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Make my COM assembly call asynchronous

I've just "earned" the privilege to maintain a legacy library coded in C# at my current work.
This dll:
Exposes methods for a big legacy system made with Uniface, that has no choice but calling COM objects.
Serves as a link between this legacy system, and another system's API.
Uses WinForm for its UI in some cases.
More visually, as I understand the components :
*[Big legacy system in Uniface]* ==[COM]==> [C# Library] ==[Managed API]==> *[Big EDM Management System]*
The question is: One of the methods in this C# Library takes too long to run and I "should" make it asynchronous!
I'm used to C#, but not to COM at all. I've already done concurrent programming, but COM seems to add a lot of complexity to it and all my trials so far end in either:
A crash with no error message at all
My Dll only partially working (displaying only part of its UI, and then closing), and still not giving me any error at all
I'm out of ideas and resources about how to handle threads within a COM dll, and I would appreciate any hint or help.
So far, the biggest part of the code I've changed to make my method asynchronous :
// my public method called by the external system
public int ComparedSearch(string application, out string errMsg) {
errMsg = "";
try {
Action<string> asyncOp = AsyncComparedSearch;
asyncOp.BeginInvoke(application, null, null);
} catch (ex) {
// ...
}
return 0;
}
private int AsyncComparedSearch(string application) {
// my actual method doing the work, that was the called method before
}
Any hint or useful resource would be appreciated.
Thank you.
UPDATE 1:
Following answers and clues below (especially about the SynchronizationContext, and with the help of this example) I was able to refactor my code and making it to work, but only when called from another Window application in C#, and not through COM.
The legacy system encounters a quite obscure error when I call the function and doesn't give any details about the crash.
UPDATE 2:
Latest updates in my trials: I managed to make the multithreading work when the calls are made from a test project, and not from the Uniface system.
After multiple trials, we tend to think that our legacy system doesn't support well multithreading in its current config. But that's not the point of the question any more :)
Here is a exerpt of the code that seems to work:
string application;
SynchronizationContext context;
// my public method called by the external system
public int ComparedSearch(string application, out string errMsg) {
this.application = application;
context = WindowsFormsSynchronizationContext.Current;
Thread t = new Thread(new ThreadStart(AsyncComparedSearchAndShowDocs));
t.Start();
errMsg = "";
return 0;
}
private void AsyncComparedSearch() {
// ANY WORK THAT AS NOTHING TO DO WITH UI
context.Send(new SendOrPostCallback(
delegate(object state)
{
// METHODS THAT MANAGE UI SOMEHOW
}
), null);
}
We are now considering other solutions than modifying this COM assembly, like encapsulating this library in a Windows Service and creating an interface between the system and the service. It should be more sustainable..

It is hard to tell without knowing more details, but there are few issues here.
You execute the delegate on another thread via BeginInvoke but you don't wait for it. Your try\catch block won't catch anything as it has already passed while the remote call is still being executed. Instead, you should put try\catch block inside AsyncComparedSearch.
As you don't wait for the end of the execution of remote method (EndInvoke or via callback) I am not sure how do you handle the results of the COM call. I guess then that you update the GUI from within AsyncComparedSearch. If so, it is wrong, as it is running on another thread and you should never update GUI from anywhere but the GUI thread - it will most likely result with a crash or other unexpected behavior. Therefore, you need to sync the GUI update work to GUI thread. In WinForms you need to use Control.BeginInvoke (don't confuse it with Delegate.BeginInvoke) or some other way (e.g. SynchronizationContext) to sync the code to GUI thread. I use something similar to this:
private delegate void ExecuteActionHandler(Action action);
public static void ExecuteOnUiThread(this Form form, Action action)
{
if (form.InvokeRequired) { // we are not on UI thread
// Invoke or BeginInvoke, depending on what you need
form.Invoke(new ExecuteActionHandler(ExecuteOnUiThread), action);
}
else { // we are on UI thread so just execute the action
action();
}
}
then I call it like this from any thread:
theForm.ExecuteOnUiThread( () => theForm.SomeMethodWhichUpdatesControls() );
Besides, read this answer for some caveats.

C# Invoke Failing on Thread Function

I'm using a timer to regularly read-in a log file and post certain contents to a textbox in a Windows Form Application I'm developing in C#. I do this by sending a string to set_textbox_thread which posts the text (s) to the appropriate textbox (tbc) in the else below. The code below works in the practice application I built. However, the same code runs, but fails to update my textbox in the full application I'm building. It seems to be failing on the Invoke statement, which fails to call set_textbox_thread again. My theory is that, because my full application has a more complex set of controls, I am not calling Invoke via the correct control. I've tried calling it via "this" the parent panel, the parent form, and the button that triggers set_textbox_thread, and am dealing with the same outcome. Two questions:
Which control should I call Invoke under?
Is there a way to retrieve "the thread that owns the controls underlying windows handle? Can I do this through the Controls.Owner method?
I have tried making this Invoke call using try/catch, but am unable to retrieve an error message in the catch. Any ideas how to resolve the issue this way?
Thanks in advance!
private delegate void stringDelegate(string s);
private void set_textbox_thread(string s)
{
TextBox tbc = get_thread_tb();
if (tbc.InvokeRequired)
{
MessageBox.Show("Invoke Required");
stringDelegate sd = new stringDelegate(set_textbox_thread);
**this.Invoke(sd, new object[] {s });**
MessageBox.Show("Invoke Completed");
}
else
{

1) It doesn't matter what control you invoke under; there is only one UI thread and any control to marshal the call back to that UI thread.
2) what could you possibly do with this thread?
3) not much detail there. How do you know you have error messages? And what do you mean by "error messages"

Call invoke on the text box instead:
tbc.Invoke(sd, new object[] {s });

label text not displaying correct value but messagebox.show does

I have a simple label in C#.NET that does not seem to be "updating". It displays only the first initial values of my application. In the following code, the "score" variable does not update however it shows the correct value when the messagebox.show dialog is called. The score value is changed in a different thread, but I don't believe it to be a problem of invokes and cross thread form control (as I am calling this code in the thread that label6 was created on).
Does anyone know what might be a solution? I tried the Application.DoEvents() method with no avail. Also, neither label6.Update() nor label6.Refresh() seem to work when placed after the label6.Text = score line.
Player is a class I created holding the score value as a public int.
public Form1()
{
InitializeComponent();
createGame();
}
public void createGame()
{
InitializeComponent();
drawThread = new Thread(draw);
MessageBox.Show(player.score);
label6.Text = player.score;
}
public void draw()
{
//do drawing, change player.score value
//end thread
}
public void button_click()
{
if(firstrun)
drawThread.Start()
else{
createGame()
drawThread.Start()
}
}
EDIT (from comments):
This is a WinForms application.
The label6.Text = score line is the ONLY instance where label6 is called other than being instantiated in the Form.Designer code generated by Visual Studio.

just do Refresh() on the label.
label6.Refresh();

In your code I see
drawThread = new Thread(draw);
but on button click you call draw.Start() so I think your rendering thread is not started at all! Shouldn't you use drawThread.Start()?
More: you cannot access graphical controls properties from a thread different from the main, you should use Invoke...
I see a problem here:
drawThread = new Thread(draw);
MessageBox.Show(player.score);
With these lines second thread is started and MessageBox is showed immediately (second thread is not terminated yet probably)
label6.Text = player.score;
When you close MessageBox this line is executed: if second thread is terminated and has already updated score you will get expected result; if second thread is still executing, in your label you still find previous score.
So without knowing what your second thread does, I cannot know if your code is correct or not.
In my opinion you should update label6.Text from your second thread (using Invoke) when it's terminated; if not, why are you using a second thread?
Usually we use threads to perform long executions without blocking main thread (which takes care of updating form and process user input), so you should update properties from these threads when it's needed.
Think about using BackgroundWorker.

C#: Periodically update GUI based on backgroundtask

I have a GUI that is for all intents and purposes really basic. A listview, an html form, and that's really it.
I want the user to have the following behavioral ability:
1 - Click a checkbox that says "Real-time". When clicked, a background thread will run once every 10 seconds.
2 - If there is a new file created (this is easy, to observe a new file) I want an alert displayed in my main gui. Where it is displayed for now is arbitrary (in a label, for example).
The main issue is I cannot figure out how to do this in a multi-threaded example. My goal is exactly in line with multithreading: do tasks 1 and 2, without locking task 1. Meaning, while the update check is running, the user can interact with the GUI as if nothing was going on in the background.
If you need more details to better answer this please let me know.
Thanks!

Here are a couple sites I found useful for implementing a background worker when I needed to perform database operations while still allowing the GUI to be responsive:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/zw97wx20.aspx
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/AsynchronousCodeBlocks.aspx

Use events from the thread to tell the UI that something's changed:
// Just detected that that a new file has been created
if (this.FileCreated_Event != null)
{
this.FileCreate_Event(this, new FileEventArgs(newFileName));
}
where FileCreated_Event and FileEventArgs are declared appropriately.
Then in the UI when you receive the event you have the following:
this.fileChecker.FileCreated_Event += this.FileCreated_Event;
and:
private void FileCreated_Event(object sender, TrackStatusEventArgs e)
{
if ((sender as Control).InvokeRequired)
{
(sender as Control).Invoke(action);
}
else
{
action();
}
}
where action is the thing you want to do.

Try this tutorial. At the end I'm sure you'll be able to use threads. You must be careful though, because you'll have to manage those threads which can be a daunting task. I've never met a programmer who liked to debug multiple threads...

C# Forms: How to show a form when initalization takes a long time?

I have a c# form, and the initialization time takes a while (its getting information from a server, and populating a TreeView). Right now, the code looks similar to this:
public class myForm : Form
{
InitializeComponent();
List<Location> locations = getServerLocations(); // Server call
foreach( Location loc in locations )
{
List<POI> POIs = loc.getLocationPOIs(); // Server call
foreach( POI poi in POIs )
{
List<POIDetails> = poi.getPOIDetails(); // Server call
....
}
}
}
you get the point I think ... So there is a large tree, and I know I can not make the calls all the way down until the user expands the tree. But the intent is I just want the Form to display, with a 'loading...' or something on a tool strip while all the processing and server gets are happening.
Right now, it seems as if I haven't loaded the application yet because nothing will show to the user until all the calls are complete.

You shouldn't do any long running processing on the UI thread - instead move this to another thread i.e using a BackgroundWorker. You can initially show the "Loading" screen and, once the background worker completes, update your UI with your tree structure.

You should work with multi threading process, so that you can separate the process that takes time from the rest of the process. Here is a blog that may help you. .NET 4.0 and System.Threading.Tasks

Running your initialization on a separate thread is the preferred way. But if you're constrained to run it on the UI thread then try calling Application.DoEvents() right after your call to .Show() or .ShowDialog() of your form.
If the form shows up, it will still be unresponsive to user actions until the initialization is completed. So running the initialization on a separate thread is the better solution.