>();
private void StartCalls()
{
int maxLines = Math.Min(5 , _ivrCallsQueue.Count);
for (int i = 0; i < maxLines; i++ )
{
System.Threading.Thread T = new System.Threading.Thread(delegate()
{
DataTable workingCall;
while (_ivrCallsQueue.TryDequeue(out workingCall))
{
RequestIVR(workingCall, Convert.ToInt32(workingCall.Rows[2][0].ToString()));
}
});
Threads.Add(T);
T.Start();
}
}
The threads will keep running until all the items have been processed.

It looks like bw_AnalyzeResults does pretty much the same thing that StartCalls() does. In other words, when the background worker has finished its work, you immediately enqueue the same work to happen again, recursively forever?
By the looks of it, you want bw_AnalyzeResults to analyze the results returned by calling your web service. That is not what is happening at the moment.
The code below taken from the bw_AnalyzeResults event handler is scheduling a background job and making itself handle the RunWorkerCompleted event. So, presumably the software keeps going around and around executing bw_AnalyzeResults forever until you kill the process?
private void bw_AnalyzeResults(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
ivrCaller.DoWork += delegate(object completeSender, DoWorkEventArgs completeArgs)
{
RequestIVR(workingCall, Convert.ToInt32(workingCall.Rows[2][0].ToString()));
_ivrCallers.Remove(ivrCaller);
};
ivrCaller.RunWorkerCompleted += (bw_AnalyzeResults);
}

WPF C# - Update progressbar from another thread

I'm stuck trying to update a progressbar from other threads ran in a different class. To explain what I do I think a picture will be better. I want to update the progressbar in the //HERE point :
I've tried using a delegate, tried with ReportProgress and I think i've basically tried to use everything google reported in the first 100 results, without success. I'm still learning WPF and this might be silly way to proceed, i'm looking for a quick and dirty way to get the work done but feel free to tell me what I should redesign for a cleaner application.
EDIT : More code.
In ExecutorWindow.xaml.cs :
public void RunExecutor()
{
// CREATE BACKGROUNDWORKER FOR EXECUTOR
execBackground.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(execBackground_DoWork);
execBackground.RunWorkerCompleted += new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(execBackground_RunWorkerCompleted);
execBackground.ProgressChanged += new ProgressChangedEventHandler(execBackground_ProgressChanged);
execBackground.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
execBackground.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
// RUN BACKGROUNDWORKER
execBackground.RunWorkerAsync();
}
private void execBackground_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
myExecutor = new Executor(arg1, arg2);
myExecutor.Run();
}
private void execBackground_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
MessageBox.Show("RunWorkerCompleted execBackground");
}
private void execBackground_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
ExecutorProgressBar.Value += 1;
}
// TESTING
private void updateProgressBar(int i)
{
ExecutorProgressBar.Value += i;
}
public delegate void callback_updateProgressBar(int i);
In Executor.cs :
public void Run()
{
string[] options = new string[2];
int i = 0;
while (LeftToRun > 0)
{
if (CurrentRunningThreads < MaxThreadsRunning)
{
BackgroundWorker myThread = new BackgroundWorker();
myThread.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(backgroundWorkerRemoteProcess_DoWork);
myThread.RunWorkerCompleted += new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(backgroundWorkerRemoteProcess_RunWorkerCompleted);
myThread.ProgressChanged += new ProgressChangedEventHandler(backgroundWorkerRemoteProcess_ProgressChanged);
myThread.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
myThread.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
myThread.RunWorkerAsync(new string[2] {opt1, opt2});
// HERE ?
CurrentRunningThreads++;
i++;
LeftToRun--;
}
}
while (CurrentRunningThreads > 0) { }
logfile.Close();
MessageBox.Show("All Tasks finished");
}
private void backgroundWorkerRemoteProcess_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
BackgroundWorker myBackgroundWorker = sender as BackgroundWorker;
string[] options = (string[])e.Argument;
string machine = options[0];
string script = options[1];
// UPDATE HERE PROGRESSBAR ?
RemoteProcess myRemoteProcess = new RemoteProcess(machine, script);
string output = myRemoteProcess.TrueExec();
// UPDATE HERE PROGRESSBAR ?
this.logfile.WriteLine(output);
}
private void backgroundWorkerRemoteProcess_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
CurrentRunningThreads--;
}
private void backgroundWorkerRemoteProcess_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
//myExecWindow.ExecutorProgressBar.Value = e.ProgressPercentage; // TESTING
//ExecutorWindow.callback_updateProgressBar(1); // TESTING
}
EDIT 2 : I got it! Simple in fact, but i guess I've been looking too close to find out.
In my ExecutorWindow class :
private void execBackground_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
myExecutor = new Executor(arg1, arg2);
myExecutor.Run(sender);
}
private void execBackground_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
ExecutorProgressBar.Value += 1;
}
And in my Executor class :
private BackgroundWorker myExecutorWindow;
[...]
public void Run(object sender)
{
myExecutorWindow = sender as BackgroundWorker;
string[] options = new string[2];
int i = 0;
while (LeftToRun > 0)
{
if (CurrentRunningThreads < MaxThreadsRunning)
{
BackgroundWorker myThread = new BackgroundWorker();
myThread.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(backgroundWorkerRemoteProcess_DoWork);
myThread.RunWorkerCompleted += new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(backgroundWorkerRemoteProcess_RunWorkerCompleted);
myThread.ProgressChanged += new ProgressChangedEventHandler(backgroundWorkerRemoteProcess_ProgressChanged);
myThread.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
myThread.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
myThread.RunWorkerAsync(new string[2] {opt1, opt2});
CurrentRunningThreads++;
i++;
LeftToRun--;
}
}
[...]
private void backgroundWorkerRemoteProcess_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
BackgroundWorker myBackgroundWorker = sender as BackgroundWorker;
myBackgroundWorker.ReportProgress(1);
// PROCESSING MY STUFF HERE
myBackgroundWorker.ReportProgress(1);
}
private void backgroundWorkerRemoteProcess_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
myExecutorWindow.ReportProgress(1);
}
Thank you !

You can run any method on the UI thread with this very basic sample
this.Dispatcher.Invoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, new Action(delegate()
{
this.progressBar.Value= 20; // Do all the ui thread updates here
}));
Running commands inside the Dispatcher.Invoke(...), you can actually interact with the UI from any worker thread, where otherwise you would get an exception.
If you really need to have the ultimate control on the background threads & main (UI) thread updates, here is a fantastic tutorial on that: http://blog.decarufel.net/2009/03/good-practice-to-use-dispatcher-in-wpf.html

You should be able to use the Dispatcher.Invoke method
e.g.
Dispatcher.Invoke(
new System.Action(() => myProgressBar.Value = newValue)
);

I got it! Simple in fact, but i guess I've been looking too close to find out.
In my ExecutorWindow class :
private void execBackground_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
myExecutor = new Executor(arg1, arg2);
myExecutor.Run(sender);
}
private void execBackground_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
ExecutorProgressBar.Value += 1;
}
And in my Executor class :
private BackgroundWorker myExecutorWindow;
[...]
public void Run(object sender)
{
myExecutorWindow = sender as BackgroundWorker;
string[] options = new string[2];
int i = 0;
while (LeftToRun > 0)
{
if (CurrentRunningThreads < MaxThreadsRunning)
{
BackgroundWorker myThread = new BackgroundWorker();
myThread.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(backgroundWorkerRemoteProcess_DoWork);
myThread.RunWorkerCompleted += new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(backgroundWorkerRemoteProcess_RunWorkerCompleted);
myThread.ProgressChanged += new ProgressChangedEventHandler(backgroundWorkerRemoteProcess_ProgressChanged);
myThread.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
myThread.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
myThread.RunWorkerAsync(new string[2] {opt1, opt2});
CurrentRunningThreads++;
i++;
LeftToRun--;
}
}
[...]
private void backgroundWorkerRemoteProcess_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
BackgroundWorker myBackgroundWorker = sender as BackgroundWorker;
myBackgroundWorker.ReportProgress(1);
// PROCESSING MY STUFF HERE
myBackgroundWorker.ReportProgress(1);
}
private void backgroundWorkerRemoteProcess_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
myExecutorWindow.ReportProgress(1);
}

I found a really simple solution to create a thread to run any block of code as well as handle Invocation back to the main thread to change the control's properties. It works out of the box with .NET 4.5 and the lambda call on the Dispatcher could be adapted to work with earlier versions of .NET. The main benefit is it's just so blissfully simple and perfect when you just need a quick thread for some really basic bit of code.
So presuming you have a progress bar somewhere on your dialog in scope do this:
progBar.Minimum = 0;
progBar.Maximum = theMaxValue;
progBar.Value = 0;
Dispatcher disp = Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher;
new Thread(() => {
// Code executing in other thread
while (progBar.Value < theMaxValue)
{
// Your application logic here
// Invoke Main Thread UI updates
disp.Invoke(
() =>
{
progBar.Value++;
}
);
}
}).Start();
You also need to ensure you have a reference to WindowsBase.dll
If you want a more reusable snippet of code running as the thread start you could use a method as the delegate but I find the inline lambda so easy for simple tasks and you don't need to deal with events as with the Background Worker approaches.