i have created the downloader file
private void btnTestDownload_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
backgroundWorker1.RunWorkerAsync();
}
and work! but
private void btnTestDownload_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
backgroundWorker1.CancelAsync();
}
the backgroundWorker dos not stop!
CancelAsync does not cause the worker to stop. You have to do that manually. Inside the worker method, you have to periodically check it's CancellationPending property to see if it should cancel or not.
So basically the body of the DoWork method should be something like this:
foreach( var something in somethingelse )
{
if (worker.CancellationPending == true) {
e.Cancel = true;
return;
}
//do your work here
}
If you inside your worker method just call some other method that itself takes a long time to complete, and you do not have the possibility to periodically check the CancellationPending variable yourself, then it's not easy to stop the worker on command without forcefully destroying the thread.
See MSDN:
When you call CancelAsync, your worker method has an opportunity to
stop its execution and exit. The worker code should periodically check
the CancellationPending property to see if it has been set to true.
It sounds like you've got completely the wrong idea about the purpose of a background worker. If you want to download a single file asyncronously with the ability to cancel it, all this functionality is built into the WebClient class.
Background worker is for long running tasks which are, on the whole, processor intensive. For example, if the file you were downloading were a large text file and you needed to parse each line of the text file, you could use the background worker for that, e.g.
Downloading a File
WebClient Client = new WebClient();
public void TestStart()
{
//Handle the event for download complete
Client.DownloadDataCompleted += Client_DownloadDataCompleted;
//Start downloading file
Client.DownloadDataAsync(new Uri("http://mywebsite.co.uk/myfile.txt"));
}
void Client_DownloadDataCompleted(object sender, DownloadDataCompletedEventArgs e)
{
//Remove handler as no longer needed
Client.DownloadDataCompleted -= Client_DownloadDataCompleted;
//Get the data of the file
byte[] Data = e.Result;
}
public void TestCancel()
{
Client.CancelAsync();
Client.DownloadDataCompleted -= Client_DownloadDataCompleted;
}
Processing a File
BackgroundWorker worker = new BackgroundWorker() { WorkerSupportsCancellation = true };
//Take a stream reader (representation of a text file) and process it asyncronously
public void ProcessFile(StreamReader Reader)
{
worker.DoWork += worker_DoWork;
worker.RunWorkerAsync(Reader);
}
public void CancelProcessFile()
{
worker.CancelAsync();
}
void worker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
//Get the reader passed as an argument
StreamReader Reader = e.Argument as StreamReader;
if (Reader != null)
{
//while not at the end of the file and cancellation not pending
while (Reader.Peek() != -1 && !((BackgroundWorker)sender).CancellationPending)
{
//Read the next line
var Line = Reader.ReadLine();
//TODO: Process Line
}
}
}
Related
I asked in a previous question how to "Threading 2 forms to use simultaneously C#".
I realize now that I was not explicit enough and was asking the wrong question.
Here is my scenario:
I have some data, that I receive from a local server, that I need to write to a file.
This data is being sent at a constant time rate that I cant control.
What I would like to do is to have one winform for the initial setup of the tcp stream and then click on a button to start reading the tcp stream and write it to a file, and at the same time launch another winform with multiple check-boxes that I need to check the checked state and add that info simultaneously to the same file.
This processing is to be stopped when a different button is pressed, closing the stream, the file and the second winform. (this button location is not specifically mandatory to any of the winforms).
Because of this cancel button (and before I tried to implement the 2nd form) I used a background worker to be able to asynchronously cancel the do while loop used to read the stream and write the file.
private void bRecord_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
System.IO.StreamWriter file = new System.IO.StreamWriter(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-dd-M--HH-mm-ss") + ".xml", true);
data_feed = client.GetStream();
data_write = new StreamWriter(data_feed);
data_write.Write("<SEND_DATA/>\r\n");
data_write.Flush();
exit_state = false;
string behavior = null;
//code to launch form2 with the checkboxes
//...
worker = new BackgroundWorker();
worker.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
worker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler((state, args) =>
{
do
{
int var = data_feed.ReadByte();
if (var != -1)
{
data_in += (char)var;
if (data_in.IndexOf("\r\n") != -1)
{
//code to check the checkboxes state in form2
//if (form2.checkBox1.Checked) behavior = form2.checkBox1.Text;
//if (form2.checkBoxn.Checked) behavior = form2.checkBoxn.Text;
file.WriteLine(data_in + behavior);
data_in = "";
}
}
}
while (exit_state == false);
});
worker.RunWorkerAsync();
}
private void bStop_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
exit_state = true;
worker.CancelAsync();
}
I hope I've been clearer now.
I not experienced in event programming and just started in C# so please try to provide some simple examples in the answers if possible.
At first would it be enough to use one Winform? Disable all checkboxes, click a button which enables the checkboxes and start reading the tcpstream? If you need two Forms for other reasons let me know, but i think this isn't needed from what i can see in your question.
Then i would suggest you to use the Task Library from .Net. This is the "modern" way to handle multithreading. BackgroundWorker is kind of old school. If you just able to run on .Net 2.0 you have to use BackgroundWorker, but don't seem to be the case (example follows).
Further if you want to cancel a BackgroundWorker operation this isn't only call CancelAsync();. You also need to handle the e.Cancelled flag.
backgroundWorker.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;
private void CancelBW()
{
backgroundWorker.CancelAsync();
}
private void backgroundWorker_DoWork += ((sender, args)
{
//Handle the cancellation (in your case do this in your loop for sure)
if (e.Cancelled) //Flag is true if someone call backgroundWorker.CancelAsync();
return;
//Do your stuff.
});
There is no common way to directly cancel the backgroundWorker
operation. You always need to handle this.
Now let's change your code to the modern TAP-Pattern and make some stuff you want to have.
private void MyForm : Form
{
private CancellationTokenSource ct;
public MyForm()
{
InitializeComponent();
checkbox1.Enable = false;
//Disable all checkboxes here.
ct = new CancellationTokenSource();
}
//Event if someone click your start button
private void buttonStart_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//Enable all checkboxes here
//This will be called if we get some progress from tcp
var progress = new Progress<string>(value =>
{
//check the behaviour of the checkboxes and write to file
file.WriteLine(value + behavior);
});
Task.Factory.StartNew(() => ListenToTcp(ct, progress as IProgress<string)); //starts the tcp listening async
}
//Event if someone click your stop button
private void buttonStop_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ct.Cancel();
//Disable all checkboxes (better make a method for this :D)
}
private void ListenToTcp(CancellationToken ct, IProgess<string> progress)
{
do
{
if (ct.IsCancellationRequested)
return;
int temp = data_feed.ReadByte(); //replaced var => temp because var is keyword
if (temp != -1)
{
data_in += (char)temp;
if (data_in.IndexOf("\r\n") != -1)
{
if (progress != null)
progress.Report(data_in); //Report the tcp-data to form thread
data_in = string.empty;
}
}
while (exit_state == false);
}
}
This snippet should do the trick. I don't test it so some syntax error maybe occur :P, but the principle will work.
The most important part is that you are not allowed to access gui
components in another thread then gui thread. You tried to access the
checkboxes within your BackgroundWorker DoWork which is no possible
and throw an exception.
So I use a Progress-Object to reuse the data we get in the Tcp-Stream, back to the Main-Thread. There we can access the checkboxes, build our string and write it to the file. More about BackgroundWorker vs. Task and the Progress behaviour you can find here.
Let me know if you have any further questions.
I have made a simple gui in C# wpf, (sorry I can't show the GUI because my reputation is below 10)
It's consist of richtextbox and some other controls. Umm... this application will read a file then display the file contents to richtextbox line by line while reading the file using background worker. The function that read the file is like this :
public int parse_persoFile2(string fname, BackgroundWorker worker, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
if (fname == null) return -1;
System.IO.StreamReader ifs;
ifs = new System.IO.StreamReader(fname);
int max = (int)e.Argument;
int p = 0;
while (ifs.Peek() != -1)
{
string tempData = ifs.ReadLine();
if (tempData.Contains("CMD=5107") || tempData.Contains("CMD=5106") || tempData.Contains("CMD=5102"))
{
//field.AppendText(tempData.Remove(tempData.LastIndexOf('\\')).Remove(0, 4) + "\r\n");
//field.AppendText("--------\r\n");
//System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(500);
string data = tempData.Remove(tempData.LastIndexOf('\\')).Remove(0, 4) + "\r\n";
worker.ReportProgress(p, data);
}
p++;
}
worker.ReportProgress(100);
return 0;
}
As we can see, I'm using backgroundworker in this function to get the string readed from file then send that string to reportprogress in order to be displayed in richtextbox. As a note that persoFile2 function is made from another object in my program... :-)
Then for the rest, I have made the doWork function, worker_progressChanged, and worker_RunWorkerCompleted to make backroundWorker works correctly. Those codes are like this :
private void doWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
BackgroundWorker wrk = sender as BackgroundWorker;
parser.parse_persoFile2(fileName, wrk, e);
}
private void proggChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
if(e.UserState != null)
mRTB.AppendText(e.UserState.ToString());
}
private void completed(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
MessageBox.Show("Ok....");
}
Umm.... When I run this program, it looks that my richtextbox is not prints the string line by line from the file, but it prints it just once at the end... :-3, .. Nah that's my real problem here. I have read this article http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.componentmodel.backgroundworker.aspx, but still have no idea.... :3
If you call the ReportProgress method too rapidly, it's possible that the UI thread will not have a chance to process the "progress" and update appropriately before the BackgroundWorker is hitting it again.
private void doWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
var wrk = sender as BackgroundWorker;
// obviously you wouldn't really do this :)
while(true)
wrk.ReportProgress(0);
}
To see the effect you're looking expecting, you could set an artificial "pause" in your DoWork event, in order to give the UI time to update appropriately:
private void doWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
var wrk = sender as BackgroundWorker;
var p = 0;
while(true)
{
wrk.ReportProgress(p++);
Thread.Sleep(100);
}
}
As for your situation, if the code is executing that quickly, you may not actually need to be executing it in a separate thread.
Alternatively, you could update your UI to say "Please wait. Loading...", then do everything you need to do in the BackgroundWorker, and just return the final result back to the UI at the end.
I have UI code that utilizes BackgoundWorker for processing of expensive operations.
Inside DoWork is the metod that sends multiple web requests to remote web-server via BeginGetResponse.
The UI part is:
private void start_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
BackgroundWorker bw = new BackgroundWorker();
bw.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
if (bw.IsBusy != true)
{
bw.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(Processing.FormWebRequests);
bw.RunWorkerCompleted += new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(Processing.FinishBw);
bw.RunWorkerAsync();
}
}
DoWork executes following:
public static void FormWebRequests(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
foreach (webSites websiteitem in websites)
{
//Creation of webRequest object
webRequest.BeginGetResponse(new AsyncCallback(FinishWebRequest), webRequest);
}
}
And finally, callback method:
private static void FinishWebRequest(IAsyncResult result)
{
using (HttpWebResponse response = wr.EndGetResponse(result) as HttpWebResponse)
{
//Parsing httpResponse
}
}
Obviously, BackgroundWorker fires RunWorkerCompleted right after last BeginGetResponse sent. The problem is that I would like BackgroundWorker to fire RunWorkerCompleted after last EndGetResponse is finished.
Is this possible? Or should I use different async pattern?
BeginGetResponse is already async. This method returns immediately. When the response is completed, FinishWebRequest will be fired. So, you don't need to use BackgroundWorker.
This is Event driven.
Hi I have a problem using Filesystemwatcher & BackgroundWorker process.
I have a windows forms application that checks for new text files on a folder, it process them and creates xml files from them.
I´m using FSW to monitor for new txt files on a folder, the app works fine but when the folder receives a large amount of files (let's say 1000), the app freezes because it's processing all of them.
it occurred to me to add a backgroundworker, so the FSW calls it everytime a new file is created, this way we can process the file on the background without freezing the UI.
This idea did not work because for every file that is created, I try to call the RunWorkerAsync() method, so if it's busy processing a file and I try to process a new one it will throw the following error:
"This BackgroundWorker is currently busy and cannot run multiple tasks concurrently."
So I tried to loop the method with a while til it gets available but, infinite exception is thrown.
this is the simplified version of my code:
private void fileSystemWatcher1_Created(object sender, System.IO.FileSystemEventArgs e)
{
readFile();
}
private void readFile()
{
while (backgroundWorker1.IsBusy)
{
readFile();
}
backgroundWorker1.RunWorkerAsync(idx);
}
private void backgroundWorker1_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
int i = (int)e.Argument;
i += 1;
e.Result = i;
}
private void backgroundWorker1_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
label1.Text = "Processing...";
this.Refresh();
}
private void backgroundWorker1_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
label1.Text = "Completed...";
this.Refresh();
idx = (int)e.Result;
}
The exception thrown says “An unhandled exception of type 'System.StackOverflowException' occurred in WindowsFormsApplication2.exe, make sure you do not have an infinite loop or recursion”
Of course I could remove the FSW, but I'd like to know if there's a way to make them work together, any ideas?
What you have is a classic Producer/Consumer problem.
Solve it with a System.Collections.Concurrent.ConcurrentQueue<string>.
On the FSW event, add the filename to the Queue.
Start 1 or 2 BackgroundWorkers to process the queue.
And this is the code that overflows your stack in a hurry:
private void readFile()
{
while (backgroundWorker1.IsBusy)
{
readFile(); // the recursive call, will fail quickly
}
backgroundWorker1.RunWorkerAsync(idx);
}
Not only does this cause an SO exception, it also blocks your main thread.
You need a better way to wait, and the ConcurrentQueue gives you that.
Instantiating new BackgroundWorkers would do the trick, as would Henk's solution above.
Or, you can do it without changing your code too much just using the ThreadPool.
private void fileSystemWatcher1_Created(object sender, System.IO.FileSystemEventArgs e)
{
ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(o => readFile(e));
}
public void readFile(System.IO.FileSystemEventArgs e)
{
this.BeginInvoke(new MethodInvoker(() =>
{
label1.Text = "Processing...";
this.Refresh(); //you shouldn't need this
}));
//your long running read/processing... doing something event args
this.BeginInvoke(new MethodInvoker(() =>
{
label1.Text = "Completed...";
this.Refresh();
idx = (int) e.Result;
}));
}
Why not instantiate a new BackgroundWorker in readFile instead of reusing?
I have a WPF application that executes external programs to process media files, and so that the GUI doesn't freeze when the media files are being processed, I execute the process on a separate thread through backgroundworker.
private void BackgroundWorkerExecProcess(Process process)
{
BackgroundWorker worker = new BackgroundWorker();
worker.WorkerReportsProgress = false;
worker.DoWork += DoWork;
worker.RunWorkerCompleted += WorkerCompleted;
worker.RunWorkerAsync(process);
}
void DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
BackgroundWorker worker = sender as BackgroundWorker;
Process process = e.Argument as Process;
process.Start();
string stderr = process.StandardError.ReadToEnd();
//I want to display stderr on main thread
process.WaitForExit();
}
void WorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
//some code to update gui telling user that process has finished
}
so, if there is something printed to stderr, I can see it in the debugger, but if I try to do anything with the string stderr, such as if I have a textbox called "_tbLog" and did
_tbLog.Text+=stderr;
I get an error from the compiler about them being on separate threads. is there a way to pass the object from the worker thread to the main thread?
In DoWork, set e.Result to your object. In the WorkerCompleted you can get that object back out... it will once again be e.Result of type object. Just cast it to the object it was. The WorkerCompleted should be on the correct thread.
Here is one of mine:
private void workerUpdateBuildHistory_DoWork(object sender, System.ComponentModel.DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
UpdateStatusModel model = (UpdateStatusModel)e.Argument;
BuildService buildService = new BuildService(model.TFSUrl);
e.Result = buildService.UpdateBuildHistoryList(model);
}
private void workerUpdateBuildHistory_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, System.ComponentModel.RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
BuildHistoryListModel model = (BuildHistoryListModel)e.Result;
if (model != null)
{
listViewPastBuilds.Items.Clear();
foreach (var item in model.Builds)
{
listViewPastBuilds.Items.Add(item);
}
}
}
Use your WorkerCompleted event handler to make changes the UI, it runs on the right thread. All you have to do is pass the string to the event handler. Which is what DoWorkEventArgs.Result was designed to do. You'll retrieve it in the event handler from e.Result. Thus:
void DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
//...
e.Result = stderr;
}
void WorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Error != null) DisplayError(e.Error);
else _tbLog.Text += (string)e.Result;
}
First you need to place whatever result object (in this example, a list of strings) in the DoWorkEventArgs.Result property, then retrieve this object via the RunWorkerCompletedArgs.Result property
Then, hook up an event handler RunWorkedCompleted event of the Background worker and have it pass back whatever object you want in the RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs.Result property.
Example:
void DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs arg)
{
List<string> results = new List<string>();
results.Add("one");
results.Add("two");
results.Add("three");
arg.Results = results;
}
void WorkComplete(object sender, runWorkerCompelteEventArgs arg)
{
//Get our result back as a list of strings
List<string> results = (List<string>)arg.Result;
PrintResults(results);
}
Note: I have not tested this code, but I believe it should compile.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.componentmodel.runworkercompletedeventargs.result.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.componentmodel.doworkeventargs.aspx
you can also use the dispatcher as #Zembi mentiones:
this.Dispatcher.Invoke( new Action( () => {
_tbLog.Text+=stderr;
} ) );
you can also use TPL to make sure things get run on the right thread
-edit-
Here is a good article on diffrent ways to do ui updates, including using TPL