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Unable to populate listbox

Im having a bit of trouble with displaying a list in my listbox.
When I had everything in one class, things seemed to work fine but I cant figure out why it doesnt work now. My app, when clicked on the scan button, goes to a different class where there is a new thread created to scan for available bluetooth devices and the a list with those devices is created. Once the list is passed back to a method in Form1 class, it doesnt update the listbox. In debugging mode I could see that there are items on the list but nothing appears in the listbox. The listbox displays items if I did listBox1.Items.Add("Hello World") from the scan button click method. Im sort of stuck here. Ive just started learning C# and if anyone could help me that would be greatly appreciated.
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
int PanelWidth;
bool PanelCalShow;
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
PanelWidth = PanelCal.Width;
PanelCalShow = false;
}
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
timer1.Start();
}
private void timer1_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (PanelCalShow)
{
PanelCal.Width = PanelCal.Width + 10;
if (PanelCal.Width >= PanelWidth)
{
timer1.Stop();
PanelCalShow = false;
this.Refresh();
}
}
else
{
if (PanelCalShow != true)
{
PanelCal.Width = PanelCal.Width - 10;
if (PanelCal.Width <= 0)
{
timer1.Stop();
PanelCalShow = true;
this.Refresh();
}
}
}
}
// Bluetooth connection
private void BtnScan_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var instance = new BtCom();
instance.Scan();
}
public void LbClientUpdate(List<string> DiscoveredDevices)
{
listBox1.DataSource = DiscoveredDevices;
}
}
and the bluetooth connection class
public class BtCom
{
public List<string> DiscoveredDevices = new List<string>();
Guid mUUID = new Guid("00001101-0000-1000-8000-00805F9B34FB");
public void Scan()
{
Thread bluetoothScanThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(Scanning));
bluetoothScanThread.Start();
}
BluetoothDeviceInfo[] devices;
public void Scanning()
{
var form1 = new Form1();
BluetoothClient client = new BluetoothClient();
devices = client.DiscoverDevicesInRange();
foreach (BluetoothDeviceInfo d in devices)
{
DiscoveredDevices.Add(d.DeviceName);
}
form1.LbClientUpdate(DiscoveredDevices);
}
}

The reason you aren't seeing any update on your original form is that you are creating a new instance of the Form1 class inside of your BtCom class instead of using the original instance.
One way you could fix this would be to pass the original instance of the form to your BtClass through a parameter to the Scan method, and then pass it along to your Scanning method. This way you will be calling methods on the same instance of the form that's running.
The problem with that is you will be blocking your UI while waiting for the thread to finish (assuming you call bluetoothScanThread.Join() to wait for the thread results).
A slightly different solution would be to use Tasks, with async methods that await results.
To do this, you would have your scan method return a Task<List<string>> (which is a Task that returns a List<string> representing the devices).
Then in form1 you would create an async method (called GetDatasource below) that creates an instance of your BtCom class, awaits the scan method, and returns the Task<List<string>>.
Finally, you would also make the Click method async and have it assign await the GetDatasource method and assign the Datasource when it returns.
By doing it this way, you isolate the BtCon class from having to know any details about the Form1 class, which is a good habit to get into because you end up creating more reusable and independent code.
Here's an example of all those words in code:
Make the scan method return a Task<List<string>> that can be used for the datasource (and have Scanning return a List<string>). Notice that the list is now private to the scanning method. It's a good practice to limit the scope of variables to only the level they are needed.:
public class BtCom
{
Guid mUUID = new Guid("00001101-0000-1000-8000-00805F9B34FB");
public Task<List<string>> Scan()
{
var bluetoothScanTask = Task.Factory.StartNew(Scanning);
bluetoothScanTask.Wait();
return bluetoothScanTask;
}
private List<string> Scanning()
{
BluetoothClient client = new BluetoothClient();
devices = client.DiscoverDevicesInRange();
List<string> discoveredDevices = new List<string>();
foreach (BluetoothDeviceInfo d in devices)
{
discoveredDevices.Add(d.DeviceName);
}
return discoveredDevices;
}
}
Then, write an async method that will get the datasource by creating a new instance of this class, and await for the method to return. Also, make the Click method async so it can await the datasource method:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
// Other form code omitted...
private async void BtnScan_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
listBox1.DataSource = await Task.Run(GetDatasource);
}
private async Task<List<string>> GetDatasource()
{
var btCom = new BtCom();
List<string> results = await btCom.Scan();
return results;
}
Now your users can click the button and the form will continue to respond while the scanning takes place, and your listbox will populate when the scan method finishes.
For more on async and await, check your favorite search engine (like this page on Asynchronous programming, for example).

Problems with loading screen in separate Thread

I have an old application in Windows Forms, which in many places do some searches on database. Sometimes it takes a lot of time, so I decided to create a loading screen in wpf to show the user that something is loading in separate thread. Basically it's just a full transparent window with loading indicator(a turning circle). Everything works fine on My host computer and on my Virtual Machine, but when I'm trying to deploy it to our demo environments its like - it starts loading the indicator is shown and after few seconds it dissapear and application stops responding like forever. My first thought was that it's the problem with GPU acceleration, that it can't process transparency, but it's being shown for few seconds so it can't be the problem. So most likely I did something bad. Below You can see my code, do You notice something which might be wrong/cause deadlock or something ?
public class LoadingManager
{
public LoadingManager()
{ }
public LoadingManager(string LoadingText)
{
loadingText = LoadingText;
}
private string loadingText = "Please wait ..";
private Thread thread;
private bool ThreadReadyToAbort = false;
private BusyIndicatorView loadingWindow;
public void BeginLoading()
{
this.thread = new Thread(this.RunThread);
this.thread.IsBackground = true;
this.thread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
this.thread.Start();
}
public void EndLoading()
{
if (this.loadingWindow != null)
{
this.loadingWindow.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, (Action)(() =>
{ this.loadingWindow.Close(); }));
while (!this.ThreadReadyToAbort) { }; // I also tried to remove this while but it didn't help
}
this.thread.Abort();
}
public void RunThread()
{
this.loadingWindow = new BusyIndicatorView();
loadingWindow.tbLoadingCaption.Text = loadingText;
this.loadingWindow.Closing += new System.ComponentModel.CancelEventHandler(waitingWindow_Closed);
this.loadingWindow.ShowDialog();
}
void waitingWindow_Closed(object sender, System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs e)
{
Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.InvokeShutdown();
this.ThreadReadyToAbort = true;
}
EDIT.
I noticed that on this machines it usually(sometimes it also fails at first click) works when i click search for the first time. If i click another time it's showing for a second than dissapearing and application stops responding. So it seems like Thread is not beeing shutdown, Dispatcher shutdown failed ? But no exceptions are thrown ...

Your BeginLoading method can be called more than once before it has finished, and so can create more than one wpf window. This messes up all kinds of references. Also do not abort the thread, let it decide for itself. Here are the two changes:
public void BeginLoading()
{
this.thread = new Thread(this.RunThread);
this.thread.IsBackground = true;
this.thread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
this.thread.Start();
while (this.loadingWindow == null) { } // <--- Add this line
}
public void EndLoading()
{
if (this.loadingWindow != null)
{
this.loadingWindow.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, (Action)(() =>
{ this.loadingWindow.Close(); }));
while (!this.ThreadReadyToAbort) { };
}
//this.thread.Abort(); // <-- Remove this line
}
Also if this is all just for a busy screen, I would say there has to be a better and safer way than this. For academic purposes this is an interesting problem, but not production code, especially if some junior developer could fiddle with this in the future.
Edit: Still crashing on my machine if I reduce the delay between repeated callds to BeginLoading and EndLoading. It may be related to how the wpf window closes asynchronously. I removed the Closed event handler and just used a boolean flag to indicated that the window 'isLoaded' or not, and I have not seen any problems with this:
public class LoadingManager2
{
public LoadingManager2()
{ }
public LoadingManager2(string LoadingText)
{
loadingText = LoadingText;
}
private string loadingText = "Please wait ..";
private Thread thread;
private MyWindow loadingWindow;
private bool isLoaded = false;
public void BeginLoading()
{
this.thread = new Thread(this.RunThread);
this.thread.IsBackground = true;
this.thread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
this.thread.Start();
while (!this.isLoaded) { };
}
public void RunThread()
{
this.loadingWindow = new MyWindow();
this.isLoaded = true;
this.loadingWindow.ShowDialog();
}
public void EndLoading()
{
this.loadingWindow.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, (Action)(() =>
{
this.loadingWindow.Close();
this.isLoaded = false;
}));
while (this.isLoaded) { };
}
}

C# multithreaded throbber form

Working on a C# project which I would like to implement a "waiting" (throbber) indicator in a separate form. After much research and trial and error it appears as the suggested method of doing this is to load a form using a separate thread from the one from the current form/thread.
The reason I went with this method was because initially using the Show() method on the throbber form produced a transparent form. I cannot use ShowDialog because I need to run some code after the throbber is displayed, after which that completes I would like to close the throbber form.
Anyway .. after trying many different methods to load the throbber form in a separate thread I still get an error about trying to access it from a thread which is different from the one it was created in. Here is a skelton version of the project code that should shed some light on my issue:
the example I was working off of for multithreading was this popular link for creating your own spashscreen in a separate thread ... http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/5454/A-Pretty-Good-Splash-Screen-in-C
public class Main
{
public void CheckData()
{
try
{
ProgressBar pb = new ProgressBar();
pb.ShowProgressBar();
//do data checking here
pb.CloseForm()
}
catch(Exception e)
{
}
}
}
public partial class ProgressBar : Form
{
static Thread ms_oThread = null;
public bool shouldStop = false;
static ProgressBar ms_ProgBar = null;
public ProgressBar()
{
InitializeComponent();
//DoWork();
}
public void ShowForm()
{
ms_ProgBar = new ProgressBar();
Application.Run(ms_ProgBar);
}
public void CloseForm()
{
ms_ProgBar.Close();
}
public void ShowProgressBar()
{
// Make sure it is only launched once.
if (ms_ProgBar != null)
return;
ms_oThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(ShowForm));
ms_oThread.IsBackground = true;
ms_oThread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
ms_oThread.Start();
while (ms_ProgBar == null || ms_ProgBar.IsHandleCreated == false)
{
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}
}

You are creating your ProgressBar twice. Once in your main function, and once in your new thread. You are also calling your CloseWindow method from your main function (and on the window that is never shown), rather than on your new thread window.
You only want to create ProgressBar and show it using your new thread. Make your static ProgressBar field public so you can call close on it directly from Main, but make sure to use Invoke to do it since it's not on that Window's GUI thread.
Also, ShowProgressBar should be static.
Here's a rewrite attempt:
public class Main
{
public void CheckData()
{
try
{
ProgressBar.ShowProgressBar();
//do data checking here
ProgressBar.CloseForm();
}
catch(Exception e)
{
}
}
}
public partial class ProgressBar : Form
{
static ProgressBar _progressBarInstance;
public ProgressBar()
{
InitializeComponent();
//DoWork();
}
static void ShowForm()
{
_progressBarInstance = new ProgressBar();
Application.Run(ms_ProgressBar);
}
public static void CloseForm()
{
_progressBarInstance.Invoke(new Action(_progressBarInstance.Close));
_progressBarInstance= null;
}
public static void ShowProgressBar()
{
// Make sure it is only launched once.
if (_progressBarInstance != null)
return;
var ms_oThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(ShowForm));
ms_oThread.IsBackground = true;
ms_oThread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
ms_oThread.Start();
}
}

Refresh Progressbar UI using Thread

I have a FTP proccess that run without UI. and have a winform that use this ftp control. in that window I have a progressbar that show the ftp upload progress. The progress arrives to the window via interfase that is updated on the underliying presenter (I'm using MVP pattern).
My problem is when try to update the progress, it allways throw me this exception.
Through threads illegal operation: control 'prgProgresoSubido' is accessed from a thread other than that in which you created it.
That problem persists even if I use a BackGroundWorker in the Form.
// This is a delegated on presenter when a File finish to upload
void client_FileUploadCompletedHandler(object sender, FileUploadCompletedEventArgs e)
{
string log = string.Format("{0} Upload from {1} to {2} is completed. Length: {3}. ",
DateTime.Now, e.LocalFile.FullName, e.ServerPath, e.LocalFile.Length);
archivosSubidos += 1;
_Publicacion.ProgresoSubida = (int)((archivosSubidos / archivosXSubir) * 100);
//this.lstLog.Items.Add(log);
//this.lstLog.SelectedIndex = this.lstLog.Items.Count - 1;
}
// This is My interfase
public interface IPublicacion
{
...
int ProgresoSubida { set; }
}
/// And Here is the implementartion of the interfase on the form
public partial class PublicarForm : Form ,IPublicacion
{
//Credenciales para conectarse al servicio FTP
public FTPClientManager client = null;
public XmlDocument conf = new XmlDocument();
public string workingDir = null;
public webTalk wt = new webTalk();
private readonly PublicacionesWebBL _Publicador;
public PublicarForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
String[] laPath = { System.AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory};
String lcPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(laPath);
_Publicador = new PublicacionesWebBL(this, lcPath);
}
public int ProgresoSubida
{
set
{
// This is my prograss bar, here it throw the exception.
prgProgresoSubido.Value = value;
}
}
}
How can I do to avoid this problem ?

In general, all updates to the User Interface and Controls has to be done from the main thread (event dispatcher). If you attempt to modify the properties of a control from a different thread you will get an exception.
You must call Control.Invoke to invoke on the event dispatcher the method that updates your UI
Control.Invoke
Here, place a button and a label on a form, then try this
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Thread t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(TestThread));
t.Start();
}
private void TestThread()
{
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
UpdateCounter(i);
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}
private void UpdateCounter(int i)
{
if (label1.InvokeRequired)
{
label1.Invoke(new ThreadStart(delegate { UpdateCounter(i); }));
}
else
{
label1.Text = i.ToString();
}
}
}
Realize, that if you are firing an event from a thread, that the event will be on the same Thread. Therefore, if that thread is not the event dispatcher, you'll need to invoke.
Also, there may be mechanisms that BackgroundWorker gives you (As the commentator said) that simplify this for you, but I've never used it before so I'll leave that up to you to investigate.

As Alan has just pointed out, you must do all operations with UI controls in UI thread.
Just modify your property like this:
public int ProgresoSubida
{
set
{
MethodInvoker invoker = delegate
{
prgProgresoSubido.Value = value;
}
if (this.InvokeRequired)
{
Invoke(invoker);
}
else
{
invoker();
}
}
}

Why is this code making my form disappear?

Since I added a splash screen my main form will sometimes (about 1 every 20 times) disappear like it's minimized (it will be invisible but it will be still on the task bar and if I click it it reappears). Here is my code:
static class Program
{
private static SplashScreen splashScreen = null;
private static ManualResetEvent splashScreenWaiter = null;
/// <summary>
/// The main entry point for the application.
/// </summary>
[STAThread]
static void Main()
{
Application.EnableVisualStyles();
Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
ShowSplashAsync();
BuilderForm2 builderForm2 = new BuilderForm2();
builderForm2.Shown += new EventHandler(builderForm2_Shown);
Application.Run(builderForm2);
}
private static void HideSplash()
{
if (splashScreenWaiter != null)
{
splashScreenWaiter.WaitOne();
splashScreen.Invoke(new Action(splashScreen.Close));
splashScreenWaiter = null;
splashScreen = null;
}
}
private static void builderForm2_Shown(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
HideSplash();
}
private static void ShowSplashAsync()
{
splashScreenWaiter = new ManualResetEvent(false);
Thread splashThread = new Thread(ShowSplash);
splashThread.IsBackground = true;
splashThread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
splashThread.Start(splashScreenWaiter);
}
private static void ShowSplash(object resetEvent)
{
splashScreen = new SplashScreen((ManualResetEvent)resetEvent);
Application.Run(splashScreen);
}
}
And this is SplashScreen code:
public partial class SplashScreen : Form
{
private ManualResetEvent ResetEvent;
bool handleCreated = false;
bool formShown = false;
public SplashScreen(ManualResetEvent resetEvent)
{
ResetEvent = resetEvent;
HandleCreated += new EventHandler(SplashScreen_HandleCreated);
InitializeComponent();
}
private void SetResetEventIfReady()
{
if(handleCreated && formShown) ResetEvent.Set();
}
private void SplashScreen_Shown(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
formShown = true;
SetResetEventIfReady();
}
void SplashScreen_HandleCreated(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
handleCreated = true;
SetResetEventIfReady();
}
}

Nothing jumps out. There is however a very serious race condition in your code. It is related to the SystemEvents class. That class provides important notifications to controls so they can respond to the user changing the Windows theme. That class needs a hidden notification window to receive messages about the changes the user made.
This goes very wrong if your program's first window is created on a worker thread instead of the UI thread. That makes the SystemEvents class create that notification window on the wrong thread (not your worker thread btw). And the events it raises will be called from that thread. Getting the event on that wrong thread creates havoc, controls are not thread-safe. The most typical outcome is that you'll have odd painting problems or the form deadlocks when you lock the workstation. I can imagine what you see going wrong could be explained by this as well.
The .NET framework already has excellent and time-tested support for splash screens. I recommend you use it instead of spinning your own. Check this answer for the code.
If you want to keep your own then you can work around the race problem by pasting this line of code into your Main method, before the ShowSplashAsync call:
Microsoft.Win32.SystemEvents.UserPreferenceChanged += delegate { };