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How to send information from a class using a backgroundworker, back to the mainform

Hi,
I'm trying to write a UDP-client that listens to a port, and then display the incoming data in a textbox.
I have written a class; UDP_Receive() that starts a backgroundworker that listens to a specified port and receives the data. The code is based on this question; C# .Net receiving UDp packets in separater thread and application exit
I think I have solved the issues with the blocking .receive() by following the accepted answer in this question; How can I safely terminate UdpClient.receive() in case of timeout?
My question is how do I get the data I receive in the backgroundworkerthread (that I created in my class) back to the mainthread, so that I can display it in a textbox?
I thought of using Invoke, but I don't have any references to the textbox in my class.
textBox_UdpPositionInData.Invoke(new EventHandler(delegate
{
textBox_UdpPositionInData.Text = receivedData;
}));
I found a very similar question about a tcp-server, but I can't see how to apply that solution here Send data from a background thread to the main thread
Any thoughts or suggestions are of course much appreciated!
Many Thanks!
internal class UDP_Receive
{
private int _portToListen = 2003;
private volatile bool listening;
BackgroundWorker _backgroundWorker;
//Constructor
public UDP_Receive()
{
Debug.WriteLine("Constructor: UDP_Receive");
this.listening = false;
}
public void StartListener()
{
if ( (_backgroundWorker==null) || (!_backgroundWorker.IsBusy))
{
_backgroundWorker = new BackgroundWorker();
_backgroundWorker.DoWork += listenForUDPPackages_DoWork;
_backgroundWorker.RunWorkerCompleted +=listenForUDPPackages_RunWorkerCompleted;
_backgroundWorker.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
_backgroundWorker.RunWorkerAsync();
Debug.WriteLine("Creates a new thread: " + _backgroundWorker.ToString() );
// We are listening
this.listening = true;
}
}
public void StopListener()
{
// The user cancelled the UDP Port listening
this.listening = false;
// Cancel the backgroundworker
_backgroundWorker.CancelAsync();
// Debug
Debug.WriteLine("Stops current thread: " + _backgroundWorker.ToString());
}
public bool IsListening
{
get { return this.listening; }
}
public int PortToListen
{
get { return this._portToListen; }
set { this._portToListen = value; }
}
private void listenForUDPPackages_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs ev)
{
UdpClient? listener = null;
try
{
listener = new UdpClient(_portToListen);
}
catch (SocketException)
{
//do nothing
}
if (listener != null)
{
IPEndPoint groupEP = new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Any, _portToListen);
try
{
while (this.listening)
{
Debug.WriteLine("Waiting for UDP broadcast to port " + _portToListen);
byte[] receivedBytes = new byte[1024];
string receivedData;
bool timeTracker = TrackFunction(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(2), () =>
{
receivedBytes = listener.Receive(ref groupEP);
});
Debug.WriteLine("Timetracker result: " + timeTracker.ToString());
if (receivedBytes == null || receivedBytes.Length == 0)
{
// We did not recieve any data
Debug.WriteLine("No data received befor Time out ");
}
else
{
// We managed to receive some data!
// No we want to process the data and then send the result to the Thread that initiated the class.
receivedData = Encoding.Default.GetString(receivedBytes);
Debug.WriteLine("Data received: " + receivedData);
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Debug.WriteLine("Exception: " + e.ToString());
}
finally
{
listener.Close();
Debug.WriteLine("Finally: Done listening for UDP broadcast");
}
}
else
{
Debug.WriteLine("Error: UdpClient(_portToListen) returned null");
}
}
private void listenForUDPPackages_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
if (e == null || e.Result == null)
{
Debug.WriteLine("listenForUDPPackages_RunWorkerCompleted e = null");
}
else
{
if (e.Cancelled)
{
Debug.WriteLine("Operation was canceled");
}
else if (e.Error != null)
{
Debug.WriteLine("Error: " + e.Error.Message);
}
else
{
Debug.WriteLine("Result: " + e.Result.ToString());
}
}
}
private static bool TrackFunction(TimeSpan timeSpan, Action codeBlock)
{
try
{
Task task = Task.Factory.StartNew(() => codeBlock());
task.Wait(timeSpan);
return task.IsCompleted;
}
catch (AggregateException ae)
{
throw ae.InnerExceptions[0];
}
}
}

You can write this kind of code to keep the UI separate from the UDP_Receive class:
internal class UDP_Receive
{
private Action<string> _invoke;
public UDP_Receive(Action<string> invoke)
{
_invoke = invoke;
}
public void Foo()
{
_invoke("Hello");
}
}
When you declare the class you then do it like this:
var ur = new UDP_Receive(t => textBox.Invoke(() => textBox.Text = t));
Now it's just a matter of calling ur.Foo() (in my example) to update the UI.

Having issues with modifying TextBox from another class

I'm having an issue where I want to be able to modify a textbox from another class.
I've tried searching and testing solutions, none seemed to do the job. (Invoking for an example..)
Code from class cThread:
class cThread
{
public bool closed = false;
private TcpClient client;
private StreamReader ins;
private StreamWriter ots;
Form1 meow = new Form1();
public cThread(TcpClient client, StreamReader ins, StreamWriter ots)
{
this.client = client;
this.ins = ins;
this.ots = ots;
}
public void run()
{
try
{
string responseLine;
responseLine = meow.bunifuCustomTextbox2.Text;
while ((responseLine = ins.ReadLine()) != null)
{
Console.WriteLine(responseLine);
meow.bunifuCustomTextbox3.Text = responseLine + " test";
if (responseLine.IndexOf("*** Adios") != -1)
{
break;
}
}
closed = true;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
MessageBox.Show(e.ToString());
}
Environment.Exit(0);
}
}
This causes an error: Cross-Thread operation not valid: accessed from a thread other than the thread it was created on.
I have also tried this solution:
public void run()
{
try
{
string responseLine;
meow.bunifuCustomTextbox2.Invoke(new MethodInvoker(delegate { responseLine = meow.bunifuCustomTextbox2.Text; }));
while ((responseLine = ins.ReadLine()) != null)
{
Console.WriteLine(responseLine);
meow.bunifuCustomTextbox3.Invoke(new MethodInvoker(delegate { meow.bunifuCustomTextbox3.Text = meow.bunifuCustomTextbox2.Text; }));
meow.bunifuCustomTextbox3.Text = responseLine + " test";
if (responseLine.IndexOf("*** Adios") != -1)
{
break;
}
}
closed = true;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
MessageBox.Show(e.ToString());
}
Environment.Exit(0);
}
}
This did not work either. Same error.
What I'm expecting to happen is when the user types in a message in bunifuCustomTextbox2, it'll then be set to responseLine which I want to lively be updated by bunifuCustomTextbox3.
Because this is going to be a multiplayer chat and I'm converting this code from a consoleapp to winforms..
sorry if im being a dumb :(

When you access an UI resource from another thread you should have the Dispatcher thread handle that:
Dispatcher.Invoke(() => { /* UI changes */ });

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 = "";
}
}
}

Thread seems to stop running when I call a given method in the same class, why?

I have a class that constantly refreshes devices physically connected to PC via USB. The monitoring method runs on a thread checking a _monitoring flag, and Start and Stop methods just set and unset that flag.
My current problem is: when the thread is running, I get the expected "busy" and "not busy" console prints, but when I call Stop method, it keeps running while(_busy) forever, because somehow the _monitoringThread seems to stop running!
I suspect it stops running because the last print is always busy, that is, the ExecuteMonitoring runs midway and then nobody knows (at least I don't).
Pause debugging and looking at StackTrace didn't help either, because it keeps in the while(_busy) statement inside Stop() method, forever.
public class DeviceMonitor
{
bool _running;
bool _monitoring;
bool _busy = false;
MonitoringMode _monitoringMode;
Thread _monitoringThread;
readonly object _lockObj = new object();
// CONSTRUTOR
public DeviceMonitor()
{
_monitoringThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(ExecuteMonitoring));
_monitoringThread.IsBackground = true;
_running = true;
_monitoringThread.Start();
}
public void Start()
{
_monitoring = true;
}
public void Stop()
{
_monitoring = false;
while (_busy)
{
Thread.Sleep(5);
}
}
void ExecuteMonitoring()
{
while (_running)
{
Console.WriteLine("ExecuteMonitoring()");
if (_monitoring)
{
lock (_lockObj)
{
_busy = true;
}
Console.WriteLine("busy");
if (_monitoringMode == MonitoringMode.SearchDevices)
{
SearchDevices();
}
else
if (_monitoringMode == MonitoringMode.MonitorDeviceConnection)
{
MonitorDeviceConnection();
}
lock (_lockObj)
{
_busy = false;
}
Console.WriteLine("not busy");
}
Thread.Sleep(1000);
_busy = false;
}
}
private void SearchDevices()
{
var connected = ListDevices();
if (connected.Count > 0)
{
Device = connected.First();
ToggleMonitoringMode();
}
else
Device = null;
}
void MonitorDeviceConnection()
{
if (Device == null)
{
ToggleMonitoringMode();
}
else
{
bool responding = Device.isConnected;
Console.WriteLine("responding " + responding);
if (!responding)
{
Device = null;
ToggleMonitoringMode();
}
}
}
void ToggleMonitoringMode()
{
if (_monitoringMode == MonitoringMode.SearchDevices)
_monitoringMode = MonitoringMode.MonitorDeviceConnection;
else
if (_monitoringMode == MonitoringMode.MonitorDeviceConnection)
_monitoringMode = MonitoringMode.SearchDevices;
}
enum MonitoringMode
{
SearchDevices,
MonitorDeviceConnection
}
}

The most likely explanation is: optimization: The compiler sees that _busy is never changed inside the Stop method and it is therefore allowed to convert this to an endless loop by replacing _busy with true. This is valid, because the _busy field is not marked as being volatile and as such the optimizer doesn't have to assume changes happening on another thread.
So, try marking _busy as volatile. Or, even better - actually A LOT BETTER - use a ManualResetEvent:
ManualResetEvent _stopMonitoring = new ManualResetEvent(false);
ManualResetEvent _monitoringStopped = new ManualResetEvent(false);
ManualResetEvent _stopRunning = new ManualResetEvent(false);
public void Stop()
{
_stopMonitoring.Set();
_monitoringStopped.Wait();
}
void ExecuteMonitoring()
{
while (!_stopRunning.Wait(0))
{
Console.WriteLine("ExecuteMonitoring()");
if(!_stopMonitoring.Wait(0))
{
_monitoringStopped.Unset();
// ...
}
_monitoringStopped.Set();
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}
Code is from memory, might contain some typos.

What is a good way to parallelize many HTTP web requests?

I am building a generic URI retrieval system. Essentially there's a generic class Retriever<T> and it maintains a queue of URIs to be retrieved. It has a separate thread that handles that queue as fast as it can. An example of a type of URI, as indicated in the question title, is HTTP type URIs.
The problem is, when I get down to requesting that the resource be retrieved, via an abstract method T RetrieveResource(Uri location), it slow down due to a lack of asynchrony.
Changing the return type of RetrieveResource to Task<T> was my first thought. However, that seems to make tasks pile up and cause lots of problems when we have thousands of outstanding tasks. It appears to create many actual threads instead of utilizing the thread pool. I imagine this just slows everything down because there are too many things going on at once, so nothing individually is making significant progress.
It's expected that we will have a large number of queued items to retrieve and that they cannot be handled as fast as they are enqueued. There is an opportunity for the system to catch up, over time; but it's definitely not quick.
I've also thought about instead of maintaining a queue and a thread to handle it... to just queue a work item on the ThreadPool. However, I'm not sure that this is ideal if say I need to shut the system down before all work items are handled or later want to allow for prioritization or something.
We also know that retrieving a resource is a time consuming process (0.250 - 5 seconds), but not necessarily a resource intense process. We are fine parallelizing this out to hundreds of requests.
Our requirements are:
URIs can be enqueued from any thread, even when the system is working on the queue
Retrieval may need to later be capable of being prioritized
Retrieval should be able to be paused
Minimal spinning should occur when nothing is being retrieved (BlockingCollection is useful here).
Is there a good way to parallelize this without introducing unnecessary complexity?
Below is some existing code we have, as an example.
public abstract class Retriever<T> : IRetriever<T>, IDisposable
{
private readonly Thread worker;
private readonly BlockingCollection<Uri> pending;
private volatile int isStarted;
private volatile int isDisposing;
public event EventHandler<RetrievalEventArgs<T>> Retrieved;
protected Retriever()
{
this.worker = new Thread(this.RetrieveResources);
this.pending = new BlockingCollection<Uri>(new ConcurrentQueue<Uri>());
this.isStarted = 0;
this.isDisposing = 0;
}
~Retriever()
{
this.Dispose(false);
}
private void RetrieveResources()
{
while (this.isDisposing == 0)
{
while (this.isStarted == 0)
{
Monitor.Wait(this.pending);
}
Uri location = this.pending.Take();
// This is what needs to be concurrently done.
// In this example, it's synchronous, but just on a separate thread.
T result = this.RetrieveResource(location);
// At this point, we would fire our event with the retrieved data
}
}
protected abstract T RetrieveResource(Uri location);
protected void Dispose(bool disposing)
{
if (Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref this.isDisposing, 1, 0) == 1)
{
return;
}
if (disposing)
{
this.pending.CompleteAdding();
this.worker.Join();
}
}
public void Add(Uri uri)
{
try
{
this.pending.Add(uri);
}
catch (InvalidOperationException)
{
return;
}
}
public void AddRange(IEnumerable<Uri> uris)
{
foreach (Uri uri in uris)
{
try
{
this.pending.Add(uri);
}
catch (InvalidOperationException)
{
return;
}
}
}
public void Start()
{
if (Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref this.isStarted, 1, 0) == 1)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("The retriever is already started.");
}
if (this.worker.ThreadState == ThreadState.Unstarted)
{
this.worker.Start();
}
Monitor.Pulse(this.pending);
}
public void Stop()
{
if (Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref this.isStarted, 0, 1) == 0)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("The retriever is already stopped.");
}
}
public void Dispose()
{
this.Dispose(true);
GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
}
}
To build on the example above... a solution to this that I think adds too much complexity or rather, weird code... would be this.
private void RetrieveResources()
{
while (this.isDisposing == 0)
{
while (this.isStarted == 0)
{
Monitor.Wait(this.pending);
}
Uri location = this.pending.Take();
Task<T> task = new Task<T>((state) =>
{
return this.RetrieveResource(state as Uri);
}, location);
task.ContinueWith((t) =>
{
T result = t.Result;
RetrievalEventArgs<T> args = new RetrievalEventArgs<T>(location, result);
EventHandler<RetrievalEventArgs<T>> callback = this.Retrieved;
if (!Object.ReferenceEquals(callback, null))
{
callback(this, args);
}
});
task.Start();
}
}

I've come up with a pretty good solution I think. I abstracted both the method a resource is retrieved and the result's representation. This allows support for retrieval of arbitrary URIs with arbitrary results; kind of like some URI driven "ORM".
It supports variable concurrency levels. The other day when I posted the question, I was forgetting that asynchrony and concurrency are quite different and that all I was achieving with tasks was asynchrony and jamming up the task scheduler because what I really wanted was concurrency.
I added in cancellation because it seemed like a good idea to have start/stop capabilities.
public abstract class Retriever<T> : IRetriever<T>
{
private readonly object locker;
private readonly BlockingCollection<Uri> pending;
private readonly Thread[] threads;
private CancellationTokenSource cancellation;
private volatile int isStarted;
private volatile int isDisposing;
public event EventHandler<RetrieverEventArgs<T>> Retrieved;
protected Retriever(int concurrency)
{
if (concurrency <= 0)
{
throw new ArgumentOutOfRangeException("concurrency", "The specified concurrency level must be greater than zero.");
}
this.locker = new object();
this.pending = new BlockingCollection<Uri>(new ConcurrentQueue<Uri>());
this.threads = new Thread[concurrency];
this.cancellation = new CancellationTokenSource();
this.isStarted = 0;
this.isDisposing = 0;
this.InitializeThreads();
}
~Retriever()
{
this.Dispose(false);
}
private void InitializeThreads()
{
for (int i = 0; i < this.threads.Length; i++)
{
Thread thread = new Thread(this.ProcessQueue)
{
IsBackground = true
};
this.threads[i] = thread;
}
}
private void StartThreads()
{
foreach (Thread thread in this.threads)
{
if (thread.ThreadState == ThreadState.Unstarted)
{
thread.Start();
}
}
}
private void CancelOperations(bool reset)
{
this.cancellation.Cancel();
this.cancellation.Dispose();
if (reset)
{
this.cancellation = new CancellationTokenSource();
}
}
private void WaitForThreadsToExit()
{
foreach (Thread thread in this.threads)
{
thread.Join();
}
}
private void ProcessQueue()
{
while (this.isDisposing == 0)
{
while (this.isStarted == 0)
{
Monitor.Wait(this.locker);
}
Uri location;
try
{
location = this.pending.Take(this.cancellation.Token);
}
catch (OperationCanceledException)
{
continue;
}
T data;
try
{
data = this.Retrieve(location, this.cancellation.Token);
}
catch (OperationCanceledException)
{
continue;
}
RetrieverEventArgs<T> args = new RetrieverEventArgs<T>(location, data);
EventHandler<RetrieverEventArgs<T>> callback = this.Retrieved;
if (!Object.ReferenceEquals(callback, null))
{
callback(this, args);
}
}
}
private void ThowIfDisposed()
{
if (this.isDisposing == 1)
{
throw new ObjectDisposedException("Retriever");
}
}
protected abstract T Retrieve(Uri location, CancellationToken token);
protected virtual void Dispose(bool disposing)
{
if (Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref this.isDisposing, 1, 0) == 1)
{
return;
}
if (disposing)
{
this.CancelOperations(false);
this.WaitForThreadsToExit();
this.pending.Dispose();
}
}
public void Start()
{
this.ThowIfDisposed();
if (Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref this.isStarted, 1, 0) == 1)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("The retriever is already started.");
}
Monitor.PulseAll(this.locker);
this.StartThreads();
}
public void Add(Uri location)
{
this.pending.Add(location);
}
public void Stop()
{
this.ThowIfDisposed();
if (Interlocked.CompareExchange(ref this.isStarted, 0, 1) == 0)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("The retriever is already stopped.");
}
this.CancelOperations(true);
}
public void Dispose()
{
this.Dispose(true);
GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
}
}