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Wrapping up an async method for a non-async caller

I'm trying to use System.Net.Http.HttpClient to return the results of a call to a webpage, so that it implements a POST request. I don't really want to perform this asynchronously. My requirement is to wait until all the data is returned before continuing, so ideally I want synchronous method. However, sadly, it is not possible to just use HttpClient that way.
I've declared the following method, which is asynchronous, which takes a URL and key-value pairs to populate $_POST in the PHP:
private async Task<string> PostRequest(string cUrl, params string[] aParams)
{
HttpClient oClient;
Dictionary<string, string> oArgs;
int iA;
FormUrlEncodedContent oContent;
HttpResponseMessage oResponse;
// check we have an event number of parameters
if ((aParams.GetUpperBound(0) % 2) != 1) throw new Exception(
"Non-even number of parameters passed. Parameters are key-value pairs.");
// put the parameters into a dictionary
oArgs = new Dictionary<string, string>();
for (iA = 0; iA < aParams.GetUpperBound(0); iA += 2)
oArgs.Add(aParams[iA], aParams[iA + 1]);
oClient = new HttpClient();
oContent = new FormUrlEncodedContent(oArgs);
oClient.Timeout = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 10);
oResponse = await oClient.PostAsync(cUrl, oContent);
return await oResponse.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
}
Now, annoyingly this has to be an asynchonous method. Ho hum. Ideally, I'd like to call it thus:
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var cResult = await PostRequest("http://mywebsite.com/mypage.php",
"MagicToken", "12345",
"Method", "GetSomeData");
txt.Text = cResult.ToString();
}
But I have the compile time error:
The 'await' operator can only be used within an async method. Consider marking this method with the 'async' modifier and changing its return type to 'Task'.
What I'm doing above is (obviously) a test. In reality the button that kicks this off is a "Next >" in a wizard. It will use the results to populate a structure with data that other code in the wizard then accesses. I don't the above to occur asynchronously as I don't want other code touching that structure until it is populated.
My question is, how can I wrap a call to PostRequest so that I can wait for all the results to come in (some sort of ...while still processing...wait... loop) and then just return the results of the call, and use that without having to bubble async declarations up through my code?
As a second question, if I have to declare my cmdNext_Click as async, what happens if the user clicks it twice? I specifically want the UI thread to stop until the data is returned and processed.
Edit:
I've tried creating a wrapper function (which is non-async) thus:
private bool PostRequest2(string cUrl, ref string cResponse, params string[] aParams)
{
// This posts a request to the URL, using the parameters passed in aArgs. The response is returned in cResponse.
// cUrl - the URL to POST to
// cResponse - the response returned
// aParams - an even number of parameters, which are key-value pairs. The first of each pair is the name of the item. The second is its value.
int iWaitCount;
try
{
var response = PostRequest(cUrl, aParams);
Console.WriteLine(response);
iWaitCount = 0;
while (!response.IsCompleted)
{
Console.WriteLine("iWaitCount = " + iWaitCount.ToString());
Console.WriteLine("Status = " + response.Status.ToString());
response.Wait(500);
iWaitCount++;
}
cResponse = response.Result;
return true;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
_g.Errs.Raise(ex);
return false;
}
}
This compiles correctly, but sits in the wait loop indefinitely with response.Status = WaitingForActivation.
There has to be a way to wrap an asynchronouns function in a synchrnous one. The alternative is to have to change all the return types (which are mostly bool - true on success) to Task, which I cannot then use in conditional statements - I have to await them instead. I've realised that this is the fundimental question, and this is a duplicate of: How to call asynchronous method from synchronous method in C#? which refers to await being a zombie virus that infects your code; this appears to be the case.

You can make your button void async (I would maybe return Task instead of void though)
await should mean that your method waits for the PostAsync call to complete.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/operators/await
The await operator suspends evaluation of the enclosing async method until the asynchronous operation represented by its operand completes.
So this is essentially a synchronous call.
Now if you really don't want that void to be async, here's what I can remember off the top of my head:
In .NET 5+, you can use HttpClient.Send which is synchronous. (takes HttpRequestMessage)
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.net.http.httpclient.send?view=net-5.0
Otherwise, you would need to do a .Result if you wanted to get the response. This type of consumption of async methods has been frowned upon in my experience.

Disable button2 until the operation is completed and use async inside the button2 click event.
change button2_Click to :
private async void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
button2.Enabled = false;
var cResult = await PostRequest("http://mywebsite.com/mypage.php",
"MagicToken", "12345",
"Method", "GetSomeData");
txt.Text = cResult.ToString();
button2.Enabled = true;
}

After much reading, and thank you to those above, I've got a working method now. It's nor perfect, but it works in this scenario where I'm calling one async method at a time, and wait processing to stop until it returns.
PostRequest above works correctly, but it must be declared async and called with await. Within my app, I have a variety of callers of it, which must also be declared async and use await when they call it. An example is:
private async Task<bool> ReadProductPrice()
{
string cCsv = "";
try
{
cProductCode = scSubscriptionType.GetSelectedKey().ToString();
var oResponse = await PostRequest("http://mywebsite.com/mywebpage.php",
"MagicToken", "12345",
"Query", "GetProductPrice",
"ProductCode", cProductCode);
if (oResponse == null) throw new Exception("Could not acquire product price from server. (1)");
cCsv = oResponse.ToString();
moProductPrice = new Dataset(_g);
if (!moProductPrice.ReadFromCsv(cCsv)) throw new Exception("Could not decode server response.");
if (moProductPrice.RecordCount != 1) throw new Exception("Could not acquire product price from server. (2)");
return true;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
_g.Errs.Raise(ex);
return false;
}
}
This works correctly and populates moProductPrice with the data returned from PostRequest. However, it is async.
I've create a wrapper function thus:
private bool ReadProductPrice2()
{
Task<bool> oTask;
frmWaitForTaskCompletion frm;
try
{
oTask = ReadProductPrice();
frm = new frmWaitForTaskCompletion();
frm.WaitForTaskCompletion(oTask, "Waiting for product price from server...");
return true;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
_g.Errs.Raise(ex);
return false;
}
}
This passes the Task<bool> returned from ReadProductPrice through to a form. The form contains a Label and a Timer, named lblMessage and tmr, containing the following code:
public partial class frmWaitForTaskCompletion : Form
{
private Task _task;
public frmWaitForTaskCompletion()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
public void WaitForTaskCompletion<TResult>(Task<TResult> oTask, string cMessage)
{
_task = oTask;
lblMessage.Text = cMessage;
this.ShowDialog();
return;
}
private void frmWaitForTaskCompletion_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
tmr.Enabled = true;
}
private void tmr_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (_task.Status == TaskStatus.RanToCompletion)
this.Close();
}
}
The timer is set to an Interval of 1000 so that it shows for enough time for the user to recognise that a popup has occurred and to scan the message.
Ideally, I would like to replace the call to the wait form with this:
while (oTask.Status != TaskStatus.RanToCompletion) Thread.Sleep(100);
And I don't actually understand why this doesn't now work, but recognise that it doesn't; code never continues after this point, despite the fact that the wait form is effectively performing the same check.
In this way, I'm able to stop the await/async propogating up my call stack indefinitely; IMO should be the compiler's job to sort that out, not mine, and it signifcantly breaks the concept of encapsulation. I dislike the fact that I need to show a wait form for a short while, but in this context the user should be aware of the communication that is going on, so it's an ok solution.

You can try doing something like this
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
PostRequest(
"http://mywebsite.com/mypage.php",
"MagicToken",
"12345",
"Method",
"GetSomeData"
)
.ContinueWith(async request => {
var cResult = await request;
txt.Text = cResult.ToString();
})
.Wait();
}

Dispatcher in WPF apps implementing multiple async Tasks

In the following MSDN example of the WPF app, which demonstrates async/await implementation of the multiple async Tasks, the Dispatcher object apparently is not used/needed, i.e. asynchronously executed Tasks seem to have direct access to the UI controls (in this case resultTextBox TextBox control - see the line resultsTextBox.Text += String.Format("\r\nLength of the download: {0}", length);). The app has been tested, performing as expected.
However, the question still remains if this implementation is capable of proper handling the possible race condition, for e.g., if the awaited and completed Task tries to access that TextBox control while the latter is still processing the update from previously completed Task? In practical sense, is WPF Dispatcher object still required to handle this potential concurrency/race condition issues in async/await multitasking implementation (or, may be, the interlocking functionality has been somehow implicitly implemented in such async/await programming construct)?
Listing 1. MSDN article "Start Multiple Async Tasks and Process Them As They Complete" (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj155756.aspx)
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Windows;
using System.Windows.Controls;
using System.Windows.Data;
using System.Windows.Documents;
using System.Windows.Input;
using System.Windows.Media;
using System.Windows.Media.Imaging;
using System.Windows.Navigation;
using System.Windows.Shapes;
// Add a using directive and a reference for System.Net.Http.
using System.Net.Http;
// Add the following using directive.
using System.Threading;
namespace ProcessTasksAsTheyFinish
{
public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
// Declare a System.Threading.CancellationTokenSource.
CancellationTokenSource cts;
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private async void startButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
resultsTextBox.Clear();
// Instantiate the CancellationTokenSource.
cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
try
{
await AccessTheWebAsync(cts.Token);
resultsTextBox.Text += "\r\nDownloads complete.";
}
catch (OperationCanceledException)
{
resultsTextBox.Text += "\r\nDownloads canceled.\r\n";
}
catch (Exception)
{
resultsTextBox.Text += "\r\nDownloads failed.\r\n";
}
cts = null;
}
private void cancelButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
if (cts != null)
{
cts.Cancel();
}
}
async Task AccessTheWebAsync(CancellationToken ct)
{
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
// Make a list of web addresses.
List<string> urlList = SetUpURLList();
// ***Create a query that, when executed, returns a collection of tasks.
IEnumerable<Task<int>> downloadTasksQuery =
from url in urlList select ProcessURL(url, client, ct);
// ***Use ToList to execute the query and start the tasks.
List<Task<int>> downloadTasks = downloadTasksQuery.ToList();
// ***Add a loop to process the tasks one at a time until none remain.
while (downloadTasks.Count > 0)
{
// Identify the first task that completes.
Task<int> firstFinishedTask = await Task.WhenAny(downloadTasks);
// ***Remove the selected task from the list so that you don't
// process it more than once.
downloadTasks.Remove(firstFinishedTask);
// Await the completed task.
int length = await firstFinishedTask;
resultsTextBox.Text += String.Format("\r\nLength of the download: {0}", length);
}
}
private List<string> SetUpURLList()
{
List<string> urls = new List<string>
{
"http://msdn.microsoft.com",
"http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/br211380.aspx",
"http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh290136.aspx",
"http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd470362.aspx",
"http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa578028.aspx",
"http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms404677.aspx",
"http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff730837.aspx"
};
return urls;
}
async Task<int> ProcessURL(string url, HttpClient client, CancellationToken ct)
{
// GetAsync returns a Task<HttpResponseMessage>.
HttpResponseMessage response = await client.GetAsync(url, ct);
// Retrieve the website contents from the HttpResponseMessage.
byte[] urlContents = await response.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync();
return urlContents.Length;
}
}
}
Note: I would like to thank Stephen Cleary for his excellent answer and rather insightful explanation, and also want to highlight the recommended improvement outlined in his solution, namely: replacing that unnecessary/complex code block in original MSDN example utilizing WhenAny by rather compact solution encapsulated in a single line of code, namely: await Task.WhenAll(downloadTasks); (btw, I was using this alternative in many practical apps, in particular, online market data app dealing w/multiple stocks web queries).
Many thanks, Stephen!

However, the question still remains if this implementation is capable of proper handling the possible race condition, for e.g., if the awaited and completed Task tries to access that TextBox control while the latter is still processing the update from previously completed Task?
There is no race condition. The UI thread only does one thing at a time.
In practical sense, is WPF Dispatcher object still required to handle this potential concurrency/race condition issues in async/await multitasking implementation (or, may be, the interlocking functionality has been somehow implicitly implemented in such async/await programming construct)?
It is, but you don't have to use it explicitly. As I describe in my async intro, the await keyword (by default) will capture the current context and resume executing the async method in that context. The "context" is SynchronizationContext.Current (or TaskScheduler.Current if the current SyncCtx is null).
In this case, it will capture a UI SynchronizationContext, which uses the WPF Dispatcher under the covers to schedule the remainder of the async method on the UI thread.
On a side note, I'm not a big fan of the "Task.WhenAny the list and remove from the list as they complete" approach. I find the code is much cleaner if you refactor by adding a DownloadAndUpdateAsync method:
async Task AccessTheWebAsync(CancellationToken ct)
{
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
// Make a list of web addresses.
List<string> urlList = SetUpURLList();
// ***Create a query that, when executed, returns a collection of tasks.
IEnumerable<Task> downloadTasksQuery =
from url in urlList select DownloadAndUpdateAsync(url, client, ct);
// ***Use ToList to execute the query and start the tasks.
List<Task> downloadTasks = downloadTasksQuery.ToList();
await Task.WhenAll(downloadTasks);
}
async Task DownloadAndUpdateAsync(string url, HttpClient client, CancellationToken ct)
{
var length = await ProcessURLAsync(url, client, ct);
resultsTextBox.Text += String.Format("\r\nLength of the download: {0}", length);
}
async Task<int> ProcessURLAsync(string url, HttpClient client, CancellationToken ct)
{
// GetAsync returns a Task<HttpResponseMessage>.
HttpResponseMessage response = await client.GetAsync(url, ct);
// Retrieve the website contents from the HttpResponseMessage.
byte[] urlContents = await response.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync();
return urlContents.Length;
}

How to cancel previous Task if new request recieved?

I will try to simplify my situation here to be more clean and concise. So, I am working on a WinRT application where user enters text in a TextBox and in its TextChanged event after 2 seconds have elapsed I need to make a remote request to fetch data based on user text.
Now user enters text and a web request has been initialized but immediately user writes another term. So, I need to cancel the first web request and fire the new one.
Consider the following as my code :
private CancellationTokenSource cts;
public HomePageViewModel()
{
cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
}
private async void SearchPeopleTextChangedHandler(SearchPeopleTextChangedEventArgs e)
{
//Cancel previous request before making new one
//GetMembers() is using simple HttpClient to PostAsync() and get response
var members = await _myService.GetMembers(someId, cts.Token);
//other stuff based on members
}
I know CancellationToken plays a role here but I just cannot figure out how.

You've already almost got it. The core idea is that a single CancellationTokenSource can only be canceled once, so a new one has to be created for each operation.
private CancellationTokenSource cts;
private async void SearchPeopleTextChangedHandler(SearchPeopleTextChangedEventArgs e)
{
// If there's a previous request, cancel it.
if (cts != null)
cts.Cancel();
// Create a CTS for this request.
cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
try
{
var members = await _myService.GetMembers(someId, cts.Token);
//other stuff based on members
}
catch (OperationCanceledException)
{
// This happens if this operation was cancelled.
}
}

I would implement the GetMembers method like this:
private async Task<List<Member>> GetMembers(int id, CancellationToken token)
{
try
{
token.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
HttpResponseMessage response = null;
using (HttpClient client = new HttpClient())
{
response = await client.PostAsync(new Uri("http://apiendpoint"), content)
.AsTask(token);
}
token.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
// Parse response and return result
}
catch (OperationCanceledException ocex)
{
return null;
}
}
The rest is just calling the cts.Cancel() method and creating a new instance of CancellationTokenSource before calling GetMembers each time in the handler. Of course, as #Russell Hickey mentioned, cts should be global. (and even static if there are multiple instances of this class and you always want to cancel the GetMembers method when this handler is invoked. Usually I also have a class which wraps the result and has an additional property IsSuccessful to distinguish a real null result from a failed operation.

Gracefully handeling exceptions when dealing with WhenAll

I'm playing with a piece of code I wrote a while back. That piece of code deals with making a few requests in an async manner.
var client = new HttpClient();
var searchPromises = searchTerms
.Select(GetSearchUrl)
.Select(client.GetStringAsync);
var searchPages = await Task.WhenAll(searchPromises);
What happens is I create a new HttpClient. Using some search terch terms I compose search engine urls. Then I use those urls as inputs to get tasks representing the async requests for a page with the results. And last, I await those responses using Task.WhenAll to group them together.
The problem is if just one of those requests gets a 404, a 500 or anything like that my code throws an AggregateException.
Is there a way of specifying what should happen in the case of an error in one of those threads, so that I get a result from everything else?
I've looked at ContinueWith, but it doesn't seem to fit the bill, that is, it doesn't know how to deal with all the errors, just the aggregate one.

What happens is I create a new HttpClient. Using some search terch terms I compose search engine urls. Then I use those urls as inputs to get tasks representing the async requests for a page with the results. And last, I await those responses using Task.WhenAll to group them together.
Is there a way of specifying what should happen in the case of an error in one of those threads, so that I get a result from everything else?
IMO, the easiest solution is to change how you think about the problem. Right now, you're thinking "perform a download on each url" and then "what for them all to complete and handle errors on a per-item basis". Just change your operation ("download") to include anything you want to do per-item. In other words, what you want to do is "perform a download on each url and handle errors" and then "wait for them all to complete":
var client = new HttpClient();
var searchPromises = searchTerms
.Select(GetSearchUrl)
.Select(url => DownloadAsync(client, url));
var searchPages = await Task.WhenAll(searchPromises);
var successfulSearchPages = searchPages.Where(x => x != null);
...
private static async Task<string> DownloadAsync(HttpClient client, string url)
{
try
{
return await client.GetStringAsync(url);
}
catch (HttpRequestException ex)
{
// TODO: Perform appropriate error handling
return null;
}
}

Task.WhenAll will return a task that is completed when all the tasks passed as argument are completed.
If any of the tasks passed as argument ends in a Faulted state (an exception was thrown), the returned task will also end in a Faulted state and its Exception property will contain the aggregation of all exceptions thrown by the tasks passed as argument.
Because the code generated by the compiler picks the first exceptin on the list, only the excpetion thrown by the first exception that throws (not the first exception thrwing) will be rethrown.
But the tasks passed as argument still exist and can still be queried for result.
This code snippet shows this working:
var tasks = new Task[] {
((Func<Task>)(async () =>
{
await Task.Delay(10);
await Task.Delay(10);
await Task.Delay(10);
throw new Exception("First");
}))(),
((Func<Task>)(async () =>
{
await Task.Delay(10);
throw new Exception("Second");
}))(),
((Func<Task>)(async () =>
{
await Task.Delay(10);
}))()
};
var allTasks = Task.WhenAll(tasks);
try
{
await allTasks;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Overall failed: {0}", ex.Message);
}
for(var i = 0; i < tasks.Length; i++)
{
try
{
await tasks[i];
Console.WriteLine("Taks {0} succeeded!", i);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine("Taks {0} failed!", i);
}
}
/*
Overall failed: First
Taks 0 failed!
Taks 1 failed!
Taks 2 succeeded!
*/

You can create your own version of Task.WhenAll that returns just the results disregarding any exception using Task.WhenAny:
public static async Task<IEnumerable<TResult>> WhenAllSwallowExceptions<TResult>(IEnumerable<Task<TResult>> tasks)
{
var tasklist = tasks.ToList();
var results = new List<TResult>();
while (tasklist.Any())
{
var completedTask = await Task.WhenAny(tasklist);
try
{
results.Add(await completedTask);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
// handle
}
tasklist.Remove(completedTask);
}
return results;
}
Usage:
var searchPages = await WhenAllSwallowExceptions(searchPromises);
This waits for tasks one at a time (with Task.WhenAny) and aggregates all the results (if there are any).

I've found a way to do this, after many iterations. Tasks are starting to look like things that you need a library to abstract.
Anyway, here's the code:
var client = new HttpClient();
var exceptions = new ConcurrentBag<Exception>();
var searchPromises = searchTerms
.Select(GetSearchUrl)
.Select(client.GetStringAsync)
.Select(t=>t.Catch(e=>exceptions.Add(e)));
var searchPages = (await Task.WhenAll(searchPromises))
.Where(r => r != null);
And the implementation for Catch:
public static Task<TResult> Catch<TResult>(this Task<TResult> self, Action<Exception> exceptionHandlerTask)
{
return self.ContinueWith(s =>
{
if (!s.IsFaulted)
{
return s.Result;
}
exceptionHandlerTask(s.Exception);
return default(TResult);
},
CancellationToken.None,
TaskContinuationOptions.ExecuteSynchronously |
TaskContinuationOptions.DenyChildAttach,
TaskScheduler.Default);
}
What happens now is that it gives you a way to append a failure state function to the Task<T> promise. This allows me to still have chainability. It is a shame that c# doesn't have robust support for functional pattern matching to make this easier.
Edit: added minimal code for error logging.
Edit: separated the code for logging errors to be more generic/reusable.
Edit: separated the code for saving the errors from the Catch function.

Where is WebClient.DownloadStringTaskAsync(Uri,CancellationToken) in VS11

In the Async CTP there is an extension method with the signature
WebClient.DownloadStringTaskAsync(Uri,CancellationToken)
Where is this in VS11?
Do I need to install the Async CTP to get this method?

In .NET 4.5, you would probably use the new HttpClient Class, in particular the GetStringAsync Method.

It's unfortunate that CancellationToken support isn't built in, but here's how you can approximate it by leveraging the Register and CancelAsync methods:
var downloadTask = webClient.DownloadStringTaskAsync(source);
string text;
using (cancellationToken.Register(() => webClient.CancelAsync()))
{
text = await downloadTask;
}

It's still there in .Net 4.5 beta, see MSDN, except it's not an extension method anymore.
What you may be referring to is the fact that WebClient is not included in .Net for Metro-style apps. There, you should probably use HttpClient. Another option is to use HttpWebRequest, which is still present and has been extended with Task-based async methods as well.

Both classes System.Net.WebClient and System.Net.Http.HttpClient have an async function. This enables you to create an async function. While the GetStringAsync function is running asynchronously you can check regularly if cancellation is requested.
Example:
using System.Net.Http;
class HttpSonnetFetcher
{
const string sonnetsShakespeare = #"http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1041/pg1041.txt";
public async Task<IEnumerable<string>> Fetch(CancellationToken token)
{
string bookShakespeareSonnets = null;
using (var downloader = new HttpClient())
{
var downloadTask = downloader.GetStringAsync(sonnetsShakespeare);
// wait until downloadTask finished, but regularly check if cancellation requested:
while (!downloadTask.Wait(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(0.2)))
{
token.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
}
// if still here: downloadTask completed
bookShakespeareSonnets = downloadTask.Result;
}
// just for fun: find a nice sonnet, remove the beginning, split into lines and return 12 lines
var indexNiceSonnet = bookShakespeareSonnets.IndexOf("Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?");
return bookShakespeareSonnets.Remove(0, indexNiceSonnet)
.Split(new char[] { '\r', '\n' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries)
.Take(12);
}
}
Usage will be as follows:
private void TestCancellationHttpClient()
{
try
{
var sonnetFetcher = new HttpSonnetFetcher();
var cancellationTokenSource = new CancellationTokenSource();
var sonnetTask = Task.Run(() => sonnetFetcher.Fetch(cancellationTokenSource.Token));
cancellationTokenSource.CancelAfter(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10));
// meanwhile do something else, checking regularly if the task finished, or if you have nothing to do, just Task.Wait():
while (!sonnetTask.Wait(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(0.25)))
{
Console.Write('.');
}
// if still here: the sonnet is fetched. return value is in sonnetTask.Result
Console.WriteLine("A nice sonnet by William Shakespeare:");
foreach (var line in sonnetTask.Result)
{
Console.WriteLine(line);
}
}
catch (OperationCanceledException exc)
{
Console.WriteLine("Canceled " + exc.Message);
}
catch (AggregateException exc)
{
Console.WriteLine("Task reports exceptions");
var x = exc.Flatten();
foreach (var innerException in x.InnerExceptions)
{
Console.WriteLine(innerException.Message);
}
}
catch (Exception exc)
{
Console.WriteLine("Exception: " + exc.Message);
}
}
Try this in a simple console program, and see that the sonnet is fetched properly, Decrease CancelAfter from 10 seconds until, say 0.1 second, and see that the task is properly cancelled.
Nota Bene: Although an OperationCancelledException is thrown, this exception is wrapped as an inner exception of an AggregateException. All exceptions that occur within a task are always wrapped in an AggregateException.