WPF waiting for the UI to finish - wpf

Question

I have a code that needs to refresh the UI then wait for it to finish (refreshing may involve animations) and then keep going. Is there a way to call the Application.Current.Dispatcher.Invoke(new Action (()=> { PerformUpdateWithAnimations(); } in a syncrhonous way?
This is the overall look:
List<thingsThatMove> myThings = new List<ThingsThatMove>();
//normal code interacting with the data
// let's name this part of code A
foreach (thing t in myThings)
{
thing.currentPosition = SomePoint;
if(thing.wasRejectedBySystem) thing.needsToMove = true;
}
//As a result of A we have some impact in the UI
//That may need some animations (let's call this bloc B)
Application.Current.Dispatcher.Invoke(new Action(() => {
foreach(thing in myThings)
if(thing.needsToMove)
createNewAnimation(thing);
}));
//Here is some final code that needs the final position of some
//of the elements, so it cannot be executed until the B part has
// been finished. Let's call this bloc C
updateInternalValues(myThings);
cleanUp();
I tried encapsulating B into a BackgroundWoker. Setting the B bloc as the DoWork and listening to the completed but it doent work since the B blok "completes" after the Application.Current.Dispatcher is called, not after the dispatcher itself finishes everything
How can I make C wait until all the animations in B are finished ?

Answer 1

You can use async/await to call asynchrnously and continue after it has been executed..
private async void RefreshCode()
{
List<thingsThatMove> myThings = new List<ThingsThatMove>();
//normal code interacting with the data
// let's name this part of code A
foreach (thing t in myThings)
{
thing.currentPosition = SomePoint;
if(thing.wasRejectedBySystem) thing.needsToMove = true;
}
//As a result of A we have some impact in the UI
//That may need some animations (let's call this bloc B)
await Application.Current.Dispatcher.InvokeAsync(new Action(() => {
foreach(thing in myThings)
if(thing.needsToMove)
createNewAnimation(thing);
}));
//Here is some final code that needs the final position of some
//of the elements, so it cannot be executed until the B part has
// been finished. Let's call this bloc C
updateInternalValues(myThings);
cleanUp();
}