Winforms Progress bar Does Not Update (C#) - c#

In my program [C# + winforms]. I have progress bar & listview.
Through one method i am performing some operations & then updating data in Listview. The no of records added is the value i am setting for ProgressBar.value property. What i want here is, According to value of progress bar, it should show its progress. However the progress bar is not getting updated. Only at the end of method execution progress bar shows entire progress i.e. 100 %
Can someone help me in this regard?
Thanks,
Amit

It sounds like you are blocking the UI thread - i.e. you haven't released the system to do any painting.
A hacky answer is to inject Application.DoEvents() into your code - but this is risky, and has problems with re-entrancy etc; and it is just a bit hacky.
A better option may be to do the processing on a BackgroundWorker, periodically switching to the UI thread to update things (Control.Invoke) - but this may be tricky if you are adding lots of items to a ListView.
Full example (although you might want to batch the UI updates - not a row at a time):
using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Threading;
using System.Windows.Forms;
class MyForm : Form
{
BackgroundWorker worker;
ListView list;
Button btn;
ProgressBar bar;
public MyForm()
{
Text = "Loader";
worker = new BackgroundWorker();
worker.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
worker.ProgressChanged += worker_ProgressChanged;
worker.DoWork += worker_DoWork;
worker.RunWorkerCompleted += worker_RunWorkerCompleted;
list = new ListView();
list.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
Controls.Add(list);
btn = new Button();
btn.Text = "Load";
btn.Dock = DockStyle.Bottom;
Controls.Add(btn);
btn.Click += btn_Click;
bar = new ProgressBar();
bar.Dock = DockStyle.Top;
Controls.Add(bar);
}
void worker_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
btn.Enabled = true;
}
void btn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
worker.RunWorkerAsync();
btn.Enabled = false;
}
void worker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
string newRow = "Row " + i.ToString();
worker.ReportProgress(i, newRow);
Thread.Sleep(100);
}
}
void worker_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
list.Items.Add((string)e.UserState);
bar.Value = e.ProgressPercentage;
}
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.Run(new MyForm());
}
}

Really Sorry Friends,
Actually, I was assiging value to ProgressBar.value field but didnt use update() method. I used that & my problem got resolved.
Thanks all for your replies

As Marc said, you want to make sure that you spin off a new thread to do your long running computation. That way the User Interface thread (which is the one that has to do all the screen updates) can redraw the progres bar whenever you change the percent complete.
It's important to note that only the UI thread can update the interface. So, once you are running on a separate thread, you have to go through an extra hoop to make sure that your UI change is processed on the UI thread. If you aren't sure what thread you are running on, you can check the value of InvokeRequired (if your class is a System.Windows.Form) to see if you are actualy in the UI thread.
To get your command processed on the UI thread, use the Control.Invoke() function to make sure the update is processed on the UI thread for the control you are working with.
In my sample code below I'm creating a delegate function type and declaring the invoked function in advance....I've not done it with any of the cool C# 3.5 functions, but I bet you could work up a lamba expression to do the same thing.
private void bCreateInvoices_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
BackgroundWorker worker = new BackgroundWorker();
worker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(CreateInvoices);
worker.RunWorkerAsync(this);
}
// Here is the long running function that needs to update the progress bar
public void CreateInvoices(object sernder, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
int totalChecked = CountCheckedServiceOrders();
int totalCompleted = 0;
foreach (...data to process...) {
totalCompleted++;
if (InvokeRequired) {
Invoke(new Change(OnChange), "status text",
totalCompleted, totalChecked);
}
}
}
// this code updates the status while a background thread works
private delegate void Change(string status, int complete, int total);
private void OnChange(string status, int complete, int total)
{
if (status == null) {
progressBar.Visible = false;
lStatus.Text = "Task complete";
progressBar.Value = 0;
} else {
progressBar.Visible = true;
progressBar.Minimum = 0;
progressBar.Maximum = total;
progressBar.Value = complete;
lStatus.Text = status;
}
}
Take a look at the MSDN Control.InvokeRequired manual page and the MSDN Control.Invoke manual page for some more info.

The ProgressBar.Value must be between 0 and 100.
My guess is that your problem is that you're updating the ListView on the GUI thread. That means you'll need to call Application.DoEvents() after changing the ProgressBar.Value property.
It would be best to run on a BackgroundWorker and use the ProgressChanged event to handle the ProgressBar update.
Here's another question about the same topic.

Related

Progress Bar with Label — Unable to Update Label in ProgressChanged

I have a background worker with a long running task. The task goes through a list of files and I want to update the user with which file we are on. I have a tool strip that has a label named panel1.text. The progress bar is working however the label is not changing in my ProgressChanged method i.e. It should say Processing File1 then change to Processing File2, but it stays on the default of Processing.
private void btnProcess_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
toolStripProgressBar1.Visible = true;
toolStripProgressBar1.Maximum = 1000000000;
panel1.Text = "Processing "; // this appears properly
BackgroundWorker worker = new BackgroundWorker();
worker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(processFiles);
worker.ProgressChanged += ProgressChanged;
worker.RunWorkerAsync();
while (worker.IsBusy)
{
// the reason for this is because nothing can happen until the processing is done
toolStripProgressBar1.Increment(1);
}
// more processing
}
private void ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
panel1.Text = "Processing "+ e.UserState.ToString(); <<<---- This is Not Updating panel1.Text but it evaluates properly
}
private void processFiles(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
int retVal = 0;
foreach (string fileName in listBox1.Items)
{
ProgressChangedEventArgs ea = new ProgressChangedEventArgs(1,fileName);
ProgressChanged(this, ea);
// do more processing
}
}
I would appreciate any help.
You are using the same thread, which is being blocked by another process. You need to use a Task to create a new thread and possibly use Dispatcher.BeginIvoke if the control is on the other thread. Make sure whatever Button Click, etc is happening is marked with the Async keyword as well to make it Asynchronous.
Example:
Await Task mytask = Task.Run(() =>
for(var i = 0; i < 1000; i++)
{
Label.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke( () =>
UpdateMe(int i, LabelClass/Component class/component)});
Then inside the Label Class or wherever the label is:
Public void UpdateMe(int i, LabelClass class)
{
class.label.content = Cint((i/Total)*100);
Thread.Sleep(500);
}
There are other ways to do it as well such as Binding the value to the UI, but this will give you a better understanding of why its not working and how things work with other threads.
If you want to really get a visual understanding call:
`Console.WriteLine($"Current Thread ID: System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId}");`
Right before you go into the Task---it will give you the main thread ID
Then inside the Task call it again...this will give you the secondary thread ID.
Then Right before the Dispatcher call:
Console.WriteLine($"Do I have access to the label on this thread? {Label.Dispatcher.CheckAccess()}";
If you have access it will display True, if not it will display False...In your case it will display false because its owned by the other thread, but you can use the Dispatcher to be able to do work on that thread while in another thread...
Also, I recommend you not use Background Worker and use Tasks instead...this explains why in depth...basically Tasks do everything Background workers do and more, have less issues and are easier to work with...
http://blog.stephencleary.com/2013/09/taskrun-vs-backgroundworker-conclusion.html
As already commented by Ivan, remove the while loop while (worker.IsBusy) as it's blocking the UI thread to process further. As well, you should enable the WorkerReportsProgress to true
worker.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
worker.ProgressChanged += ProgressChanged;
while (!worker.IsBusy)
{
worker.RunWorkerAsync();
}
Per your comment, move those later processing to BackgroundWorker.RunWorkerCompleted Event

BackgroundWorker does not stop on CancelAsync() and works only once

I've got one form called Sorter. There is the button 'jademy' on it which opens window 'Progress Window'
private void jademy_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ProgressWindow progress = new ProgressWindow();
progress.ShowDialog();
}
Code of 'Progress Window' form is following:
public partial class ProgressWindow : Form
{
private BackgroundWorker backgroundWorker = new BackgroundWorker();
public ProgressWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
stop.Visible = true;
ok.Visible = false;
backgroundWorker.RunWorkerAsync();
backgroundWorker.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
backgroundWorker.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
#region block1
backgroundWorker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(backgroundWorker_DoWork);
backgroundWorker.ProgressChanged += new ProgressChangedEventHandler(backgroundWorker_ProgressChanged);
backgroundWorker.RunWorkerCompleted += new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(backgroundWorker_RunWorkerCompleted);
#endregion
}
private void stop_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
backgroundWorker.CancelAsync();
}
private void ok_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
this.Close();
}
private void backgroundWorker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
for (int i = 1; i <= 100; i++)
{
Thread.Sleep(100);
backgroundWorker.ReportProgress(i);
}
}
private void backgroundWorker_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
progressBar1.Value = e.ProgressPercentage;
this.Text = "Done: " + e.ProgressPercentage.ToString() + "%";
}
private void backgroundWorker_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
if ((e.Cancelled == true))
{
MessageBox.Show("Cancelled", "Message", MessageBoxButtons.OKCancel, MessageBoxIcon.Asterisk);
}
else if (!(e.Error == null))
{
MessageBox.Show("Error: " + e.Error.Message, "ERROR!", MessageBoxButtons.OKCancel);
}
else
{
ok.Visible = true;
stop.Visible = false;
}
}
}
Now. I have three problems.
Click on stop button does nothing. It seems that 'backgroundWorker.CancelAsync()' doesn't stop the process.
When I close progress window and I want to run it again I have to wait some time before click on 'jademy' button. Otherwise progress window is displayed like this:
(and nothing changes) instead of this: It looks like the program "remembers" that work was done even though it is a new instance of ProgressWindow. Notice that on the incorrect version 'OK' button is visible at once - instead of waiting for the completion of the work.
I would like to clarify the code in "block 1". To be honest I don't understand it fully. Is this part really essential or not? I mean, I've found a lot of examples (also on this forum - e.g. here), where this part wasn't included and users were reporting that the solution works. In my case, without this part progress bar didn't work at all, but maybe I've done something wrong.
Calling CancelAsync stops any pending work. But if the work has already started, the method body needs to check if cancel was called. See CancelAsync
CancelAsync submits a request to terminate the pending background
operation and sets the CancellationPending property to true.
When you call CancelAsync, your worker method has an opportunity to
stop its execution and exit. The worker code should periodically check
the CancellationPending property to see if it has been set to true.
I have no idea about it. By the way the images do not work. Embed it in the question.
The code assigns a method that is executed when the BackgroundWorker starts and you hook up methods to report the progress and do cleanup / updates once the background work is complete.
BackgroundWorker.CancelAsync is often misunderstood. It does not stop any pending work but is merely a signal to the UI thread that the work has been canceled! It just sets the CancellationPending property, which you can poll in the DoWork regularly.
Unfortunately the MSDN example with the Thread.Sleep calls in the DoWork is a very silly one. Normally you call a blocking operation in DoWork, which is often completely UI-independent.
See my answer here for a more usable example.
1.
According to MSDN BackgroundWorker Class page, maybe you should add a break to the loop.
private void backgroundWorker1_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
BackgroundWorker worker = sender as BackgroundWorker;
for (int i = 1; i <= 10; i++)
{
if (worker.CancellationPending == true)
{
e.Cancel = true;
break;
}
else
{
// Perform a time consuming operation and report progress.
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(500);
worker.ReportProgress(i * 10);
}
}
}
2.
Have no idea.
3.
The block 1 region is setting for BackgroundWorker event. In my case , it normally will appear at Form1.Designer.cs if I click the lightning icon in attribute to set the event.

BackgroundWorker not exiting loop

I have an BackgroundWorker:
BackgroundWorker worker;
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
worker = new BackgroundWorker();
worker.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
worker.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
worker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(worker_DoWork);
worker.ProgressChanged +=
new ProgressChangedEventHandler(worker_ProgressChanged);
worker.RunWorkerCompleted +=
new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(worker_RunWorkerCompleted);
}
DoWork Event
void worker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
int percentFinished = (int)e.Argument;
while (!worker.CancellationPending && percentFinished < 100)
{
percentFinished++;
worker.ReportProgress(percentFinished);
//here I start my operation
//operation....
//operation end
}
e.Result = percentFinished;
}
Progresschanged
void worker_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
progressBar1.Value = e.ProgressPercentage;
}
Completed
void worker_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
MessageBox.Show("Asynchroner Thread kam bis zum Wert:
"+e.Result.ToString());
btnStartEnd.Text = "Starten";
}
And finally my button:
private void btnStartEnd_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (worker.IsBusy)
{
worker.CancelAsync();
btnStartEnd.Text = "Starten";
}
else
{
if (progressBar1.Value == progressBar1.Maximum)
{
progressBar1.Value = progressBar1.Minimum;
}
worker.RunWorkerAsync(progressBar1.Value);
btnStartEnd.Text = "Stoppen";
}
}
This code works but I get a loop for my operations until the percentage is 100, so the operation starts 100 times and so takes 100 times longer.
The goal should be that the operation only starts one time and the percentage counts from 1-100.
Maybe I understand something wrong, but how does the worker know how far the operation is done? That value should be send to the progress bar for visualisation.
Normally you won’t add the loop inside the DoWork method
If you want to load for example 100 files from the file system and report the progress it could look like that:
private void bw_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
BackgroundWorker worker = sender as BackgroundWorker;
for(int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
// Load file and do something with the content
...
// Report the progress which causes the ProgressChanged event to be fired
// And update progressbar with the UI thread
worker.ReportProgress(i);
}
}
If you only have one long running operation that needs to be executed inside the DoWork method it needs to be executed asynchronously
Here is one example how you could call an action asynchronously in .NET:
Action action = () =>
{
for(int i = 0; i <100; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Step {0} of long running operation", i));
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
};
var r = action.BeginInvoke(null, null);
while(!r.IsCompleted)
{
Console.WriteLine("Waiting...");
Thread.Sleep(100);
}
However in .NET there are many more ways to do it. See for example:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj152938(v=vs.110).aspx for
Async patterns in .NET
http://msdn.microsoft.com/de-de/library/hh191443.aspx for Async
programming with await/async (new in .NET 4.5)
Maybe I understand something wrong, but how does the worker know how far the operation is done? That value should be send to the progress bar for visualisation.
The BackgroundWorker class doesn't know anything about your operations and about its progress. It's your job to determine when to report the progress.
In general the workflow for a background worker looks like this:
UI thread calls RunWorkerAsync.
DoWork event handler is called on a different thread. During the event handler you can report progress using the ReportProgress method
If you report a progress then the ProgressChanged event handler is called on the UI thread. Here you can update a progress bar for example.
When your event handler for the DoWork event exits the RunWorkerComplete event is raised.
Now why does every example for the BackgroundWorker has a for-loop? Because it's very easy to write, and measuring progress for a for-loop is trivial. Unfortunately this quite often isn't useful for different kind of operations.
If your long running operation processes N files then it's pretty obvious that you can update the progress bar after every item by 1/N. That's what the for-loop example does.
But if you only have one long running operation then you simply don't have any chance to get the progress unless the operation itself supports reporting it or if you can somehow estimate the progress.
The BackgroundWorker can't magically give a long running operation a progress bar. It only enables you to run the operation in the background.

C# windows form progress bar with background worker

I am attempting to add a progress bar in my c# excel add in. The progress bar appears but it does not indicate any progress until the function is finished executing.
These are the functions in the Windows Form Class:
public void backgroundWorker1_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
Thread.Sleep(100);
backgroundWorker1.ReportProgress(i); //run in back thread
}
}
public void backgroundWorker1_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e) //call back method
{
progressBar1.Value = e.ProgressPercentage;
}
public void backgroundWorker1_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e) //call back method
{
progressBar1.Value = progressBar1.Maximum;
}
This is how I call the function from the add in button:
private void buttonClicked(object sender, RibbonControlEventArgs e)
{
AddInPlanView.Form1 pBar = new AddInPlanView.Form1();
pBar.Visible = true;
pBar.backgroundWorker1.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
pBar.backgroundWorker1.ProgressChanged += new System.ComponentModel.ProgressChangedEventHandler(pBar.backgroundWorker1_ProgressChanged);
pBar.backgroundWorker1.DoWork += new System.ComponentModel.DoWorkEventHandler(pBar.backgroundWorker1_DoWork);
pBar.backgroundWorker1.RunWorkerCompleted += new System.ComponentModel.RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(pBar.backgroundWorker1_RunWorkerCompleted);
pBar.backgroundWorker1.RunWorkerAsync();
FUNCTIONTORUN();
pBar.Visible = false;
}
How should I change this so that the progress bar will not stop working during the execution of FUNCTIONTORUN()? The progress bar is initialized using the Visual Studio designer. The name of the progressbar object in the form class is progressbar1.
Thank YOU!
The DoWork event for your progress bar should be (or contain) FUNCTIONTORUN(). FUNCTIONTORUN() should use the ReportProgress method.
What does FUNCTIONTORUN do? It is very likely blocking the UI thread, causing your updates to the progress bar to not be seen until it returns. More than likely, FUNCTIONTORUN needs to run in a background worker, and have it periodically report progress, and that's where you'd update the progress bar.
I would like to expand on the following statement. Matt Greer can correct me if I am wrong.
What does FUNCTIONTORUN do? It is very likely blocking the UI thread,
causing your updates to the progress bar to not be seen until it
returns. More than likely, FUNCTIONTORUN needs to run in a background
worker, and have it periodically report progress, and that's where
you'd update the progress bar.
What I believe he means by this is you need to update progressBar1.Value within
FUNCTIONTORUN(); you can still use a similar method.

Thread sleep in a for loop

I need your help for using this method:
for (int i =0; i<dt.count; i++)
{
process...
sleep(3000);
}
int sleeptime=0;
private void timer2_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
for (int i = 0; i < mylist.Items.Count;)
{
listBox1.Items.Add(mylist.Items[i].Name.ToString() + "starting...");
sleeptime = int.Parse(mylist.Items[i++].TimeSpan.ToString()) - timer2.Interval;
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(sleeptime);
}
timer1.Start();
timer2.Stop();
}
But I don't see my data flow like waterfall.
You are blocking the UI thread - no updates will usually show until you leave the event-handler. A hacky approach is to use Application.DoEvents(), but this is lazy and risks re-entrancy especially if you are pausing.
A better approach is to do the work on a background thread, and use Invoke to push the data to the UI (don't talk to the UI from the worker thread).
Or just add individual items in separate ticks?
Here's an example using BackgroundWorker for the work, using ReportProgress to push items onto the UI:
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Threading;
using System.Windows.Forms;
static class Program
{
static void Main()
{
// setup some form state
Form form = new Form();
ListView list = new ListView();
list.View = View.List;
BackgroundWorker worker = new BackgroundWorker();
worker.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
form.Controls.Add(list);
list.Dock = DockStyle.Fill;
// start the worker when the form loads
form.Load += delegate {
worker.RunWorkerAsync();
};
worker.DoWork += delegate
{
// this code happens on a background thread, so doesn't
// block the UI while running - but shouldn't talk
// directly to any controls
for(int i = 0 ; i < 500 ; i++) {
worker.ReportProgress(0, "Item " + i);
Thread.Sleep(150);
}
};
worker.ProgressChanged += delegate(object sender,
ProgressChangedEventArgs args)
{
// this is invoked on the UI thread when we
// call "ReportProgress" - allowing us to talk
// to controls; we've passed the new info in
// args.UserState
list.Items.Add((string)args.UserState);
};
Application.Run(form);
}
}
Or you can use instead System.Threading.Timer class. The timer's callback is executed on a thread from ThreadPool, not the UI thread. But than, you can't directly access any GUI controls, so you would have to use Invoke.

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