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C# Threading still make UI unresponsive

Well , I have a form1 which has buttons and if you click one of its button
It would load the UserControl into panel in form1
That usercontrol1 contains a lot of data like Database,charts and picture boxes too. So it would definitely make the User Interface unresponsive while loading.
So I read some article and I found out that I need to run it through another thread so I tried it and it just increase the performance by a little bit.
The usercontrol1 still make the GUI unresponsive for about 3-5 sec and what if my data become larger.
I want to make it responsive and show to user that still loading by running the animated picturebox and stop if its finish loading
here is my code:
private void click_dashb_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ParameterizedThreadStart pts = new ParameterizedThreadStart(load_UserControl);
Thread t = new Thread(pts);
t.Start();
//Animated Picturebox to show user that UI is loading
pictureBox1.Enabled = true;
hover.Location = new Point(42, 130);
}
private void load_UserControl(object state)
{
Invoke(new Action(() =>
{
//load user control through another thread
while (panel1.Controls.Count > 0)
panel1.Controls[0].Dispose();
Home frm = new Home();
frm.AutoScroll = true;
panel1.Controls.Add(frm);
frm.Show();
}));
//Stop the animated GIF means the load is finish!
pictureBox1.Enabled = false;
}
If you help me about this problem. I might apply it to all of my works. because most of it contains large data.
Thanks stackoverflow community :)
EDIT:
After reading the comments suggesting to use Background worker . I tried to use it. but still getting a little bit unresponsiveness
Here's the new code:
private void click_dashb_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
bgw.RunWorkerAsync();
}
private void bgw_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
try
{
BeginInvoke((MethodInvoker)delegate
{
while (panel1.Controls.Count > 0)
panel1.Controls[0].Dispose();
Home frm = new Home();
frm.AutoScroll = true;
panel1.Controls.Add(frm);
frm.Show();
});
}
catch (Exception x)
{
MessageBox.Show("An error occured while performing operation" + x);
}
}
private void bgw_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
}
private void bgw_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Cancelled)
{
MessageBox.Show("Operation Cancelled");
}
else
{
MessageBox.Show("Operation Completed");
}
}
It's a little bit better but i still got a little unresponsiveness. Can you check out my code and what's wrong with this.?
thanks again

The problem with your code is that although you run the load_UserControl code in a new thread, that code calls Invoke which effectively makes al the code run on the UI thread again. I can image you did that because accessing Forms and PictureBoxes requires running on the UI thread.
The solution (in general) is to do non-UI work on a seperate thread and then switch back to the UI thread to update the visual controls.
To do this, you can conveniently use the BackgroundWorker class. In the DoWork event handler you do the heavy computation, in the RunWorkerCompleted event handler you update the controls. If you want, you can even update some controls (like a progressbar) during the work by means of the ProgressChanged event handler.

Well, just starting a new thread doesn't make the UI responsive by definition. You need to make the thread so that it actually does stuff in parallel.
Your thread does not, as it basically executes all code in this.Invoke.
That being said: Your code needs to be executed in this.Invoke, as almost everything you do needs to be done on the UI thread.
So in your case, there's really no point in parallelizing stuff, as there's no way to do what you want to do without blocking the UI thread and no technique I know of (Threads, Tasks, BackgroundWorker, etc.) will solve this problem.

thread call fires inconsistently

I am a beginner in high level programming languages. I am trying to make an WForms app for a serial port , im using VS 2010 C#
I get the following error:
Cross-thread operation not valid: Control 'rtxtDataArea' accessed from a thread other than the thread it was created on.
This happens here:
private void ComPort_DataReceived_1(object sender, SerialDataReceivedEventArgs e)
{
recievedData = ComPort.ReadExisting(); //read all available data in the receiving buffer.
// Show in the terminal window
rtxtDataArea.ForeColor = Color.Green; // error ,
rtxtDataArea.AppendText(recievedData + "\n");
}
I have tried to change the color of a textbox when I receive some data.
It fires that cross thread error.
The question is why it does not fire the same error here, when I try to change the color of a label?
private void btnConnect_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (ComPort.IsOpen)
{
disconnect();
}
else
{
connect();
rdText.ForeColor = Color.Blue;//ok, it works
}
}
; this works ; the first does not.
Why? Is not the ComPort_DataReceived_1 the same nature as btnConnect_Click ?
Or what is the reason?
I have read a lot about threads, but I understood nothing I can use, Can someone give an intuitive explanation ?

In winforms there is only one thread that may change anything on the UI like enable buttons, change text boxes, etc. Usually this is the UI thread. Quite often this is the only thread you have.
However, if you start a new thread, this thread might want to change the UI. This happens especially if this new thread fires an event that is received by your form.
Whenever you see the message accessed from a thread other than the thread it was created on, you can be almost certain this is the case.
The most easy solution to solve this is using the functions Control.IsInvokeRequired and Control.Invoke. The pattern to do this is as follows. The following function updates myButton on myForm
private void UpdateMyButton (MyType myParameter)
{
if (myButton.InvokeRequired)
{ // this is not the thread that created the button to update
this.Invoke(new MethodInvoker( () => this.UpdateMyButton(myParameter)));
// this will let the UI thread call this function with the same parameter.
}
else
{ // Now called by the UI thread: this thread may change myButton
myButton.Enabled = myParameter.ShouldButtonEnable;
myButton.Text = myParameter.ButtonText;
}
}
By the way, if you have to update several controls on your form you ought to check InvokeRequired for each of these controls. However, since they are usually created by the same UI thread it is sufficient to check for this.InvokeRequired.
Control.Invoke returns after the invoke is completed, so after all items are updated. Upon return of Invoke you can use the result of UpdateMyButton.
If you don't want your non-ui thread to wait for completion of UpdateMyButton, consider the use of Control.BeginInvoke: "hey UI thread, whenever you've got time, can you UpdateMyButton for me. Of course in that case you can't use the results of UpdateMyButton

Because "DataReceived" runs on another thread and not UI thread. You must use Invoke for that :
private void ComPort_DataReceived_1(object sender, SerialDataReceivedEventArgs e)
{
recievedData = ComPort.ReadExisting(); //read all available data in the receiving buffer.
if (InvokeRequired)
{
// If not on UI thread, then invoke
Invoke(new MethodInvoker(() =>
{
// Show in the terminal window
rtxtDataArea.ForeColor = Color.Green; // error ,
rtxtDataArea.AppendText(recievedData + "\n");
}));
}
else
{
// On UI thread, invoke not needed
// Show in the terminal window
rtxtDataArea.ForeColor = Color.Green; // error ,
rtxtDataArea.AppendText(recievedData + "\n");
}
}

How to safely show messagebox in multi-thread application?

I have something doing background and I want to show a messagebox if something wrong happens.
First I tried
var _timer = new System.Threading.Timer((o) =>
{
if(!DoCheck()){
Messagebox.Show("The message");
}
});
Nothing wrong happens.
And I have another job to be done in background, and it's invoked by button click, like
private void button3_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var task = new Task(() =>
{
DoWork();
Messagebox.Show("Done");
});
_task.Start();
}
A System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException is thrown when the MessageBox is shown.
I have also tried this.Invoke, it raised an exception, too.
My question is:
Is the first case safe?
How to make the second case work?

No. You should preferably be using System.Windows.Forms.Timer in a WinForms application. The documentation specifically calls this out:
This Windows timer is designed for a single-threaded environment where UI threads are used to perform processing. It requires that the user code have a UI message pump available and always operate from the same thread, or marshal the call onto another thread.
Furthermore, it depends on what your DoCheck method is doing. We will need to see the code of that method.
Use the BeginInvoke method:
var form = this;
var task = new Task(() =>
{
DoWork();
form.BeginInvoke(() =>
{
MessageBox.Show("Done");
});
});

This BackgroundWorker is currently busy and cannot run multiple tasks concurrently

I'm trying to use a Background Worker in a WPF application. The heavy lifting task uses WebClient to download some HTML and parse some info out of it. Ideally I want to do that downloading and parsing without locking the UI and placing the results in the UI once it's done working.
And it works fine, however, if I quickly submit the "download and parse" command, I get the error:
This BackgroundWorker is currently busy and cannot run multiple tasks
concurrently
So I did some Googling and it seems that I can enable the .WorkerSupportsCancellation property of the background worker and just .CancelAsync(). However, this doesn't work as expected (canceling the current download and parse).
I still get the above error.
Here's my code:
//In window constructor.
_backgroundWorker.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
_backgroundWorker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(_backgroundWorker_DoWork);
_backgroundWorker.RunWorkerCompleted += new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(_backgroundWorker_RunWorkerCompleted);
//Declared at class level variable.
BackgroundWorker _backgroundWorker = new BackgroundWorker();
//This is the method I call from my UI.
private void LoadHtmlAndParse(string foobar)
{
//Cancel whatever it is you're doing!
_backgroundWorker.CancelAsync();
//And start doing this immediately!
_backgroundWorker.RunWorkerAsync(foobar);
}
POCOClassFoo foo = new POCOClassFoo();
void _backgroundWorker_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
//This automagically sets the UI to the data.
Foo.DataContext = foo;
}
void _backgroundWorker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
//DOING THE HEAVY LIFTING HERE!
foo = parseanddownloadresult()!
}

Calling CancelAsync will still fire the RunWorkerCompleted event. In this event, you need to make sure that CancelAsync has not been called, by checking e.Cancelled. Until this event fires, you cannot call RunWorkerAsync.
Alternatively, I would recommend you do what Tigran suggested and create a new BackgroundWorker each time.
Further more, I would recommend storing the results of_backgroundWorker_DoWork in e.Result, then retrieve them from the same in _backgroundWorker_RunWorkerCompleted
Maybe something like this
BackgroundWorker _backgroundWorker;
private BackgroundWorker CreateBackgroundWorker()
{
var bw = new BackgroundWorker();
bw.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
bw.DoWork += _backgroundWorker_DoWork;
bw.RunWorkerCompleted += new _backgroundWorker_RunWorkerCompleted;
return bw.
}
private void LoadHtmlAndParse(string foobar)
{
//Cancel whatever it is you're doing!
if (_backgroundWorer != null)
{
_backgroundWorker.CancelAsync();
}
_backgroundWorker = CreateBackgroundWorker();
//And start doing this immediately!
_backgroundWorker.RunWorkerAsync(foobar);
}
//you no longer need this because the value is being stored in e.Result
//POCOClassFoo foo = new POCOClassFoo();
private void _backgroundWorker_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Error != null)
{
//Error handling goes here.
}
else
{
if (e.Cancelled)
{
//handle cancels here.
}
{
//This automagically sets the UI to the data.
Foo.DataContext = (POCOClassFoo)e.Result;
}
}
private void _backgroundWorker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
//DOING THE HEAVY LIFTING HERE!
e.Result = parseanddownloadresult()!
}

The thing is that CancelAsync() does what it climes: cancel in async way. That means that it will not stop immediately, but after some time. That time can never be calculated or predicted, so you have a couple of options:
Wait until this backround worker stops really, by waiting in cycle until IsBusy property of it becomes false
Or, I think, better solution is to start another background worker, considering that request of cancelation was already sent to the first one, so it will be soon or later stop. In this case, you need to know from which background worker data comes, in order to process it or not, cause on start of second the first one will still run and pump the data from WebService.
Hope this helps.

CancelAsync returns before the worker cancels and stops its work. Hence, your RunWorkerAsync call is starting before the worker is ready, and you're getting that error. You'll need to wait for the worker to be ready first.

When I'm not interested in tracking progress of an async operation, I tend to prefer to just slap a lambda at ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem instead of instantiating and setting up a background worker that I have to check the state of to be able to reuse in a sane way.

You need to verify before you kicks in.
f( !bw.IsBusy )
bw.RunWorkerAsync();
else
MessageBox.Show("Can't run the bw twice!");

You are calling CancelAsync without waiting for the background worker to actually cancel the work. Also you must have your own logic for cancelling the work. There is a good example on MSDN which shows how to do it. Basically in your parseanddownloadresult() method you need to check the CancellationPending property.

Cross-thread operation exception when worker thread adds to BindingList

I have a worker thread that needs to add items to a BindingList. However, the BindingList is databound to a DataGridView. So, when I try to add to the list, I get an InvalidOperationException (Cross-thread operation not valid: Control accessed from a thread other than the thread it was created on.)
Normally for this exception you would do:
if(winformControl.InvokeRequired) {
winformControl.Invoke(MethodDelegate);
}
However, the databinding confuses things, as there is no Winform control in sight. All I have is the following line, which throws the exception:
ClassInstance.MyBindingList.Add(myObject);
If you have a solution specifically for this scenario, great.
If not, how can I get the worker thread to tell my main thread to perform a particular method (with several parameters supplied by the worker thread)? This may be a preferable option, since my worker thread is actually doing a bunch of stuff at the moment (like writing to the database), and I'm not sure if everything is thread-safe. I'm a student, and new to multithreading, and it really is not my forte yet.

One option here is to tell BindingList<T> to use the sync-context, like this - however, this is arguably not the best approach. I wonder if you could expose your data via an event or similar (rather than adding to the list directly) - then have your UI handle the event by sending to the right thread and adding to the UI model.

In your worker class constructor, try this:
private System.Threading.SynchronizationContext mContext = null;
/// <summary>
/// Constructor for MyBackgroundWorkerClass
/// </summary>
public MyBackgroundWorkerClass(System.Threading.SynchronizationContext context)
{
mContext = context;
}
Then, when you need to invoke something on the UI thread:
private void CallOnTheUiThread(object dataToPassToUiThread)
{
// Make sure the code is run on the provided thread context.
// Make the calling thread wait for completion by calling Send, not Post.
mContext.Send(state =>
{
// Change your UI here using dataToPassToUiThread.
// Since this class is not on a form, you probably would
// raise an event with the data.
}
), null);
}
When creating your worker class from a form on the UI thread, this is what you would pass as the synchronization context.
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var worker = new MyBackgroundWorkerClass(SynchronizationContext.Current);
}

You can fire an event to the main, UI, thread and there have:
if (this.InvokeRequired)
{
this.Invoke(...);
}
so you are testing on the main Window itself.

BackgroundWorkers are easy to implement if you are able to given the requirements.
Define a DoWork method that runs on a background thread such as saves to the database. The RunWorkerCompleted method is called when DoWork finishes. RunWorkerCompleted runs on the UI thread, and you can update the view's list with no problems.
// on the UI thread
BackgroundWorker worker = new BackgroundWorker();
worker.DoWork += DoWork;
worker.RunWorkerCompleted += RunWorkerCompleted;
worker.RunWorkerAsync("argument");
Events:
static void DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
e.Result = "4";
}
static void RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Error == null)
{
string a = (string)e.Result;
Console.WriteLine(a);
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine(e.Error.Message);
}
}