CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#multithreading
J Hunt
J Hunt

Reputation: 791

Threading to continue process while web page is left

I've read a good bit about threading with C#, but to be upfront I haven't done anything in production using it.

I have an application that has to process a bunch of documents and then send the documents via email. This may take 60 seconds to accomplish. I don't want the user of my web application to have to wait for these things to process to move on to other parts of the site.

On a button click the SendEmail function is called. What can I do to this code to make it so that my users can continue browsing the site without discontinuing the processing I need to do within the EmailPDFs function?

    [Authorize]
    public ActionResult SendEmail(decimal? id, decimal? id2)
    {
       EmailPDFs(..., ..., ...);  
    }

Thanks so much!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 122

Answers (1)

Mike Hofer
Mike Hofer

Reputation: 17022

This is really the kind of thing that message queues are designed to handle. Fire off a message, and a process on a potentially separate server picks it up and processes it. When it's done, it sends a message back to a queue on your server, where a process on your server picks it up and notifies you that it's complete. You then notify your user that the work is finished.

Modern message queue systems can be backed by databases (such as Mongo, MySql, or SQL Server), and are extremely robust. The great thing about them is that they allow you to move long-running or CPU-intensive processes off onto other servers so that your web site remains nice and snappy.

You could try to add multi-threading and parallelism to your web application, by using TaskFactory and all that other stuff (for many folks, this is the route they take), but it doesn't make it very easy to separate your application if you need to, and break those big, resource-hogging pieces off if it becomes necessary.

I urge you to consider a queue-based solution.

Update:

For samples and information on how to implement this type of solution, see the following:

Also, consider glancing at this StackOverflow question for a quick crash course on the bare minimimum amount of code required.

A final note: MSMQ is built into certain flavors of Windows, and can be added to it through the Add/Remove Programs feature of the Control Panel. However, how you install it will depend on your specific flavor and version of Windows. A simple Google search will help you to find the appropriate instructions.

Good luck!

Upvotes: 2

Related Questions