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Show Form Message using non-Main UI Thread

I have a project that without usign any form/button or nothing like that, connects with a Websocket and using async methods receives some message(on a form created by myself) that is supposed to appear on the top-right corner of the screen.
But this message can appear from time to time (2 or 3 minutes) on the screen if the websocket doesn't say that it must stop. And this message can be big enough, that in order to make it look better I make my message appear in more than one form.
It causes an impression that it's a notification. So my class that connects with the websocket and receives the message async, calls another class using a thread that is a controller. The purpose of the controller is from time to time, show that message in various new form() notifications and obviously don't do it if the websocket doesn't return any message.
But when i call the form.show the program stops working.
I've looked around stackoverflow already, but the ideas that i've found didn't seem to work.
Some say that I should use invoke, but it kept giving error saying that
"Invoke or BeginInvoke cannot be called on a control until the window handle has been created", tried to solve like this: C# calling form.show() from another thread but it didn't work.
Some said that I should use .showDialog instead of .show, but it doesn't appear to be good, because it waits the window to be closed to terminate the method and as I said I need to open more than one notification at the same time.
Some said that the form was open with .show, but it was open for a very little period of time. But i couldn't notice if that was the case and even if it was i couldn't solve it. Well, what matter is that i'm stuck and i don't know what to do more.
Edited with Code:
//Main
Application.Run(new SocketService());
//SocketService class
public SocketService()
{
alerta = null;
while (true)
{
try
{
//Console.WriteLine("Nome do Usúario:" + Environment.UserName);
Thread.Sleep(2000);
Connect("ws://192.168.120.38:9091").Wait();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex);
}
}
}
public static async Task Connect(string uri)
{
ClientWebSocket webSocket = null;
try
{
webSocket = new ClientWebSocket();
await webSocket.ConnectAsync(new Uri(uri), CancellationToken.None);
await Login(webSocket);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw ex;
}
finally
{
if (webSocket != null)
webSocket.Dispose();
lock (consoleLock)
{
Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Red;
Console.WriteLine("WebSocket closed.");
Console.ResetColor();
}
}
}
private static async Task Login(ClientWebSocket webSocket)
{
ArraySegment<Byte> buffer = new ArraySegment<byte>(encoder.GetBytes( "{\"event\":\"loginBrowser\",\"data\":{\"login\":\"000000003077\",\"data\":\"1\"}}"));
await webSocket.SendAsync(buffer, WebSocketMessageType.Text, true, CancellationToken.None);
if (webSocket.State == WebSocketState.Open)
{
if (ShowMessage.created != true)
{
var dummy = new Control(); // to initialize SynchronizationContext
_sync = SynchronizationContext.Current;
new Thread(ThreadProc).Start();
}
await Receive(webSocket);
}
}
private static async Task Receive(ClientWebSocket webSocket)
{
while (webSocket.State == WebSocketState.Open)
{
ArraySegment<Byte> buffer = new ArraySegment<byte>(new Byte[256]);
var result = await webSocket.ReceiveAsync(buffer, CancellationToken.None);
if (result.MessageType == WebSocketMessageType.Close)
{
await webSocket.CloseAsync(WebSocketCloseStatus.NormalClosure, string.Empty, CancellationToken.None);
}
else
{
if (result.EndOfMessage)
{
message += encoder.GetString(buffer.ToArray());
SendMessage(message);
}
else
{
message += encoder.GetString(buffer.ToArray());
}
}
}
}
public static void ShowFormFromAnotherThread(string text)
{
_sync.Post(SendOrPostCallback, text);
}
private static void SendOrPostCallback(object state)
{
var form = new Notification();
form.Text = (string)state;
form.Show();
}
private static void ThreadProc()
{
while (true)
{
Thread.Sleep(2000); // wait imitation
ShowFormFromAnotherThread("HI");
}
}
/*Notification is my form and depending on where I put this part:
var dummy = new Control(); // to initialize SynchronizationContext
_sync = SynchronizationContext.Current;
new Thread(ThreadProc).Start();
Or i doesn't call login or doesn't enter receive() method or the best case It receives the information
calls the threadProc and the ShowFormFromAnotherThread but doesn't enter SednOrPostCallBack*/

using System.Threading;
using System.Windows.Forms;
namespace ConsoleThreadSync
{
internal class Program
{
private static void Main(string[] args)
{
Application.Run(new App());
}
}
public class App : ApplicationContext
{
private readonly SynchronizationContext _sync;
public App()
{
var dummy = new Control(); // to initialize SynchronizationContext
_sync = SynchronizationContext.Current;
new Thread(ThreadProc).Start();
}
public void ShowFormFromAnotherThread(string text)
{
_sync.Post(SendOrPostCallback, text);
}
private void SendOrPostCallback(object state)
{
var form = new Form1();
form.Text = (string)state;
form.Show();
}
private void ThreadProc()
{
while (true)
{
Thread.Sleep(2000); // wait imitation
ShowFormFromAnotherThread("HI");
}
}
}
}

Try to call this:
var dummy = new Control(); // to initialize SynchronizationContext
_sync = SynchronizationContext.Current;
from a contructor SocketService() and not from async methods. This is an initialization code and it must call from main thread.

Okay, after reading a little bit more, the solution that kind worked out was this one, but the only way of using the
.show from the notifician is to use the Application.DoEvents and I've been warned from the sources that I've looked into
that this method should not be used, unless is the only option, because It can cause some problems with the Threads and other things.
So unless someone can give me another hint or clue about what to do, I have two options or use this method and try to fix some other bug
that It can cause or use the .showDialog because don't know why It works without any other problem, but to use .showDialog I've
to use another thread where I create and show the notification because if I don't do, the loop will stop at each iteration
in order to wait the .showDialog be closed. And as it isn't a problem I want to avoid using a lot of threads, because it can cause
another problem with the sync between them:
namespace ReiDoCSharp
{
class ShowMessage
{
private static RootObject alerta;
public static bool created;
private static int startPosition;
public static void setStartPosition(int start)
{
if (start < startPosition)
{
startPosition = start;
}
}
public RootObject getAlerta()
{
return ShowMessage.alerta;
}
public void setAlerta(RootObject root)
{
ShowMessage.alerta = root;
}
private static void DoWork()
{
while (true)
{
if (created != true)
{
created = true;
}
if (alerta != null)
{
string mensagem = "";
if ((alerta.data.Informacoes[1] != "") && (alerta.data.Informacoes[1] != null))
{
mensagem += alerta.data.Informacoes[1];
}
if ((alerta.data.Informacoes[0] != "") && (alerta.data.Informacoes[0] != null))
{
mensagem += alerta.data.Informacoes[0];
}
if (mensagem != "")
{
startPosition = 5;
string[] messages = mensagem.Split(new[] { "<br><br>" }, StringSplitOptions.None);
foreach (string message in messages)
{
Notification popup = new Notification();
popup.label1.Text = message;
popup.TopMost = true;
popup.Show();
Application.DoEvents();
/*Solution with the ShowDialog would be:
Task.Run(() => showNotification(message));
*/
}
}
}
Thread.Sleep(5000);
}
}
//Then I won't need to use Application.DoEvents, but would have to create more threads
private static Task showNotification(string message)
{
Notification popup = new Notification();
popup.label1.Text = message;
popup.TopMost = true;
popup.ShowDialog();
}
public static Task createPopupsAsync()
{
Task.Run(() => DoWork());
}
}
}
namespace ReiDoCSharp
{
class SocketService
{
private static object consoleLock = new object();
private const bool verbose = true;
private static readonly TimeSpan delay = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(3000);
private static UTF8Encoding encoder = new UTF8Encoding();
private static string message;
private static RootObject alerta;
public SocketService()
{
Begin();
}
public static void Begin()
{
alerta = null;
while (true)
{
try
{
Thread.Sleep(2000);
Connect("ws://192.168.120.38:9091").Wait();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Console.WriteLine(ex);
}
}
}
public static async Task Connect(string uri)
{
ClientWebSocket webSocket = null;
try
{
webSocket = new ClientWebSocket();
await webSocket.ConnectAsync(new Uri(uri), CancellationToken.None);
await Login(webSocket);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw ex;
}
finally
{
if (webSocket != null)
webSocket.Dispose();
lock (consoleLock)
{
Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Red;
Console.WriteLine("WebSocket closed.");
Console.ResetColor();
}
}
}
private static async Task Login(ClientWebSocket webSocket)
{
ArraySegment<Byte> buffer = new ArraySegment<byte>(encoder.GetBytes("{\"event\":\"loginBrowser\",\"data\":{\"OPERADOR\":\"000000003077\",\"NRORG\":\"1\"}}"));
await webSocket.SendAsync(buffer, WebSocketMessageType.Text, true, CancellationToken.None);
if (webSocket.State == WebSocketState.Open)
{
Task.Factory.StartNew(() => ShowMessage.createPopupsAsync());
await Receive(webSocket);
}
}
private static async Task Receive(ClientWebSocket webSocket)
{
while (webSocket.State == WebSocketState.Open)
{
ArraySegment<Byte> buffer = new ArraySegment<byte>(new Byte[256]);
var result = await webSocket.ReceiveAsync(buffer, CancellationToken.None);
if (result.MessageType == WebSocketMessageType.Close)
{
await webSocket.CloseAsync(WebSocketCloseStatus.NormalClosure, string.Empty, CancellationToken.None);
}
else
{
if (result.EndOfMessage)
{
message += encoder.GetString(buffer.ToArray());
SendMessage(message);
}
else
{
message += encoder.GetString(buffer.ToArray());
}
}
}
}
private static void LogStatus(bool receiving, byte[] buffer, int length, string assunto)
{
lock (consoleLock)
{
Console.ForegroundColor = receiving ? ConsoleColor.Green : ConsoleColor.Yellow;
if (verbose)
{
Console.WriteLine(encoder.GetString(buffer) + " " + assunto);
}
Console.ResetColor();
}
}
private static void SendMessage(string message)
{
message = message.Replace("event", "evento");
message = message.Replace("\0", "");
JavaScriptSerializer js = new JavaScriptSerializer();
RootObject mess = js.Deserialize<RootObject>(message);
if (mess.data.Informacoes[1] != "")
{
mess.data.Informacoes[1] += "<br>";
}
if (alerta == null)
{
alerta = mess;
}
else
{
if ((mess.data.Quantidade[0] != 0) && (mess.data.Quantidade == null))
{
if ((mess.data.Quantidade[0] == -1) && (mess.data.Informacoes[0] == ""))
{
alerta = null;
}
else
{
alerta = mess;
}
}
else if (mess.data.Quantidade[0] == 0)
{
alerta = null;
}
if ((mess.data.Quantidade[1] != 0) && (mess.data.Informacoes[1] != ""))
{
alerta = mess;
}
}
new ShowMessage().setAlerta(alerta);
message = "";
}
}
}

refreshing UI elements in work threads

Question 1: I want to refresh a label by a work thread by delegate and invoke. It works well until i try to close the form. In closing event, I stop the work thread and then the UI thread while an exception occurs(Object disposed exception). It seems that form1 is disposed. I don't know what's wrong.
Question 2: When running this code, the memory usage keep increasing. I don't think it should take so much memory space. You can see find this by checking the task manager.
here's my code:
(.Net Framework 4, winforms)
Scheduler:
class Scheduler
{
private Thread[] workThreads = null;
//Scheduler started flag
public static bool bSchedulerStarted = false;
//Work threads stop event
public static EventWaitHandle stopWaitHandle = new EventWaitHandle(false, EventResetMode.ManualReset);
private static Scheduler self = null;
public static Scheduler getInstance()
{
if (self == null)
{
self = new Scheduler();
}
return self;
}
private Scheduler()
{
workThreads = new Thread[1];
}
private void CreateThread()
{
workThreads[0] = new Thread(Worker.doWork);
workThreads[0].IsBackground = true;
}
public void startUp()
{
if (!bSchedulerStarted)
{
stopWaitHandle.Reset();
CreateThread();
//Start all work threads
for (int i = 0; i < 1; i++)
{
workThreads[i].Start();
}
bSchedulerStarted = true;
}
}
public void stop()
{
if (!bSchedulerStarted)
return;
//Send stop event
stopWaitHandle.Set();
bSchedulerStarted = false;
if (workThreads != null)
{
//wait for all work threads to stop
for (int i = 0; i <1; i++)
{
if (workThreads[i] != null && workThreads[i].IsAlive)
workThreads[i].Join();
}
}
}
}
Worker:
class Worker
{
public static void doWork()
{
while (true)
{
if (Scheduler.stopWaitHandle.WaitOne(10, false) == true)
{
break;
}
Form1.count++;
Form1.sysMsgEvent.Set();
Thread.Sleep(10);
}
}
}
And form:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public static int count = 0;
public static EventWaitHandle sysMsgEvent = new EventWaitHandle(false, EventResetMode.AutoReset);
public static EventWaitHandle stopEvent = new EventWaitHandle(false, EventResetMode.ManualReset);
private EventWaitHandle[] waitEvent = null;
Thread UIThread = null;
private delegate void ShowMsg();
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
waitEvent = new EventWaitHandle[2];
waitEvent[0] = stopEvent;
waitEvent[1] = sysMsgEvent;
}
public void UpdateUI()
{
while (true)
{
switch (EventWaitHandle.WaitAny(waitEvent))
{
case 0: //Stop UI thread
return;
case 1: //Refresh UI elements
updateLabel();
break;
default:
return;
}//switch
}//while
}
private void updateLabel()
{
if (label1.InvokeRequired)
{
ShowMsg d = new ShowMsg(updateLabel);
this.Invoke(d, null);
}
else
{
label1.Text = count.ToString();
}
}
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
UIThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(UpdateUI));
UIThread.Start();
Scheduler sc = Scheduler.getInstance();
sc.startUp();
}
private void Form1_FormClosing(object sender, FormClosingEventArgs e)
{
Scheduler sc = Scheduler.getInstance();
sc.stop();
//stop UI thread
Form1.stopEvent.Set();
}
}

Async Tasks Pause Resume of Loop [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
A pattern to pause/resume an async task?
(5 answers)
Closed 5 years ago.
I have a sample code, taken from MSDN, to which I would like implement the Pause / Resume functionality within while loop. Could anybody propose a solution / parern which would hande this?
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);
}
}

There is an MSDN article that solves this using a PauseToken (similar to a CancellationToken).
Here's the sample code from that article that demonstrates this concept:
namespace PauseTokenTestApp
{
public class PauseTokenSource
{
private volatile TaskCompletionSource<bool> m_paused;
internal static readonly Task s_completedTask = Task.FromResult(true);
public bool IsPaused
{
get { return m_paused != null; }
set
{
if (value)
{
Interlocked.CompareExchange(
ref m_paused, new TaskCompletionSource<bool>(), null);
}
else
{
while (true)
{
var tcs = m_paused;
if (tcs == null) return;
if (Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref m_paused, null, tcs) == tcs)
{
tcs.SetResult(true);
break;
}
}
}
}
}
public PauseToken Token { get { return new PauseToken(this); } }
internal Task WaitWhilePausedAsync()
{
var cur = m_paused;
return cur != null ? cur.Task : s_completedTask;
}
}
public struct PauseToken
{
private readonly PauseTokenSource m_source;
internal PauseToken(PauseTokenSource source) { m_source = source; }
public bool IsPaused { get { return m_source != null && m_source.IsPaused; } }
public Task WaitWhilePausedAsync()
{
return IsPaused ?
m_source.WaitWhilePausedAsync() :
PauseTokenSource.s_completedTask;
}
}
class Program
{
static void Main()
{
var pts = new PauseTokenSource();
Task.Run(() =>
{
while (true)
{
Console.ReadLine();
pts.IsPaused = !pts.IsPaused;
}
});
SomeMethodAsync(pts.Token).Wait();
}
public static async Task SomeMethodAsync(PauseToken pause)
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine(i);
await Task.Delay(100);
await pause.WaitWhilePausedAsync();
}
}
}
}

Processing received UDP data in another thread in C#

I have a class which contains a method for receiving UDP data in a separate thread. I do this to avoid the main application (which is running in Unity3D) from stalling.
I need to pass the data that is received in the separate thread to another class, which runs on the original thread and, as such, is able to interact with Unity3D.
Here is roughly what the UDPReceiver looks like:
public class UDPReciever {
//...
public UDPReciever() {
m_Port = 12345;
m_Worker = new Thread(new ThreadStart(recvData));
m_Worker.IsBackground = true;
m_Worker.Start();
}
void recvData() {
m_UDPClient = new UdpClient(m_Port);
while (true) {
try {
IPEndPoint anyIP = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 0);
byte[] data = (m_UDPClient.Receive(ref anyIP));
// TODO: Hand 'data' to NetworkController class (running in the original thread) for processing
} catch (Exception err) {
print(err.ToString());
}
}
}
}
This is roughly what the NetworkController class needs to look like. Ideally the "OnNewData" method would be called every time a new packet is received with the data passed as an argument.
public class NetworkController {
//...
void OnNewData(pData) {
// Process the data in this thread
}
}
How would I go about achieving this? Thanks in advance.

Here is how it could be done (not tested):
public class Dispatcher : MonoBehaviour
{
private static readonly BlockingCollection<Action> tasks = new BlockingCollection<Action>();
public static Dispatcher Instance = null;
static Dispatcher()
{
Instance = new Dispatcher();
}
private Dispatcher()
{
}
public void InvokeLater(Action task)
{
tasks.Add(task);
}
void FixedUpdate()
{
if (tasks.Count > 0)
{
foreach (Action task in tasks.GetConsumingEnumerable())
{
task();
}
}
}
}
...
NetworkController networkControllerInstance;
void recvData()
{
m_UDPClient = new UdpClient(m_Port);
while (true)
{
try
{
IPEndPoint anyIP = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, 0);
byte[] data = (m_UDPClient.Receive(ref anyIP));
Dispatcher.Instance.InvokeLater(() => networkControllerInstance.OnNewData(data));
}
catch (Exception err)
{
print(err.ToString());
}
}
}
EDIT:
A version that should be compliant with .Net 3.5:
public class Dispatcher : MonoBehaviour
{
private static readonly Queue<Action> tasks = new Queue<Action>();
public static Dispatcher Instance = null;
static Dispatcher()
{
Instance = new Dispatcher();
}
private Dispatcher()
{
}
public void InvokeLater(Action task)
{
lock (tasks)
{
tasks.Enqueue(task);
}
}
void FixedUpdate()
{
while (tasks.Count > 0)
{
Action task = null;
lock (tasks)
{
if (tasks.Count > 0)
{
task = tasks.Dequeue();
}
}
task();
}
}
}
EDIT 2:
if you want to avoid freezing the main thread during a too long period:
void FixedUpdate()
{
if (tasks.Count != 0)
{
Action task = null;
lock (tasks)
{
if (tasks.Count != 0)
{
task = tasks.Dequeue();
}
}
task();
}
}

Frequent lag spikes in multi-threaded code

I'm attempting to make my simple C# graphics library multi-threaded. However, after the introduction of this code:
/* foreach (IAffector affector in affectorLookup.Values)
affector.Update(timestep); */
taskManager.Value = timestep; taskManager.Start();
foreach (IAffector affector in affectorLookup.Values)
taskManager.AddToQueue(affector.Update);
taskManager.StopWhenDone();
taskManager.Wait();
the simulation starts experiencing sharp lag-spikes, which seem to originate in TaskHandler.Run (I can't tell for sure, because adding the previous code makes my code profiler ignore anything outside TaskHandler.Run).
The task manager:
public class TaskManager
{
public delegate void MethodDel(float timestep);
private Queue<MethodDel> queue;
private List<TaskHandler> handlers;
private float value;
public float Value
{
get
{
return value;
}
set
{
this.value = value;
}
}
public TaskManager()
{
this.queue = new Queue<MethodDel>();
this.handlers = new List<TaskHandler>(System.Environment.ProcessorCount);
for (int t = 0; t < this.handlers.Capacity; ++t)
this.handlers.Add(new TaskHandler(this));
this.value = 0;
}
public void Start()
{
foreach (var handler in handlers)
handler.Start();
}
public void Stop()
{
lock (queue)
queue.Clear();
foreach (var handler in handlers)
handler.StopWhenDone();
}
public void StopWhenDone()
{
foreach (var handler in handlers)
handler.StopWhenDone();
}
public void AddToQueue(MethodDel method)
{
lock (queue)
queue.Enqueue(method);
}
public bool GetFromQueue(out MethodDel method)
{
lock (queue)
{
if (queue.Count == 0) { method = null; return false; }
method = queue.Dequeue();
return true;
}
}
public int GetQueueCount()
{
return queue.Count;
}
internal void Wait()
{
// Have to wait for them one at a time because the main thread is STA.
WaitHandle[] waitHandles = new WaitHandle[1];
// for (int t = 0; t < handlers.Count; ++t)
// waitHandles[t] = handlers[t].WaitHandle;
// WaitHandle.WaitAll(waitHandles);
for (int t = 0; t < handlers.Count; ++t)
{ waitHandles[0] = handlers[t].WaitHandle; WaitHandle.WaitAll(waitHandles); }
}
}
And the task handler:
public class TaskHandler
{
private TaskManager manager;
private Thread thread;
private bool stopWhenDone;
private ManualResetEvent waitHandle;
public ManualResetEvent WaitHandle
{
get
{
return waitHandle;
}
}
public TaskHandler(TaskManager manager)
{
this.manager = manager;
}
public void Start()
{
waitHandle = new ManualResetEvent(false);
stopWhenDone = false;
thread = new Thread(Run);
thread.IsBackground = true;
thread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.MTA);
thread.Start();
}
public void StopWhenDone()
{
this.stopWhenDone = true;
}
// Possible source of slowdown
private void Run()
{
TaskManager.MethodDel curMethod;
while (!stopWhenDone || manager.GetQueueCount() > 0)
{
if (manager.GetFromQueue(out curMethod))
{
curMethod(manager.Value);
}
}
waitHandle.Set();
}
}

Starting a thread is a heavy operation. Not sure if it's as heavy as you are experiencing, but that could be it. Also, having all your processing run parallel can be putting a big strain on your system with possibly little benefit...

I'm going to venture that the spikes have something to do with waitHandle.Set();
I like the overall design, but I have not used WaitHandle before, so I am unsure how this interacts with your design.