Accessing form controls during Timer.Elapsed event [duplicate] - wpf

Question

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Prevent using Dispatcher.Invoke in WPF code
(1 answer)
Closed 7 years ago.
I have a WPF application written in VB.net. I'm trying to access a form control during a timer event, but the code is throwing an exception. Below is my code:
Public WithEvents attendanceFetchTimer As System.Timers.Timer
Private Sub Window_Loaded(sender As Object, e As RoutedEventArgs)
attendanceFetchTimer = New System.Timers.Timer(cfgAttFetchInterval)
AddHandler attendanceFetchTimer.Elapsed, New ElapsedEventHandler(AddressOf getAllDeviceAttendance)
attendanceFetchTimer.Enabled = True
End Sub
Private Sub getAllDeviceAttendance(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As ElapsedEventArgs) Handles attendanceFetchTimer.Elapsed
If(checkBox1.isChecked) Then
'Do something here change the textbox value
txtStatus1.Text = "Getting Attendance Data Done!"
End If
End Sub
The problem is that when I debug, the checkBox1.isChecked is showing this message:
"Cannot evaluate expression because we are stopped in a place where garbage collection is impossible, possibly because the code of the current method may be optimized."
and in the console this error message is displayed:
"A first chance exception of type 'System.InvalidOperationException' occurred in WindowsBase.dll"
The same problem happens when I try to change the text of txtStatus1.

Answer 1

The System.InvalidOperationException looks like it is caused by cross-thread access to a UI component. The System.Timers.Timer by default fires the Elapsed event on a thread pool thread. Using DispatcherTimer and the Tick event will get things on the right thread for accessing the UI in WPF.
It also looks like you may have duplicate event handlers wired up, since you have both WithEvents/Handles and AddHandler, but I'm not entirely sure how that works in WPF. You probably want something like (untested):
Private attendanceFetchTimer As System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherTimer
Private Sub Window_Loaded(sender As Object, e As RoutedEventArgs)
attendanceFetchTimer = New System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherTimer()
AddHandler attendanceFetchTimer.Tick, AddressOf getAllDeviceAttendance
attendanceFetchTimer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(cfgAttFetchInterval)
attendanceFetchTimer.Start()
End Sub
Private Sub getAllDeviceAttendance(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
If(checkBox1.isChecked) Then
'Do something here change the textbox value
txtStatus1.Text = "Getting Attendance Data Done!"
End If
End Sub