CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#wpfmultithreading
ab_mundi
ab_mundi

Reputation: 53

Loading window in a new thread

I have to show a progress window in a different thread. This is what I've done:

Thread loadT = new Thread(new ThreadStart(() =>
{
    Loading ldd = new Loading();

    ldd.SetContentMessage("Loading...");
    ldd.Closed += (s, ec) =>
    Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.BeginInvokeShutdown(DispatcherPriority.Background);

    ldd.ShowDialog();

}));
loadT.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA); 

loadT.Start();

//do something

loadT.Abort();

But I don't think this is the right way. I want to use this window for different processes and i also want to set the window on the top of the others. Which is the best approach? Ty!

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1808

Answers (2)

Skintkingle
Skintkingle

Reputation: 1579

You should do this the other way around when you are waiting for data and stuff to load.

Loading ldd = new Loading();
ldd.SetContentMessage("Loading...");
ldd.ShowDialog();
Thread loadT = new Thread(new ThreadStart() => 
{
    //Do stuff here
});
loadT.Start();

Then you can get setup some events and such to either post updates to the loading window, or just leave it as is. You can also either monitor the threads state within the Loading window and close itself when the thread is complete or close the window from the thread.

as an example you could modify Loading to take a Thread as its parameter.

Thread loadT = new Thread(new ThreadStart() => 
{
    //Do stuff here
});
Loading ldd = new Loading(loadT);
ldd.ShowDialog();

You can then move the starting of the thread, and monitoring of the thread/closing the window into the Loading class and it can look after itself.

There are 900,000 ways you can do this. You can also use BackgroundWorkers instead of spawning a new Thread, or you can use async/await in .Net 4.5+. Threading like this has been exhaustively done in the past and there should be lots of resources on google to help you in whatever path you decide to take. The important takeaway from this is your window should really be on the UI thread, and your loading should be done on another thread, not the other way around.

Upvotes: 1

mm8
mm8

Reputation: 169390

You could refer to the following blog post for an example of how to launch a WPF window in a separate thread the right way: http://reedcopsey.com/2011/11/28/launching-a-wpf-window-in-a-separate-thread-part-1/.

But you won't be able to mix controls that are created on different threads. A control can only be accessed on the thread on which it was originally created so it makes no sense to create a control on one thread and then trying to use it on another because this simply won't work because of the thread affinity.

Displaying a stand-alone top-level read-only window during the time a long-running operation is in progress is fine but you should probably close this window as soon as the operation has completed. You won't be able to move controls from this window to another one that was created on another thread anyway.

Upvotes: 0

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