Losing UI functionality while using the Background Worker

Question

I am quite new with using different threads and using the BackgroundWorker, so I do not fully understand everything yet. I have posted all the coding that I have from the client side of the program below.

The problem that I have is that even though I use the BackgroundWorker, I still lose functionality of all of the UI while I load data from my WCF service to my WPF client application. It takes about 2-3 minutes to load the data(about +- 1500 lines of data), so it makes for a really bad user experience.

Is there any obvious thing that I might be missing to get the UI working while the data loads into the datagrid? Any advice would be appreciated, thank you! :)

Updated Code:

public partial class pgSysproStock : Window
{
    public pgSysproStock()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        SysproStock.WindowState = WindowState.Normal;
        dgSysproStock.IsEnabled = false;

        worker.DoWork += worker_DoWork;
        worker.RunWorkerCompleted += worker_RunWorkerCompleted;
        worker.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
        worker.ProgressChanged += worker_ProgressChanged;
        worker.RunWorkerAsync();
    }

    private readonly BackgroundWorker worker = new BackgroundWorker();

    private async void worker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
    {
        using (TruckServiceClient TSC = new TruckServiceClient())
        {
            List<AllStock> allStock = new List<AllStock>();
            this.Dispatcher.Invoke((Action)(() =>
            {
                prgStockProgress.Visibility = Visibility.Visible;
            }));
            foreach (var item in await TSC.GetSysproStockAsync())
                allStock.Add(new AllStock
                {
                    Id = item.Id,
                    StockCode = item.StockCode,
                    Description = item.Description,
                    ConvFactAltUom = item.ConvFactAltUom,
                    ConvMulDiv = item.ConvMulDiv,
                    ConvFactOthUom = item.ConvFactOthUom,
                    MulDiv = item.MulDiv,
                    Mass = item.Mass,
                    Updated_Supplier = item.Updated_Supplier,
                    CycleCount = item.CycleCount,
                    ProductClass = item.ProductClass.ToString(),
                    UnitCost = item.UnitCost,
                    Discount = item.Discount,
                    Warehouse = item.Warehouse,
                    MinimumStock = item.MinimumStock,
                    MaximumStock = item.MaximumStock,
                    StockForNow = item.StockForNow,
                    CoilWidth = item.CoilWidth,
                    SheetCoilLength = item.SheetCoilLength,
                    MaterialThickness = item.MaterialThickness
                });
            e.Result = allStock.ToArray();
        }
    }

    private void worker_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        this.prgStockProgress.Value = e.ProgressPercentage;
    }

    private void worker_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
    {            
        dgSysproStock.ItemsSource = (AllStock[])e.Result;
        dgSysproStock.IsEnabled = true;
    }
}

EDIT: I've also removed the async & await from the method in my coding, but the data still doesn't seem to come through.

I've added a breakpoint here: foreach (var item in await TSC.GetSysproStockAsync()) and I can't get past the TSC.GetSysproStock()) code. Why is it doing this?

Answer 1

Using the async/await correctly:

    public pgSysproStock()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
        SysproStock.WindowState = WindowState.Normal;

        this.UpdateStockAsync();
    }

    private async void UpdateStockAsync()
    {
        dgSysproStock.IsEnabled = false;

        using (TruckServiceClient TSC = new TruckServiceClient())
        {
            var allStock = await TSC.GetSysproStockAsync().ToArray();

            dgSysproStock.ItemsSource = allStock.Select(item =>
                        new AllStock
                            {
                                Id = item.Id,
                                StockCode = item.StockCode,
                                Description = item.Description,
                                ConvFactAltUom = item.ConvFactAltUom,
                                ConvMulDiv = item.ConvMulDiv,
                                ConvFactOthUom = item.ConvFactOthUom,
                                MulDiv = item.MulDiv,
                                Mass = item.Mass,
                                Updated_Supplier = item.Updated_Supplier,
                                CycleCount = item.CycleCount,
                                ProductClass = item.ProductClass.ToString(),
                                UnitCost = item.UnitCost,
                                Discount = item.Discount,
                                Warehouse = item.Warehouse,
                                MinimumStock = item.MinimumStock,
                                MaximumStock = item.MaximumStock,
                                StockForNow = item.StockForNow,
                                CoilWidth = item.CoilWidth,
                                SheetCoilLength = item.SheetCoilLength,
                                MaterialThickness = item.MaterialThickness
                        }).ToArray();

        dgSysproStock.IsEnabled = true;
    }
}

Answer 2

This is not how the BackgroundWorker should be used. Try passing the data through to the RunWorkerCompleted event handler and update the UI from there.

Remove this:

this.Dispatcher.Invoke((Action)(() =>
{
    dgSysproStock.ItemsSource = (allStock.ToArray());
    dgSysproStock.IsEnabled = true;
}));

In the DoWork event handler, set the Result to your data:

e.Result = allStock.ToArray();

Then in the RunWorkerCompleted event handler:

dgSysproStock.ItemsSource = (AllSTock[])e.Result;
dgSysproStock.IsEnabled = true;