Block while waiting for event - c#

I have an external COM-object that connects to a server and then fire an event when the server is ready. The connect() call is thus asynchronously.
My code looks (a bit...) like
ManualResetEvent waitConnection;
//This is the event that is triggered when server is ready
public void onConnection_event(bool success)
{
if(success)
waitConnection.Set();
}
private string getItem(string itemName)
{
//MYDBCom is a win32 com if that makes any difference
MYDBCom myDBobject = new MYDBCom();
waitConnection = new ManualResetEvent(false);
myDBobject.connect(); //asynchron call.
//wait until server triggers the onConnection_event
waitConnection.WaitOne();
//server is now ready. Get the data from the server.
return myDBobject.getItem(itemName);
}
The problem is that the event is not triggered - it seems to be blocked while waiting in WaitOne. If I instead of using waitOne use
while(!connected)
{
Sleep(100);
DoEvents();
}
the event is triggered.
Any ideas why WaitOne blocks? Are there any other suggestions how to wait until an event triggers?
//Fredrik

Because the event's message pump is on the same thread as your WaitOne call. The thread is waiting and therefore, is not pumping around your messages.
Update
I should add that using DoEvents() is not usually an advisable solution. There are often better ways of handling the scenario such as having the event fired from a different thread outside of your current thread's message pump so that your current thread doesn't need to be running for the event handler to fire.

Related

When Completed event is fired after execute Socket.SendAsync?

When Completed event is fired after execute Socket.SendAsync?
I want to know when Completed event is fired after execute Socket.SendAsync.
When Socket.SendAsync process has been done at local endpoint?
Or When Socket.SendAsync process has been done and receive Ack from the remote endpoint?
I'm investigating why Complete event does not infrequently occur after execute Socket.SendAsync.
By the way, I take into consideration the case Socket.SendAsync has been completed synchronously.
bool willRaiseEvent = listenSocket.AcceptAsync(acceptEventArg);
if (!willRaiseEvent){
...
}

Synchronizing Events

I noticed that sometimes my code becomes out of sync if an event fires too quickly. I was wondering if there was a better approach. Under a normal scenario the DeviceOpenedEvent fires after I tell the thread to WaitOne in the TestDevice method, but I have seen in some cases where the event gets fired before the thread has a chance to wait.
protected AutoResetEvent TestAutoResetEvent = new AutoResetEvent(false);
public EventEnum WaitForEvent = EventEnum.None;
bool TestDevice()
{
OpenDevice();
WaitForEvent = EventEnum.DeviceOpened;
TestAutoResetEvent.WaitOne();
WaitForEvent = EventEnum.NoWait;
//Continue with other tests
}
void DeviceOpenedEvent()
{
if (WaitForEvent == EventEnum.DeviceOpened)
TestAutoResetEvent.Set();
}
Under normal circumstances it looks like this:
Open Device
WaitOne()
DeviceOpenedEvent occurs
Set()
This is what I'm seeing my logs sometimes:
Open Device
DeviceOpenedEvent occurs
WaitOne() Essentially stuck here forever
Since OpenDevice is asynchronous (as you mentioned in a comment), it runs in a different thread than its caller. Sometimes it will finish before the next line in source executes:
OpenDevice(); // Async: may finish before the next line executes!
WaitForEvent = EventEnum.DeviceOpened;
When that happens DeviceOpenedEvent doesn't do what you want it to, because WaitForEvent is still EventEnum.None:
if (WaitForEvent == EventEnum.DeviceOpened)
TestAutoResetEvent.Set();
The solution is to change your code so that you signal completion inside a method that's guaranteed to run in the correct order. Here's a simple implementation that removes the enumeration and uses a single wait handle for each event you need to wait on:
protected AutoResetEvent deviceOpenedEvent = new AutoResetEvent(false);
protected AutoResetEvent deviceLockedEvent = new AutoResetEvent(false);
bool TestDevice() {
OpenDevice();
// Do some unrelated parallel stuff here ... then
deviceOpenedEvent.WaitOne();
LockDevice();
deviceLockedEvent.WaitOne();
}
void DeviceOpenedEvent() {
deviceOpenedEvent.Set();
}
It's even easier if you control OpenDevice: just call deviceOpened.Set() when it's done. You could even change OpenDevice to accept the auto reset event and construct it right inside TestDevice, which would reduce your exposure to multithreading bugs.
This should not be a problem. The documentation for AutoResetEvent states:
If a thread calls WaitOne while the
AutoResetEvent is in the signaled
state, the thread does not block.
The following code does not cause WaitOne to block, for instance:
AutoResetEvent waitHandle = new AutoResetEvent(false);
waitHandle.Set();
waitHandle.WaitOne();
Console.WriteLine("After WaitOne");

In .NET, what thread will Events be handled in?

I have attempted to implement a producer/consumer pattern in c#. I have a consumer thread that monitors a shared queue, and a producer thread that places items onto the shared queue. The producer thread is subscribed to receive data...that is, it has an event handler, and just sits around and waits for an OnData event to fire (the data is being sent from a 3rd party api). When it gets the data, it sticks it on the queue so the consumer can handle it.
When the OnData event does fire in the producer, I had expected it to be handled by my producer thread. But that doesn't seem to be what is happening. The OnData event seems as if it's being handled on a new thread instead! Is this how .net always works...events are handled on their own thread? Can I control what thread will handle events when they're raised? What if hundreds of events are raised near-simultaneously...would each have its own thread?
After re-reading the question, I think I understand the problem now. You've basically got something like this:
class Producer
{
public Producer(ExternalSource src)
{
src.OnData += externalSource_OnData;
}
private void externalSource_OnData(object sender, ExternalSourceDataEventArgs e)
{
// put e.Data onto the queue
}
}
And then you've got a consumer thread that pulls stuff off that queue. The problem is that the OnData event is fired by your ExternalSource object - on whatever thread it happens to be running on.
C# events are basically just an easy-to-use collection of delegates and "firing" an event just causes the runtime to loop through all of the delegates and fire them one at a time.
So your OnData event handler is getting called on whatever thread the ExternalSource is running on.
Unless you do the marshaling yourself, an event will execute on whatever thread is invoking it; there's nothing special about the way events are invoked, and your producer thread doesn't have an event handler, your producer thread simply said "hey, when you fire this event, call this function". There's nothing in there that causes the event execution to occur on the attaching thread, nor on its own thread (unless you were to use BeginInvoke rather than invoking the event's delegate normally, but this will just execute it on the ThreadPool).
Raising an event with Invoke is the same as calling a method - it gets executed in the same thread you raised it.
Raising an event with BeginInvoke uses ThreadPool. Here are some minor details
you have to use autoresetevent handlers for this problem.....in autoresetevent when producer produses it set the signal then consumer reset its signal and consume.. after consuming consume set signal then only producer produced...
AutoResetEvent pro = new AutoResetEvent(false);
AutoResetEvent con = new AutoResetEvent(true);
public void produser()
{
while(true)
{
con.WaitOne();
pro.Set();
}
}
public void consumer()
{
while (true)
{
pro.WaitOne();
.................****
con.Set();
}
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Thread th1 = new Thread(produser);
th1.Start();
Thread th2 = new Thread(consumer);
th2.Start();
}

Delegates And Cross Thread Exception

Whenever i am updating UI in windows form using delegate it gives me cross thread exception
why it is happening like this?
is there new thread started for each delegate call ?
void Port_DataReceived(object sender, SerialDataReceivedEventArgs e)
{
//this call delegate to display data
clsConnect(statusMsg);
}
protected void displayResponse(string resp)
{
//here cross thread exception occur if directly set to lblMsgResp.Text="Test";
if (lblMsgResp.InvokeRequired)
{
lblMsgResp.Invoke(new MethodInvoker(delegate { lblMsgResp.Text = resp; }));
}
}
The DataReceived event is always raised on a threadpool thread. You cannot update any UI control, you have to use Control.BeginInvoke(). There is no point testing InvokeRequired, it is always true.
A couple of things to keep in mind here:
Don't call Control.BeginInvoke for every single character or byte that you receive. That will bring the UI thread to its knees. Buffer the data you get from the serial port until you've got a complete response. Using SerialPort.ReadLine() usually works well, a lot of devices send strings that are terminated by a line feed (SerialPort.NewLine).
Shutting down your program can be difficult. You have to make sure to keep the form alive until the serial port stops sending. Getting an event after the form is closed will generate an ObjectDisposed exception. Use the FormClosing event to close the serial port and start a one second timer. Only really close the form when the timer expires.
Avoid using Control.Invoke instead of BeginInvoke. It can deadlock your program when you call SerialPort.Close().
Lots of ways to get in trouble. Consider using your own thread instead using DataReceived to avoid them.
Port_DataReceived is obviously an async event handler that is being raised by a thread on port monitoring component.
is there new thread started for each
delegate call ?
No, probably not. Your port monitoring component is running the poll on a background thread and the event is being raised from that thread, every time.
The point is that it is being called on a thread other than the UI, so you will need to use Control.Invoke and the patterns associated with it.
Consider this, (and read the post that may illuminate things for you)
void Port_DataReceived(object sender, SerialDataReceivedEventArgs e)
{
//this call delegate to display data
UpdateTheUI(statusMsg);
}
private void UpdateTheUI(string statusMsg)
{
if (lblMsgResp.InvokeRequired)
{
lblMsgResp.BeginInvoke(new MethodInvoker(UpdateTheUI,statusMsg));
}
else
{
clsConnect(statusMsg);
}
}
With all of that said, I would be remiss if I didn't point out that the indirection is troubling.
Cross Thread exception happens when some none UI thread changes UI elements. Since UI elements should be changed only in the UI thread this exception is thrown. To help you understand why this happen you will have to publish you code.
Cross thread exception happens when some none UI thread changes the UI elements. To fix this use the Invoke method on the control itself. As an extra you can check InvokeRequired on the control before calling the Invoke method
See msdn

How can I tell if a thread is finished executing without polling ThreadState?

Is there an elegant way to know when a worker thread is done executing so I can access resources it produced?
For example if the worker thread queried a list of SQL Servers using
ServersSqlDataSourceEnumerator.Instance.GetDataSources();
and saved the result in a DataTable variable, what mechanism can I use to know when this DataTable variable has been populated/is available. I don't want to poll ThreadState; it would be ideal to fire an event when it's done so I can perform actions with the result.
Thanks!
You can use a callback mechanism or block on an event to know of completion of an Async operation. See this page for the Asychronous Programming Model in .net - you can call BeginInvoke on any delegate to perform the action in an Async manner.
If you're using the BackgroundWorker type, you can subscribe to the RunWorkerCompleted event.
So fire an event :-P
You could also look at using an AutoResetEvent:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.threading.autoresetevent.aspx
What I do in this instance is get the WorkerThread to call a function after it has completed the work, which will invoke the the UI Thread, which can do the work in which you require.
E.g.
private void SetWorkerThreadToDoWork()
{
WorkerThread.Start();
}
private void MyWorkerThreadWork()
{
//This will be on the WorkerThread (called from WorkerThread.Start())
DoWorkFunc();
WorkComplete();
}
private void WorkComplete()
{
if(InvokeRequired == true)
{
//Do the invoke
}
else
{
//Check work done by worker thread
//e.g. ServersSqlDataSourceEnumerator.Instance.GetDataSources();
}
}
If it's a simple process you're using, I'd go for a BackgroundWorkerThread, this comes with it's own events that are fired when work is complete. But if you require to use a Thread, I would either look in to Asynchronous Callbacks or a similar route to that shown above.
You can check my answer on this SO thread
It uses a call back mechanism. When the async operation is done, it will fire the callback method where you can handle the processing that needs to be done post SQL execution.
Use a similar approach to be notified when the asynchronous operation is done.
Hope this helps :)
I don't program in C# but here's what I did with Delphi, maybe you can do it as well with C#.
I have a TThread descendant, and in the "destroy" event I send a message to its creator saying "hey I'm about to die !".
This way its parent (which is the main thread) creates a new one if it needs a new one. To be precise it launches a timer that, when fired, creates a new thread if a new one is needed (sites sucking time (lol) !!).

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