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The calling thread cannot access this object because a different thread owns it.' error in Thread wpf

I have Window 1 in which on button click i am opening Window 2 in new thread.
Following is my code
private void Button_Click_2(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
Thread thread = new Thread(() =>
{
Scanner w = new Scanner();
w.Show();
w.Closed += (sender2, e2) =>
w.Dispatcher.InvokeShutdown();
System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.Run();
});
thread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
thread.Start();
}
Window 2 has form I am getting form values on Button click
private void EnterProduct(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var data = ProductDetailsData;
LoadCurrentBetween objMain = new LoadCurrentBetween(); //new MainWindow();
objMain.fillorderform(data);
}
on button click of window 2 i am passing values of form to another View
public void fillorderform(dynamic data)
{
this.Dispatcher.Invoke(() =>
{
LoadCurrentdetails.Part = data.Part;
LoadCurrentBetween loadCurrentbtw = new LoadCurrentBetween();
Switcher.Switch(loadCurrentbtw);
});
} public static class Switcher
{
public static MainWindow pageSwitcher;
public static void Switch(UserControl newPage)
{
pageSwitcher.Navigate(newPage);
}
}
Following code is giving error at "this.Content = nextPage;"
The calling thread cannot access this object because a different thread owns it.
public void Navigate(UserControl nextPage)
{
this.Dispatcher.Invoke(() =>
{
var aa = nextPage.Dispatcher.CheckAccess();
this.Content = nextPage;
});
}
I have seen similar Questions asked by other developers but i am not getting how to fix.
pls help

WPF is very strict (compared to Windows forms) about requiring methods which update UI elements to be done on the main/UI thread. So you definitely want both windows to be in the main/UI thread. The error that you are seeing is what happens if you try to do UI work in WPF from a different thread, so you absolutely have to stop doing that. It's OK to have multiple windows open, all on the same UI thread.
If one of your windows is doing heavyweight processing that makes the UI lock up, then the easiest thing is probably to add the async keyword to your button click event, and put the work you are doing in another method which has an async keyword. Then, when you call the helper method, you use the await keyword.
I agree with others that BackgroundWorker and Task are two other ways to accomplish heavyweight processing in a background thread while still having a responsive UI. Tasks are easier to use than BackgroundWorker.
If you are using a BackgroundWorker, it may be good enough to use the RunWorkerCompleted event. If so, look at this post: How to use WPF Background Worker. If you are using a BackgroundWorker and you need to call a custom method in your UI class from the background thread, then pass the Dispatcher object for your window/dialog to the background thread (or get access to it some other way), and when it needs to call back into the UI, use Invoke with the Dispatcher object. By using Invoke, the method you are calling from the background thread will be executed on the UI thread.

How to implement a popup window with a counter

I would like to implement a simple popup window in Windows Forms, which will show a simple timer to the user while some slow-running process is executing. The premise is simple; show to the user that something is indeed going on and the application is not frozen. Note that this slow-running process is not a loop, nor is it something that I can tap into.
What I want is a simple popup window, showing some message along the lines "Elapsed time: x seconds", where x is incremented every second.
The basic concept is the following:
public void test()
{
//Some code which does stuff
//Popup window with counter
//Perform long running process
//Close popup window with counter
//Some other code which does other stuff
}
I tried to do it using various ways, including background workers, threads, and of course timers. But I did not manage to make it work as I wanted. And I would prefer not to post any of my code so as not to "lead" the responses to a specific way of doing this.
So what would be the best way to do this work?
Thanks.
UPDATE:
In reply to some comments, since I cannot paste any code in the replies section, I'm editing my original question to accomodate this. One of the implementations that I tried is to spawn the popup window in a separate thread. Although I got no runtime errors, the popup window did not refresh correctly. It indeed poped-up, but no text would show within it, and the counter would not refresh. Here's the code:
private void test()
{
frmProgressTimer ofrmProgressTimer = new frmProgressTimer(); //Instance of popup Form
System.Threading.Tasks.Task loadTask = new System.Threading.Tasks.Task(() => ProgressTimer(ofrmProgressTimer));
loadTask.Start();
//Perform long running process
System.Threading.Tasks.Task cwt = loadTask.ContinueWith(task => EndProgressTimer(ofrmProgressTimer));
}
private void ProgressTimer(frmProgressTimer ofrmProgressTimer)
{
ofrmProgressTimer.Show();
ofrmProgressTimer.Invoke((Action)(() =>
{
ofrmProgressTimer.startTimer();
}));
}
private void EndProgressTimer(frmProgressTimer ofrmProgressTimer)
{
ofrmProgressTimer.Invoke((Action)(() =>
{
ofrmProgressTimer.stopTimer();
ofrmProgressTimer.Close();
}));
}
And here's my popup form code:
public partial class frmProgressTimer : Form
{
private int counter = 0;
private Timer timer1;
public frmProgressTimer()
{
InitializeComponent();
timer1 = new Timer();
timer1.Interval = 1000;
timer1.Tick += new EventHandler(timer1_Tick);
}
public void startTimer()
{
timer1.Start();
}
public void stopTimer()
{
timer1.Stop();
}
private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
counter += 1;
labelText.Text = counter.ToString();
}
}

This is actually quite easy to do. Create your dialog, define your long running operation to take place in a non-UI thread when it is shown, add a continuation to that operation which closes the dialog when the task finishes, and then show the dialog.
MyDialog dialog = new MyDialog();
dialog.Shown += async (sender, args) =>
{
await Task.Run(() => DoLongRunningWork());
dialog.Close();
};
dialog.ShowDialog();
The code to have the ticking over time should be entirely contained within the dialog, and based on the question it seems you already have that well under control with a simple Timer.

Make a new form, which will pop up, and show a timer. That way it won't be interrupted with all the work on your main form, and the timer will work continuously.
Remember when showing a new from to use newForm.ShowDialog() not newForm.Show(). Your can google the differences

I would simply start your work on a separate thread. Launch a modal form with your timer output. To display the timer use an actual timer instance set to update every second. When the timer event fire update your dialog.
Finally once you're thread completes close the dialog so your main form is active again.

First of all you need to make it not closeable by the user (as if modal dialogs weren't annoying enough) but closeable by your code. You could accomplish this by subscribing to the FormClosing event of the form. Let's say your popup form's name is Form2:
private bool mayClose = false;
public void PerformClose()
{
this.mayClose = true;
this.Close();
}
private void Form2_FormClosing(object sender, FormClosingEventArgs e)
{
if (!this.mayClose)
e.Cancel = true;
}
Create a Timer, provide a Tick event handler, enable it and set its Interval to 500 milliseconds:
Create a label to host your desired text. Let's call it label1.
Within and surrounding your Tick event handler do something like this:
private DateTime appearedAt = DateTime.UtcNow;
private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
int seconds = (int)(DateTime.UtcNow - this.appearedAt).TotalSeconds;
this.label1.Text = string.Format(#"Ellapsed seconds: {0}", seconds);
}
Make sure your long running process is happening on a background thread, not on the GUI thread.
Say your long running process can be thought of as the execution of a method called MyProcess.
If that is the case, then you need to call that method from a secondary thread.
// PLACE 1: GUI thread right here
Thread thread = new Thread(() =>
{
// PLACE 2: this place will be reached by the secondary thread almost instantly
MyProcess();
// PLACE 3: this place will be reached by the secondary thread
// after the long running process has finished
});
thread.Start();
// PLACE 4: this place will be reached by the GUI thread almost instantly
Show the form right before the long running process starts. This can be done in any of the 2 places (marked in the previous section of code) called PLACE1 or PLACE2. If you do it in PLACE2 you will have to marshal a call back to the GUI thread in order to be able to interact with the WinForms framework safely. Why am I bringing this up ? It's because maybe the long running process is not started from within the GUI thread at all and you absolutely need to do this.
Close the form right after the long running process finishes. This can be done only in PLACE3 and you absolutely need to marshal a call.
To wrap the earlier 2 bullets and the answer, you could do this:
private void DoIt()
{
Form2 form2 = new Form2();
Action showIt = () => form2.Show();
Action closeIt = () => form2.PerformClose();
// PLACE 1: GUI thread right here
Thread thread = new Thread(() =>
{
form2.BeginInvoke(showIt);
// PLACE 2: this place will be reached by the secondary thread almost instantly
MyProcess();
form2.BeginInvoke(closeIt);
// PLACE 3: this place will be reached by the secondary thread
// after the long running process has finished
});
thread.Start();
// PLACE 4: this place will be reached by the GUI thread almost instantly
}

Finally I've managed to resolve this in the most simplistic manner. And it works like a charm. Here's how to do it:
//Create an instance of the popup window
frmProgressTimer ofrmProgressTimer = new frmProgressTimer();
Thread thread = new Thread(() =>
{
ofrmProgressTimer.startTimer();
ofrmProgressTimer.ShowDialog();
});
thread.Start();
//Perform long running process
ofrmProgressTimer.Invoke((Action)(() =>
{
ofrmProgressTimer.stopTimer();
ofrmProgressTimer.Close();
}));
You can see the code for the popup window in the original post/question, with the only difference that the tick function changes the label text as:
labelText.Text = string.Format("Elapsed Time: {0} seconds.", counter.ToString());
Thank you to everybody for trying to help me out.

Update controls created in another thread?

I have two threads.
Thread 1: WPF thread. Shows a Window with all the information.
Thread 2: Loops constantly, receiving information & updates the Window in thread 1.
I have the following interfaces.
IModuleWindow
{
void AddModule(IModule module);
void RemoveModule(IModule module);
}
IModule
{
UserControl GetSmallScreen();
UserControl GetBigScreen();
}
IModuleWindow is implemented by the WPF window in Thread 1
IModule is implemented by an object, is instantiated in Thread 2, and then sent to thread 1.
I want to Add the UserControls in IModule to the Window object in thread 1, and show them. IModule objects get updated constantly in thread 2 and they have to change their text.
Basically the idea is that this program is supposed to show the state of objects in thread 2 , which gets updated constantly.
What is the best way to accomplish this in WPF?

IMO the best idea is to use BackgroundWorker, with the very handy ReportProgress method and ProgressChanged event.
The ProgressChanged event is raised on the GUI thread, so you can perform your updates to the GUI directly. Here's how you code should look like:
// initialize the worker
BackgroundWorker backgroundWorker1 = new BackgroundWorker();
backgroundWorker1.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
backgroundWorker1.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(backgroundWorker1_DoWork);
backgroundWorker1.ProgressChanged += new ProgressChangedEventHandler(backgroundWorker1_ProgressChanged);
backgroundWorker1.RunWorkerAsync();
// thread 2 (BackgroundWorker)
private void backgroundWorker1_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
// main loop
while(true)
{
// time-consuming work
// raise the event; use the state object to pass any information you need
ReportProgress(0, state);
}
}
// this code will run on the GUI thread
private void backgroundWorker1_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
// get your state back
object state = e.UserState;
// update GUI with state
}

It helped me lot to understand what i must do.
The scenario must be like that:
ObservableCollection images = new ObservableCollection();
TaskFactory tFactory = new TaskFactory();
tFactory.StartNew(() =>
{
for (int i = 0; i < 50; i++)
{
//GET IMAGE Path FROM SERVER
System.Windows.Application.Current.Dispatcher
.BeginInvoke((Action)delegate()
{
// UPDATE PROGRESS BAR IN UI
});
images.Add(("");
}
}).ContinueWith(t =>
{
if (t.IsFaulted)
{
// EXCEPTION IF THREAD IS FAULT
throw t.Exception;
}
System.Windows.Application.Current.Dispatcher
.BeginInvoke((Action)delegate()
{
//PROCESS IMAGES AND DISPLAY
});
});
You must use System.Windows.Application.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke() for updating UI in WPF.

It would be nice to be able to use controls created at another thread,
thats what I want ideally
The short answer: forget it.
A UI control belongs to a single UI thread only. The best you can do here, is to create controls in main thread, prepare data in background thread, and update controls' properties in main (UI) thread again.
For data preparation I recommend use TPL.

C# threading issue

To play a bit with threading, delegates and backgroundworkers, I'm putting together a few small applications, I'm having a bit of trouble with one of them.
I've a Windows form, with a textbox, a button and a richttext.
When I press the button, the text in the textbox is used as a paramter to instantiate a class, like this:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private BackgroundWorker backgroundWorker;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
backgroundWorker = new BackgroundWorker();
backgroundWorker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(worker_DoWork);
backgroundWorker.RunWorkerAsync();
}
void worker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
new Thread((ThreadStart)delegate()
{
this.BeginInvoke((ThreadStart)delegate()
{
foreach (string line in textBox1.Lines)
{
Dig digger = new Dig(line, textBox1.Text);
digger.DomainChecked += new Dig.DomainCheckedHandler(OnUpdateTicker);
string response = digger.GetAllInfo();
richTextBox1.AppendText(response);
Application.DoEvents();
}
});
}).Start();
}
void OnUpdateTicker(string msg)
{
new Thread((ThreadStart)delegate()
{
this.BeginInvoke((ThreadStart)delegate()
{
label4.Text = msg;
Application.DoEvents();
});
}).Start();
}
}
When debugging I run into a 'textBox1.Lines' threw an exception of type 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.Debugger.Runtime.CrossThreadMessagingException'
Any tips on how to solve this problem?

First, there is no need to create new threads inside DoWork; the whole idea with the BackgroundWorker is that DoWork is executed on a separate thread. Second, since DoWork is executed on a separate thread and UI controls can be modified only on the UI thread, you need to invoke those updates correctly. So, a rewritten version of worker_DoWork could look like this:
void worker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
foreach (string line in textBox1.Lines)
{
Dig digger = new Dig(line, textBox1.Text);
digger.DomainChecked += new Dig.DomainCheckedHandler(OnUpdateTicker);
string response = digger.GetAllInfo();
richTextBox1.Invoke((Action) delegate { richTextBox1.AppendText(response); });
}
}
Note how the code does not explicitly spawn any new threads, and also how the AppendText method call is done through a Control.Invoke call, forcing it to execute on the UI thread.

The main reason is that the textbox is not owned by the background thread.
Your UI thread owns all the UI objects, and you're spinning up a background thread when a button is pressed. That background thread should not have access to any UI objects.
If you want the value of the textbox to be used, you'll need to pass it to your background thread another way.
Have a look here for an explanation (and solution).

You can only update controls on the main thread from the main thread itself, unless you explicitly tell your program that it's ok to do, by using the .Invoke method of the control.
From: http://www.albahari.com/threading/part3.aspx
Control.Invoke
In a multi-threaded Windows Forms application, it's illegal to call a method or property on a control from any thread other than the one that created it. All cross-thread calls must be explicitly marshalled to the thread that created the control (usually the main thread), using the Control.Invoke or Control.BeginInvoke method. One cannot rely on automatic marshalling because it takes place too late – only when execution gets well into unmanaged code, by which time plenty of internal .NET code may already have run on the "wrong" thread – code which is not thread-safe.

Load Data and show a splash screen during that

I got to load some data out of a db4o database which takes 1 or 2 seconds at the startup of my app, the rest has to wait because first of all the data has to be loaded. doing this in an own thread would mean that the rest has to wait for the thread-finishing. I'd like to do a splash screen or something during the data is loaded for what also need an own thread, right? how would you do?
I'm using csharp, .net 3.5 and winforms

Showing a splash screen at startup is easy to do. In your application's Main() method (in Program.cs), put something like this before the Application.Run(...) line:
SplashForm splashy = new SplashForm();
splashy.Show();
Application.Run(new MainForm(splashy));
Modify the code and constructor for your main form so that it looks something like this:
private SplashForm _splashy;
public MainForm(SplashForm splashy)
{
_splashy = splashy;
InitializeComponent();
}
Then at the end of your MainForm's Load event (which presumably contains the database code), put this code:
_splashy.Close();
_splashy.Dispose();
If you choose to do your database access with a separate Thread or BackgroundWorker, then you don't really need a splash screen so much as you need some sort of progress indicator form that appears while the BackgroundWorker is doing its thing. That would be done differently from my answer here.

One way, probably better ways though. Create a new dialog form that will be your progress window/splash screen. Throw a bitmap or whatever on it as the only item. Instantiate the dialog from your main program. Override the Load event for the progress form and from there launch the new thread that will do the background processing work for loading up the data. This way you can just call ShowDialog from your main app.
if you use System.ComponentModel.BackgroundWorker then you can easily wire up events for when the thread completes and automaticaly exit the dialog from that event. Control is returned back to the calling application and you're done.
I've done this sort of thing in an application before and it works fine but I'm sure it's a novice approach. Here's sample code from the Load event in the form that launches the background thread (in my case I'm opening and parsing large files):
private void FileThreadStatusDialog_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Cursor = Cursors.WaitCursor;
if (m_OpenMode)
{
this.Text = "Opening...";
StatusText.Text = m_FileName;
FileThread = new BackgroundWorker();
FileThread.RunWorkerCompleted += new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(FileThread_RunWorkerCompleted);
FileThread.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(FileOpenThread_DoWork);
FileThread.WorkerSupportsCancellation = false;
FileThread.RunWorkerAsync();
}
else
{
this.Text = "Saving...";
StatusText.Text = m_FileName;
FileThread = new BackgroundWorker();
FileThread.RunWorkerCompleted += new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(FileThread_RunWorkerCompleted);
FileThread.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(FileSaveThread_DoWork);
FileThread.WorkerSupportsCancellation = false;
FileThread.RunWorkerAsync();
}
}
And here's what the work completed method looks like which exist the form:
private void FileThread_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
FileThread = null;
DialogResult = DialogResult.OK;
Close();
}
Here's how I open up the progress dialog from the main dialog:
FileThreadStatusDialog thread = new FileThreadStatusDialog(m_Engine, dlg.FileName, true);
if (thread.ShowDialog(this) == DialogResult.OK)
{
m_Engine = thread.Engine;
FillTree();
}

One might want to force drawing of splashy in MusiGenesis' answer by adding
Application.DoEvents();
immediately after
splashy.Show();