multithreading - In C#, wait on the mainthread while continuing to process UI updates? (.NET 2.0 CF)

Question

I want to otherwise block code execution on the main thread while still allowing UI changes to be displayed.

I tried to come up with a simplified example version of what I'm trying to do; and this is the best I could come up with. Obviously it doesn't demonstrate the behavior I'm wanting or I wouldn't be posting the question. I just hope it gives some code context to back my poor explanation of the problem I'm hoping to solve.

Within a button click handler on a form I have this:

    private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        AutoResetEvent autoResetEvent = new AutoResetEvent(false);

        new Thread(delegate() 
        {
            // do something that takes a while.
            Thread.Sleep(1000);

            // Update UI w/BeginInvoke
            this.BeginInvoke(new ThreadStart(
                delegate() { 
                    this.Text = "Working... 1";
                    this.Refresh();
                    Thread.Sleep(1000); // gimme a chance to see the new text
                }));

            // do something else that takes a while.
            Thread.Sleep(1000);

            // Update UI w/Invoke
            this.Invoke(new ThreadStart(
                delegate() {
                    this.Text = "Working... 2";
                    this.Refresh();
                    Thread.Sleep(1000); // gimme a chance to see the new text
                }));

            // do something else that takes a while.
            Thread.Sleep(1000);

            autoResetEvent.Set();
        }).Start();


        // I want the UI to update during this 4 seconds, even though I'm 
        // blocking the mainthread
        if (autoResetEvent.WaitOne(4000, false))
        {
            this.Text = "Event Signalled";
        }
        else
        {
            this.Text = "Event Wait Timeout";
        }
        Thread.Sleep(1000); // gimme a chance to see the new text
        this.Refresh();
    }

If I didn't set a timout on the WaitOne() the app would deadlock on the Invoke() call.

---

As to why I'd want to do this, I've been tasked with moving one subsystem of an app to do work in a background thread, but still have it block user's workflow (the main thread) only sometimes and for certain types of work related to that subsystem only.

Answer 1

You want to use the "BackgroundWorker" class, which will take most of this pain out of this for you.. but as mentioned before, you'll also want to structure it so that the main thread is updating the UI and the worker is doing the heavy lifting.