Update WPF Window Asynchronously - wpf

Question

I am creating a simple WPF app that when you click on a button it runs through a few steps like copy the file to a new location, convert the file then it copies the new file back to the original location.
The steps are working fine but I would like to have the WPF window update to which step it is on and hide the button while it is running.
The window only updates once it has finished running my code. I think I used to be able to do this on classic forms with me.refresh but this doesn't work on WPF.
Is something I can do to update the window after each step is complete?
Thank you
Button1.Visibility = Windows.Visibility.Hidden
FileCopy("C:\Test.xsf", AppPath & "\Convert\test.xsf")
Image7.Visibility = Windows.Visibility.Hidden
Image3.Visibility = Windows.Visibility.Visible
Program.StartInfo.FileName = xDefs
Program.StartInfo.Arguments = "/q"
Program.Start()
Program.WaitForExit()
Image5.Visibility = Windows.Visibility.Visible
FileCopy("AppPath & "\Convert\test.csv, "C:\Test.csv")
Button1.Visibility = Windows.Visibility.Visible

Answer 1

In order to update the UI while your program is busy, you'll need to use the Dispatcher class to add your update request onto the UI message queue. Take this synchronous example:
public void DoWorkWithFile(string filePath)
{
CopyFile(filePath);
ConvertFile(filePath);
CopyFileBack();
}
We could use the Dispatcher class to break this up and feed messages back to the UI in between tasks:
public void DoWorkWithFile(string filePath)
{
CopyFile(filePath);
RunOnUiThread((Action)delegate { SomeUiTextBlock.Text = "Copied" });
ConvertFile(filePath);
RunOnUiThread((Action)delegate { SomeUiTextBlock.Text = "Converted" });
CopyFileBack();
RunOnUiThread((Action)delegate { SomeUiTextBlock.Text = "Copied back" });
}
private object RunOnUiThread(Action method)
{
return Dispatcher.Invoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, method);
}

Answer 2

I know this is a VB.NET tagged question but I'll just go ahead and share a C# solution. I hope you know enough of it to port it to VB. This is the first time and posting anything to stackoverflow, if it solves your problem please mark it as the answer :-)
You must first know a thing or two (actually a lot more) on data binding. You basically create a view model, define the property that changes with time and bind this to the window. In this case you must define a value to keep track of the current operation and let the button control.
Disclaimer, I wrote this in notepad and haven't tested it on visual studio. Be on the lookout for typos.
using System.ComponentModel;
namespace FileConverter
{
//define the various states the application will transition to
public enum OperationStatus
{
CopyingFileToNewLocation
ConvertingFile,
CopyingFileToOriginalLocation
OperationCompelete
}
//Defines the view model that shall be bound to the window.
//The view model updates the UI using event notifications. Any control that had enabled
//binding will get updated automatically
public class ViewModel : INotifyPropertyChanged//This interface defines an event used to raise an event and notify subscribers of a changed in data
{
private OperationStatus _FileConvertionStatus;
public event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;
public OperationStatus FileConvertionStatus
{
get
{
return _FileConvertionStatus;
}
set
{
_FileConvertionStatus=value;
//Notify all UIElements / objects that had subscribed to this property that it has changed
RaisePropertyChanged(this,"FileConvertionStatus");
}
}
public void RaisePropertyChanged(object sender,string propertyName)
{
//check if there is any object that had subscribed to changes of any of the data properties in the view model
if(PropertyChanged!=null)
PropertyChanged(sender,new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
}
public void StartFileConvertion(string filePath)
{
//Any time we change the property 'FileConvertionStatus', an event is raised which updates the UI
this.FileConvertionStatus=OperationStatus.CopyingFileToNewLocation;
StartCopyingToNewLocation(); //call your copying logic
this.FileConvertionStatus=OperationStatus.ConvertingFile;
StartFileConvertion(); //call your conversion logic
this.FileConvertionStatus=OperationStatus.CopyingFileToOriginalLocation();
CopyFileToOriginalLocation(); //...
this.FileConvertionStatus=OperationStatus.OperationCompelete;
}
}
}
//Now for the UI section
In the constructor of the window, you must bind the window to the view model right after this window has been initialized
public partial class MainWindow : Window
{
public MainWindow()
{
InitializeComponent();
ViewModel vm=new ViewModel();
//setting the data context property the window implicitly binds the whole window to our view model object
this.DataContext=vm;
string filePath="c:\file.txt";
//start the file manipulation process
vm.StartFileConvertion(filePath);
}
}
//Next step we need to bind the button to the 'FileConvertionStatus' property located in the view model. We don't bind the button to the whole view model, just the property that it's interested in. Having bound the window to the view model in the previous code, all child elements get access to the public properties of this view model (VM from now on). We do the property binding in XAML
..Button x:Name="btnStartFileProcessing" Enabled="{Binding FileConvertionStatus}"...
We're almost there. One this is missing. You'll notice that the 'Enabled' property is a Boolean value. The 'FileConvertionStatus' property is enum. Same way you can't assign an enum to a Boolean directly, you need to do some convertion. This is where converters come in.
Converters allow you to define how one property can be converted to a different one in XAML. In this case we want the button to be enabled only when file conversion is successful. Please do some reading into this.
Create a class as shown below:
using System.Windows.Data;
namespace FileConverter
{
public class OperationStatusToBooleanConverter : IValueConverter
{
public object Convert(object value, Type targetType,object parameter,System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
{
OperationStatus status=(OperationStatus)value;
switch(status)
{
case OperationStatus.OperationCompelete:
return true; //enable the button when everything has been done
default:
return false;//disable the button as the file processing is underway
}
}
public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType,object parameter,System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture)
{
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
}
}
Next step is to define the converter in XAML code. Think of this as initializing it though it can't be further from the true :-). Its more of importing the namespace into the xaml.Put the code below in the App.XAML file. Doing such declaration in the App.XAML file makes the code visible globally.
xmlns:MyConverters="clr-namespace:FileConverter"
In the Application.Resources XAML tag, declare the converter as shown below
<Application.Resources>
<MyConverters:OperationStatusToBooleanConverter x:Key="OperationStatusToBooleanConverter"/>
</Application.Resources>
Final Step
Redo the binding code in the button to include the converter.
...Button Enabled="{Binding FileConvertionStatus,Converter={StaticResource OperationStatusToBooleanConverter}}" x:Name="btnStartFileProcessing" ...
Please note that I haven't thread-optimized this code, the main problem is that all work is being done on the UI thread which can lead to the window hanging if an operation takes long.
The amount of work needed to properly set the binding up as per MVVM code standards is a lot. It might seem like an over-kill and at times, it actually is. Keep this in mind though, once the UI gets complex MVVM will definitely save the day due to the separation of concerns and binding strategies.