How to run and interact with an async Task from a WPF gui

Question

I have a WPF GUI, where I want to press a button to start a long task without freezing the window for the duration of the task. While the task is running I would like to get reports on progress, and I would like to incorporate another button that will stop the task at any time I choose.

I cannot figure the correct way to use async/await/task. I can't include everything I've tried, but this is what I have at the moment.

A WPF window class :

public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
    readonly otherClass _burnBabyBurn = new OtherClass();
    internal bool StopWorking = false;
        
    //A button method to start the long running method
    private async void Button_Click_3(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {   
        Task slowBurn = _burnBabyBurn.ExecuteLongProcedureAsync(this, intParam1, intParam2, intParam3);
            
        await slowBurn;
    }
        
    //A button Method to interrupt and stop the long running method
    private void StopButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        StopWorking = true;
    }

    //A method to allow the worker method to call back and update the gui
    internal void UpdateWindow(string message)
    {
        TextBox1.Text = message;
    }
}
 

And a class for the worker method:

class OtherClass
{
    internal Task ExecuteLongProcedureAsync(MainWindow gui, int param1, int param2, int param3)
    {       
        var tcs = new TaskCompletionSource<int>();       
             
        //Start doing work
        gui.UpdateWindow("Work Started");        
             
        While(stillWorking)
        {
        //Mid procedure progress report
        gui.UpdateWindow("Bath water n% thrown out");        
        if (gui.StopTraining) return tcs.Task;
        }
             
        //Exit message
        gui.UpdateWindow("Done and Done");       
        return tcs.Task;        
    }
}

This runs, but the WPF function window is still blocked once the worker method starts.

I need to know how to arrange the async/await/task declarations to allow

A) the worker method to not block the gui window
B) let the worker method update the gui window
C) allow the gui window to stop interrupt and stop the worker method

Any help or pointers are much appreciated.

Answer 1

Your use of TaskCompletionSource<T> is incorrect. TaskCompletionSource<T> is a way to create TAP-compatible wrappers for asynchronous operations. In your ExecuteLongProcedureAsync method, the sample code is all CPU-bound (i.e., inherently synchronous, not asynchronous).

So, it's much more natural to write ExecuteLongProcedure as a synchronous method. It's also a good idea to use standard types for standard behaviors, in particular using IProgress<T> for progress updates and CancellationToken for cancellation:

internal void ExecuteLongProcedure(int param1, int param2, int param3,
    CancellationToken cancellationToken, IProgress<string> progress)
{       
  //Start doing work
  if (progress != null)
    progress.Report("Work Started");

  while (true)
  {
    //Mid procedure progress report
    if (progress != null)
      progress.Report("Bath water n% thrown out");
    cancellationToken.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
  }

  //Exit message
  if (progress != null)
    progress.Report("Done and Done");
}

Now you have a more reusable type (no GUI dependencies) that uses the appropriate conventions. It can be used as such:

public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
  readonly otherClass _burnBabyBurn = new OtherClass();
  CancellationTokenSource _stopWorkingCts = new CancellationTokenSource();

  //A button method to start the long running method
  private async void Button_Click_3(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
  {
    var progress = new Progress<string>(data => UpdateWindow(data));
    try
    {
      await Task.Run(() => _burnBabyBurn.ExecuteLongProcedure(intParam1, intParam2, intParam3,
          _stopWorkingCts.Token, progress));
    }
    catch (OperationCanceledException)
    {
      // TODO: update the GUI to indicate the method was canceled.
    }
  }

  //A button Method to interrupt and stop the long running method
  private void StopButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
  {
    _stopWorkingCts.Cancel();
  }

  //A method to allow the worker method to call back and update the gui
  void UpdateWindow(string message)
  {
    TextBox1.Text = message;
  }
}

Answer 2

This is a simplified version of the most popular answer here by Bijan. I simplified Bijan's answer to help me think through the problem using the nice formatting provided by Stack Overflow.

By carefully reading and editing Bijan's post I finally understood: How to wait for async method to complete?

In my case the chosen answer for that other post is what ultimately led me to solve my problem:

"Avoid async void. Have your methods return Task instead of void. Then you can await them."

My simplified version of Bijan's (excellent) answer follows:

1) This starts a task using async and await:

private async void Button_Click_3(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    // if ExecuteLongProcedureAsync has a return value
    var returnValue = await Task.Run(()=>
        ExecuteLongProcedureAsync(this, intParam1, intParam2, intParam3));
}

2) This is the method to execute asynchronously:

bool stillWorking = true;
internal void ExecuteLongProcedureAsync(MainWindow gui, int param1, int param2, int param3)
{
    //Start doing work
    gui.UpdateWindow("Work Started");

    while (stillWorking)
    {
        //put a dot in the window showing the progress
        gui.UpdateWindow(".");

        //the following line blocks main thread unless
        //ExecuteLongProcedureAsync is called with await keyword
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(50);
    }

    gui.UpdateWindow("Done and Done");
} 

3) Invoke the operation which involves a property from gui:

void UpdateWindow(string text)
{
    //safe call
    Dispatcher.Invoke(() =>
    {
        txt.Text += text;
    });
}

Or,

void UpdateWindow(string text)
{
    //simply
    txt.Text += text;
}

Closing comments) In most cases you have two methods.

• First method (Button_Click_3) calls the second method and has the async modifier which tells the compiler to enable threading for that method.

  • Thread.Sleep in an async method blocks the main thread. but awaiting a task does not.
  • Execution stops on current thread (second thread) on await statements until task is finished.
  • You can't use await outside an async method

• Second method (ExecuteLongProcedureAsync) is wrapped within a task and returns a generic Task<original return type> object which can be instructed to be processed asynchronously by adding await before it.

  • Everything in this method in executed asynchronously

Important:

Liero brought up an important issue. When you are Binding an element to a ViewModel property, the property changed callback is executed in UI thread. So there is no need to use Dispatcher.Invoke. Value changes fired by INotifyPropertyChanged are automatically marshalled back onto the dispatcher.

Answer 3

Here is an example using async/await, IProgress<T> and CancellationTokenSource. These are the modern C# and .Net Framework language features that you should be using. The other solutions are making my eyes bleed a bit.

Code Features

• Count to 100 over a period of 10 seconds
• Display progress on a progress bar
• Long running work (a 'wait' period) performed without blocking the UI
• User triggered cancellation
• Incremental progress updates
• Post operation status report

The view

<Window x:Class="ProgressExample.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/expression/blend/2008"
        xmlns:mc="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/markup-compatibility/2006"
        mc:Ignorable="d"
        Title="MainWindow" SizeToContent="WidthAndHeight" Height="93.258" Width="316.945">
    <StackPanel>
        <Button x:Name="Button_Start" Click="Button_Click">Start</Button>
        <ProgressBar x:Name="ProgressBar_Progress" Height="20"  Maximum="100"/>
        <Button x:Name="Button_Cancel" IsEnabled="False" Click="Button_Cancel_Click">Cancel</Button>
    </StackPanel>
</Window>

The code

    /// <summary>
    /// Interaction logic for MainWindow.xaml
    /// </summary>
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        private CancellationTokenSource currentCancellationSource;

        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private async void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            // Enable/disabled buttons so that only one counting task runs at a time.
            this.Button_Start.IsEnabled = false;
            this.Button_Cancel.IsEnabled = true;

            try
            {
                // Set up the progress event handler - this instance automatically invokes to the UI for UI updates
                // this.ProgressBar_Progress is the progress bar control
                IProgress<int> progress = new Progress<int>(count => this.ProgressBar_Progress.Value = count);

                currentCancellationSource = new CancellationTokenSource();
                await CountToOneHundredAsync(progress, this.currentCancellationSource.Token);

                // Operation was successful. Let the user know!
                MessageBox.Show("Done counting!");
            }
            catch (OperationCanceledException)
            {
                // Operation was cancelled. Let the user know!
                MessageBox.Show("Operation cancelled.");
            }
            finally
            {
                // Reset controls in a finally block so that they ALWAYS go 
                // back to the correct state once the counting ends, 
                // regardless of any exceptions
                this.Button_Start.IsEnabled = true;
                this.Button_Cancel.IsEnabled = false;
                this.ProgressBar_Progress.Value = 0;

                // Dispose of the cancellation source as it is no longer needed
                this.currentCancellationSource.Dispose();
                this.currentCancellationSource = null;
            }
        }

        private async Task CountToOneHundredAsync(IProgress<int> progress, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
        {
            for (int i = 1; i <= 100; i++)
            {
                // This is where the 'work' is performed. 
                // Feel free to swap out Task.Delay for your own Task-returning code! 
                // You can even await many tasks here

                // ConfigureAwait(false) tells the task that we dont need to come back to the UI after awaiting
                // This is a good read on the subject - https://blog.stephencleary.com/2012/07/dont-block-on-async-code.html
                await Task.Delay(100, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false);

                // If cancelled, an exception will be thrown by the call the task.Delay
                // and will bubble up to the calling method because we used await!

                // Report progress with the current number
                progress.Report(i);
            }
        }

        private void Button_Cancel_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            // Cancel the cancellation token
            this.currentCancellationSource.Cancel();
        }
    }