Does it right code, if I update my UI controls in task like this?
Or it's wrong, and I need use smth like Control.Invoke?
private async void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
textBox1.Text = await Task<string>.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{
Foo();
return "Completed";
});
}
private void Foo()
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
textBox1.Text = i.ToString();
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}
The BCL addresses this specific scenario with the IProgress interface, implemented in the Progress class, to provide rich asynchronous progress reporting. This is available in .NET 4.5, or .NET 4 with the BCL Portability Nuget package. A lot of BCL classes accept an IProgress parameter for progress reporting.
Servy's answer addresses the immediate problem of how to update the UI after an asynchronous operation, but that forces you to mix UI code inside the long running operation. IProgress allows you to make an OnReport call with your report data without any concerns about marshalling the call to the proper thread, synchronization contexts, UI specific calls etc.
Your code can be as simple as this:
private async void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var progress=new Progress<string>(msg=>textBox1.Text = msg);
await Task<string>.Factory.StartNew(() => Foo(progress));
}
private void Foo(IProgress<string> progress)
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
progress.OnReport(i.ToString());
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
progress.OnReport("Finished");
}
Or you can use a more complex progress type, eg
class MyProgressData
{
public string Message{get;set;}
public int Iteration {get;set;}
public MyProgressData(string message,int iteration) ...
}
private async void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var progress=new Progress<MyProgressData>(msg=>{
textBox1.Text = msg.Message;
textBox2.Text=msg.Iteration.ToString();
});
await Task<string>.Factory.StartNew(() => Foo(progress));
}
private void Foo(IProgress<MyProgressData> progress)
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
progress.OnReport(new MyProgressData("Hi",i));
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
progress.OnReport("Finished");
}
The beauty of this is that you can completely decouple processing from reporting. You can put the processing code in a completely different class or even project from your UI.
You can just run the code to see that it won't work, and that your program will crash, as you are touching the UI from a non-UI thread.
You should instead update the UI as a continuation to the task that is scheduled to run in the UI thread. await does all of this for you, making the code pretty trivial.
You also shouldn't create a thread pool thread just to have it sit there and do nothing while you sleep for a fixed amount of time. Use Task.Delay instead.
private async void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
textBox1.Text = i.ToString();
await Task.Delay(1000);
}
textBox1.Text = "Completed";
}
Your Foo method will throw, since you're trying to update a UI control from a background thread.
If Foo did something arbitrary, which doesn't evolve any UI controls, then your textBox1.Text = await Task.Factory.StartNew would be fine, since you use await and the SynchronizationContext would be implicitly captured and used once the await completes, which would make the assignment on the UI thread.
This doesn't make too much sense, but if you wanted to update a control from inside the Task, you'd have to use Control.Invoke.
Related
I am trying to create a way to queue up Tasks to run, so I have tried to implement it using a BlockingCollection. The problem I find is whenever I try to add the Task, the Task executes. Sample code as below:
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
textBox2.Clear();
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
_processCollection.Add(BigTask(i));
}
static BlockingCollection<Task> _processCollection = new BlockingCollection<Task>();
Thread ConsumerThread = new Thread(LaunchConsumer);
private static async void LaunchConsumer()
{
while (true)
{
var processTask = _processCollection.Take();
await Task.Run(() => processTask);
}
}
async Task BigTask(int i)
{
await Task.Delay(5000);
textBox2.AppendText($"Text{i}\n");
}
What seems to happen in debug is all the tasks seem to run as they are added into the blocking collection. I tried switching the blocking collection to use Action, but that just leads to nothing happening. As below (only changes shown):
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
textBox2.Clear();
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
int iC = i;
_processCollection.Add(async () => await BigTask(iC));
}
}
static BlockingCollection<Action> _processCollection = new BlockingCollection<Action>();
Thread ConsumerThread = new Thread(LaunchConsumer);
private static async void LaunchConsumer()
{
while (true)
{
var processTask = _processCollection.Take();
await Task.Run(processTask);
}
}
I feel like I have made some small error somewhere, because it feels like this should work. I have tried to find someone doing something similar but have had no luck, which makes me think maybe my concept is flawed so feel free to suggest an alternative.
_processCollection.Add(BigTask(i)); doesn't work because this calls BigTask(i) immediately, and when that is called, the work starts.
You were on the right track by wrapping this in a separate BigTask launcher, but by using Action, you don't provide your LaunchConsumer with any means to track the progress. await Task.Run(processTask) will continue pretty much immediately with the next task. You need to use Func<Task> to avoid that.
The reason you don't see any results is likely unrelated. Now that you manage to launch the task from your newly created thread, the call to textBox2.AppendText is no longer done from the UI thread. That's not supported. Only the UI thread can access UI objects. You can use textBox2.Invoke to pass an action back to the UI thread, and that action can then call AppendText.
Tested working code:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
ConsumerThread.Start();
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
textBox2.Clear();
foreach (var i in Enumerable.Range(0, 10))
_processCollection.Add(() => BigTask(i));
}
static BlockingCollection<Func<Task>> _processCollection = new BlockingCollection<Func<Task>>();
Thread ConsumerThread = new Thread(LaunchConsumer);
private static async void LaunchConsumer()
{
while (true)
{
var processTask = _processCollection.Take();
await Task.Run(processTask);
}
}
async Task BigTask(int i)
{
await Task.Delay(5000);
textBox2.Invoke(new Action(() => textBox2.AppendText($"Text{i}\n")));
}
}
That said, BlockingCollection is not really the best collection type to use here. It dedicates one thread to pretty much nothing but waiting. Also, Task.Run when you're already in a background thread can admittedly sometimes be useful, but doesn't add anything here. What to do instead depends on your needs. Whether all tasks are known beforehand makes a difference. Whether you may want multiple consumers makes a difference. Other things I haven't thought of may also make a difference.
Here's a simplified version of what I want to do:
onClick a button, a aNewMethod() would run asynchronously to keep UI responsive. That's it!
I've read some answers and here's what i could come up with :
private async void button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
Task task = Task.Run(() => aNewMethod());
await task;
}
private void aNewMethod()
{
if (progress.Value == 0)
{
//Heavy work
for (int i = 1; i < 1000000000; i++) { }
progress.Value = 100;
}
}
As you may have thought, this throws a System.InvalidOperationException at if(progress.Value== 0) saying :
The calling thread cannot access this object because a different
thread owns it.
after some Googling, I've read that I need a Dispatcher.BeginInvoke() method to update/use UI controls, so I did this :
private void aNewMethod()
{
Dispatcher.BeginInvoke((Action)delegate {
if (progress.Value == 0)
{
//Heavy work
for (int i = 1; i < 1000000000; i++) { }
progress.Value = 100;
}
});
}
This solved the System.InvalidOperationException but it's not running asynchronously as the UI still freezes at for loop
So the question is : How to run the aNewMethod(); asynchronously and still update and interact with UI controls ?
The Dispatcher runs in the UI thread. It handles your UI, and executes actions you pass to it via BeginInvoke etc.
But it can only handle one thing at a time; when it's busy handling your action, it won't update the UI in the meantime, so the UI freezes in the meantime.
If you want to keep your UI responsive, you'd need to run the heavy load functions in a seperate, non-UI thread. Within those functions running on another thread, you can call the dispatcher whenever you need access to the UI - ideally, only very briefly for the purpose of updating UI elements.
So in other words, you'd want to be running your sleep function in a seperate thread, and then just make a call to the Dispatcher from your own thread when you need to set the progress value. Something like
private void button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
Task task = Task.Run(() => aNewMethod()); // will call aNewMethod on the thread pool
}
private void aNewMethod()
{
double progressValue = 0;
Dispatcher.Invoke(() => progressValue = progress.Value);
if (progressValue == 0)
{
Thread.Sleep(3000); // still executes on the threadpool (see above), so not blocking UI
Dispatcher.Invoke(() => progress.Value = 100 ); // call the dispatcher to access UI
}
}
With you current implementation, there is no need to use Thread.Start, as in that method you are just sleeping it for some time and accessing UI thread objects there which is not allowed
.In your scenario a better way of doing is that you should not use Thread.Sleep instead of that you should be doing it with Task.Delay like:
private async void button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
if (progress.Value == 0)
{
await Task.Delay(3000);
progress.Value = 100;
}
}
Now you don't need Dispatcher.Invoke, and credit goes to async and await keywords as statements after await will be executing in the same calling synchronization context from where we did async call which is UI thread in this case.
onClick a button, a aNewMethod() would run asynchronously to keep UI responsive.
Actually, it's running synchronously on a background thread. Task.Run is perfectly appropriate for this.
after some Googling, I've read that I need a Dispatcher.BeginInvoke() method to update/use UI controls
Unfortunately, this is one area where Google will certainly mislead you. Dispatcher is not the best solution here.
Instead, you should use IProgress<T>/Progress<T>, as such:
private async void button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var progress = new Progress<int>(value => { this.progress.Value = value; });
await Task.Run(() => aNewMethod(progress));
}
private void aNewMethod(IProgress<int> progress)
{
//Heavy work
for (int i = 1; i < 1000000000; i++) { }
progress.Report(100);
}
I'm having some trouble making the progress bar show the updates in real time.
This is my code right now
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
progressbar1.Value = i;
Thread.Sleep(100);
}
But for some reason the progress bar shows empty when the function runs, and then nothing until the function finishes running. Can someone explain to me how this can be done? I'm new to C#/WPF so I'm not 100% sure on how I would implement a Dispatcher on a different thread (as seen on some other posts) to fix this problem.
To clarify, my program has a button which when press, grabs the value from a textbox, and uses an API to retrieve info, and create labels based on it. I want the progress bar to update after every row of data is finished processing.
This is what I have right now:
private async void search(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var progress = new Progress<int>(value => progressbar1.Value = value);
await Task.Run(() =>
{
this.Dispatcher.Invoke((Action)(() =>
{
some pre-processing before the actual for loop occur
for (int i = 0; i < numberofRows; i++)
{
label creation + adding
((IProgress<int>)progress).Report(i);
}
}));
});
}
Thank you!
If you are using .NET 4.5 or later, you can use async/await:
var progress = new Progress<int>(value => progressBar.Value = value);
await Task.Run(() =>
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
((IProgress<int>)progress).Report(i);
Thread.Sleep(100);
}
});
You need to mark your method with async keyword to be able to use await, for example:
private async void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
Managed to make it work. All I needed to do is instead of making it just
progressBar1.value = i;
I just had to do
progressbar1.Dispatcher.Invoke(() => progressbar1.Value = i, DispatcherPriority.Background);
You should use BackgroundWorker included in .NET, which provides you with methods for reporting the progress of a background thread in an event. The thread which created the BackGroundWorker automatically calls this event.
The BackgroundWorker.ProgressChanged can be used to report the progress of an asynchronous operation to the user.
// This event handler updates the progress bar.
private void backgroundWorker1_ProgressChanged(object sender,
ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
this.progressBar1.Value = e.ProgressPercentage;
}
Refer to MSDN for more information about using this.
I try to experiment with Thread.Sleep(). I created basic Windows Forms application with one button.
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Thread thread1 = new Thread(DoStuff);
thread1.Start();
for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
{
Thread.Sleep(500);
button1.Text +=".";
}
}
public void DoStuff()
{
//DoStuff
}
When I click my button the DoStuff method works fine, but the GUI freezes and nothing happens. Can someone explain me why?
Thread.Sleep just sleeps the current thread (i.e. stops it from doing anything, such as redrawing, processing clicks etc), which in your case is the UI thread. If you put the Sleep in DoStuff you wouldn't experience the block as you'd be on a separate thread although you wouldn't be able to update button1. Depending on the version of .NET you're using consider using the Task Parallel Library, something like this:
private TaskScheduler _uiScheduler;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
_uiScheduler = TaskScheduler.FromCurrentSynchronizationContext();
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Thread thread1 = new Thread(DoStuff);
thread1.Start();
// Create a task on a new thread.
Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
{
Thread.Sleep(500);
// Create a new task on the UI thread to update the button
Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{ button1.Text += "."; }, CancellationToken.None, TaskCreationOptions.None, _uiScheduler);
}
});
}
To keep the UI active, you need for the main UI thread to service its message pump. It can only do that when it is not handling UI events. In your case the function
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Thread thread1 = new Thread(DoStuff);
thread1.Start();
for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
{
Thread.Sleep(500);
button1.Text +=".";
}
}
does not return for around 100000*500 milliseconds. While this event handler is executing, the UI thread is busy. It is executing this event handler. As such it is not able to service the message pump. Hence your application's UI freezes.
For that you better use a Timer but if you want your current code to work you need to add Application.DoEvents(); after you update the button.Label += "."
If you're new to multithreading, I strongly encourage you to look at the Task Parallel Library (TPL). It simplifies threading, and gives you tools to help guarantee callback (continuation) threads occur on the UI thread.
The TPL is in the System.Threading.Tasks namespace.
Update: just seen your comment about .Net v2. TPL was introduced in .NET v3.5 or possibly as late as v4.
EDIT: After programming for a few more years, I now know how terrible of a practice this is. DO NOT DO ANYTHING I SUGGESTED BELOW. It's all crap. A more proper solution would be doing all of your intensive methods async all together. Regardless, don't do what I mention below.
All The methods above do work however, I do recommend just using an async void.
Sleep() just pauses the current thread for int amount of milliseconds, and if your whole program runs off of 1 thread, it'll pause the whole program. Don't quote me on this, I do believe that async creates a new thread specifically for that function.
Below I've included a better sleep function.
To call the function asleep(milliseconds),
replace "milliseconds" with how many milliseconds you wish to sleep for.
Function Code:
public async void asleep(int time){
await Task.Delay(time)
}
Re-arrange code as following
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Thread thread1 = new Thread(DoStuff);
thread1.Start();
}
public void DoStuff()
{
for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
{
Thread.Sleep(500);
//Invoke goes here
}
}
Now you run your WORK in a separate thread and release your UI thread for usual work (Drawing related or other work)
NOTE - Now you will need Invoke methods to change Button text , else you will get warning for "Cross-thread operation not valid"
More on Invokes - How to update the GUI from another thread in C#?
I do some tests with the new asynchronous pattern of C# 5.0 (async/await) I have a problem with understanding how the asynchronous methods are called.
Considering this code :
private async Task<string> DownloadAsync()
{
progress.ProgressChanged += (s, e) =>
{
progressBar1.Value = e.value;
};
return await DownloadSomething(myurl, progress);
}
private async void CallDownloadAsync()
{
string text = await DownloadAsync();
progressBar1.Value = 0;
label1.Text = "Done!";
}
private void button4_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
CallDownloadAsync();
}
So, this code works very well. When I clic the "button4" a downloading task begins and my ProgressBar is updated correctly.
But, I'd like to compact my code a little bit more by removing CallDownloadAsync() method like this :
private void button4_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
new Action(async () =>
{
string result = await Task.Run<string>(() => DownloadAsync());
}).Invoke();
label1.Text = "Running...";
}
So here, I want to directly initiate an action which calls the DownloadAsync method but when I hit my Button4 I have a Cross-thread operation not valid on the progressBar. So I do not understand what is the main difference between the Action() and the call of my CallDownloadAsync() method.
You may find my async/await intro helpful. In particular, an async method does not run on a background thread; Task.Run is used to run something on a background thread, hence the difference in your code.
In general, you should avoid async void, unless you're writing an async event handler. Like this:
private async void button4_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
label1.Text = "Running...";
string result = await DownloadAsync();
progressBar1.Value = 0;
label1.Text = "Done!";
}
The difference is that in former case you call CallDownloadAsync() from UI thread (context).
In the latter case, DownloadAsync() is called from the initiated Task which is generally executed in a different thread created by TPL (Task Parallel Library) out of UI thread or threads created from it.
In WPF, UI components can be accessed only by a dedicated UI thread or (its children) threads created from under it (i.e with the same UI context).