How to delay window closing in WPF - wpf

I try to delay close a window in my App.xaml.ca :
Window splash = new Window();
splash.Show();
Timer timer = new Timer(callback, null, 2000, Timeout.Infinite);
private void callback(object stateInfo)
{
splash.Close();
}
It works fine, but the whole App is shutdowning. What am doing wrong here ?

Be sure to check that you timer callback is coming back on the main dispatcher thread. If not then you will likely be getting an exception when you try to close your window from a different thread.
Use splash.Dispatcher.CheckAccess() to make sure you are on the right thread and if not then use splash.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke((Action) () => splash.Close() to dispatch the call onto the main thread.
Check out this page for more

Here is my solution to this exact same problem:
private async void CloseWindow()
{
await ClosingTasks();
}
private async Task ClosingTasks()
{
await Task.Delay(2000);
this.Close();
}
Where you simply call CloseWindow() when you want to close the current window after the given delay of 2000 mS.

There are different shutdown modes, if that window is closed and it is the last then the application will shut down by default. So you can either see to it that there is still some window around or you can change the shutdown behaviour by setting the ShutdownMode to something that suits your needs.
e.g.
Application.Current.ShutdownMode = System.Windows.ShutdownMode.OnExplicitShutdown;

Related

Closing the New Window on a new Thread (WPF)

Hi I had posted a question along these lines recently but this is now a little more specific to my requirements. So, I have an Application where the user needs to log in. The log in process can take some time so I decided to put up a little animated GIF to show it is doing something. Sounds simple...!!??
I noticed soon that the login process was freezing the animation so I thought, I will put the login process on its own thread. I had countless instances of it referencing objects on the UI Thread so thought I would try the other way round and have the Image display on a new thread. Same issue - so I decided to create a new window containing the image, format it accordingly and display this as a new thread! Simple! That (bit) worked... I click to login, animation appears and disappears onces login is complete. So the Thread variable is set as global one:
Friend g_thLoading As Thread
And when the Login button is clicked I have the following:
g_thLoading = New Thread(AddressOf LoginSplashScreen)
g_thLoading.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA)
g_thLoading.IsBackground = True
g_thLoading.Name = "LoginThread"
g_thLoading.Start()
VerifyLogin() 'Process that takes a while...
g_thLoading.Abort()
Then the method that is called in the new thread:
Sub LoginSplashScreen()
Dim SplashScreenWin As New SplashScreen()
Try
SplashScreenWin.ShowDialog()
System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.Run()
Catch ex As Exception
SplashScreenWin.Close()
SplashScreenWin = Nothing
End Try
End Sub
This works - but not if I have to click the button more than once. However If (for example) the user enters the wrong credentials, clicks login (the above processes and completes) they are prompted to re-enter - click the login button again... but this time, the window doesnt display (but oddly does appear in the Task Bar)... Then the application is forced to close (nothing in debug on why that is).
I am confident that the Dialogue Window is closing correctly after the first instance as i) it is no longer in the Task Bar and secondly I have put some checks on the Windows Close event. I am fairly confident that the created Thread is closed after the first instance as I can see it drop off from the Thread Window in Visual Studio... So - I am at a total loss. I have also tried the Join function on the thread but this just hangs the process before it gets to g_thLoading.Abort()
I am open to any advice on how I can go about achieving my end goal... whether it is expanding on what I have done here or another suggestion altogether. I have messed around with the Background Worker but not had much more luck there.
Use the BackgroundWorker class to implement your long running processes. The class allows you to specify code that will run on a background thread (in the DoWork event handler), code that will run during "updates" on the thread that created the BackgroundWorker in the ProgressChanged event handler, and code that will run when the process completes, again on the thread that created the BackgroundWorker in the RunWorkerCompleted event handler.
Using it goes something like this:
private class LoginParameters {
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Password { get; set; }
// Any other properties needed
}
// Make this a property of your form.
BackgroundWorker LoginWorker { get; set; }
// Somewhere in your UI code after the user clicks the "login button"
LoginWorker = new BackgroundWorker();
LoginWorker.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
LoginWorker.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true; // Can set to false if you don't allow the operation to be cancelled.
LoginWorker.DoWorker += DoLogin;
LoginWorker.ProgressChanged += ReportProgress;
LoginWorker.RunWorkerCompleted += LoginFinished;
LoginParameters login = new LoginParameters {
// Code to initialize everything here
};
LoginWorker.RunWorkerAsync(login);
// Put this in the click event handler for the Cancel button, if you have one
if ( LoginWorker != null )
LoginWorker.CancelAsync();
private void DoLogin(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e) {
BackgroundWorker worker = (BackgroundWorker) sender;
LoginParameters login = (LoginParameters) e.Argument;
// Your logic to process the login goes here. It should periodically do the following to check to see if the user clicked the cancel button:
if ( worker.CancellationPending ) {
e.Cancel = true;
return;
}
// When you want to update the UI, do this:
worker.ReportProgress( percentComplete, objectWithOtherDataToWriteToTheUI );
// When you're done, just return.
}
private void ReportProgress(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e) {
// Your code to extract the data you need to update the display from the arguments & to then update the display goes here. Remember, this runs on the UI thread
}
private void LoginFinished( object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e ) {
if (e.Cancelled == true)
// Your code to inform the user of the cancellation here
else if (e.Error != null)
// All unhadgled exceptions throws by the DoWork event handler end up here
// Your code to inform the user of the error here
else {
// Your code to inform the user of the success goes here.
// Remember, this runs on the UI thread.
// I recommend you set the form BackgroundWorker property to null after its finished, as you can't reuse it after its finished.
LoginWorker = null;
}
}
Sorry this is in C# if you're looking for VB.NET, but it shouldn't be hard to translate.

button content and wait cursor problems

I have a WPF application with a page with some code as shown below
public partial class MyPage : Page
{
public MyPage ()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
private void btnClose_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
this.Cursor = Cursors.Wait;
this.btnClose.Content = "Cancel";
// some long time consuming processing
this.Cursor = Cursors.Arrow;
this.btnClose.Content = "Close";
}
}
I am doing two things here on the Close button click hander which are causing problems. Before long processing I change the button context text to Cancel. I also want to change cursor for whole page to wait. Once long processing is done I set the cursor state and button content back to where it was. However I am facing following two issues.
When application is doing long running operation, I don't get to see the button content as Cancel. It just keep showing me original content CLose.
The cursor changes to Arrow only on the button. However on rest of page,I still keep getting same arrow cursor.
Any ideas how can these issue be solved?
Your code runs on the UI thread by default, so nothing else can be executed on the UI thread (such as re-rendering the UI) until the thread finishes executing.
There are many ways of releasing control of the UI thread before the code finishes executing, but I find the simplest is to use a Task from the Task Parallel Library which can be used to run code on a separate thread.
For example,
// this runs on the main UI thread
this.Cursor = Cursors.Wait;
this.btnClose.Content = "Cancel";
Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{
// this code runs on a background thread
// some long time consuming processing
})
.ContinueWith((e) =>
{
// this code runs from the UI thread again
this.Cursor = Cursors.Arrow;
this.btnClose.Content = "Close";
});
It should be noted that UI objects can only be modified on the UI thread, which is why I put the second UI update in the .ContinueWith(...) of the task. An alternative to this would be to use the Dispatcher to ensure code gets executed on the UI thread. If you decide you need this instead and can't find an easy example via Google, let me know and I'll write one here.
This has to be a duplicate some where
public class WaitCursor : IDisposable
{
private Cursor _previousCursor;
public WaitCursor()
{
_previousCursor = Mouse.OverrideCursor;
Mouse.OverrideCursor = Cursors.Wait;
}
#region IDisposable Members
public void Dispose()
{
Mouse.OverrideCursor = _previousCursor;
}
#endregion
}
using (new WaitCursor())
{
// long blocking operation
}

MessageBox.Show early in App startup causes app to terminate

As part of my App's startup procedure, it checks data integrity, and if it finds a problem it pops up a message to the user telling them that it might take a while to repair things.
I'm showing the message using MessageBox.Show. Because the data check is done from a worker thread, I'm switching over to the UI thread to make that call, and then setting a ManualResetEvent to tell the worker thread when the user has acknowledged the message.
I kick off the data check/load very early in the app's lifecycle from the constructor in the main Application class, by spinning off a worker thread (using the ThreadPool).
When I run with the debugger, and the message is displayed, the app just waits for input. When I run without the debugger, the app terminates after displaying the dialog for 10 seconds.
That 10 seconds is a big clue - it tells me that the OS thinks the app took too long to initialize (the OS kills apps that take too long to start up).
I think that my MessageBox.Show is blocking the UI thread before the App.RootFrameNavigating has a chance to be invoked.
My questions:
Does my diagnosis sound right?
I'd prefer to kick off my data load early, because it is almost entirely IO, except for this Message Box, and the sooner I can get my Model loaded, the better, but do you normally delay your data load until later in the app lifecycle?
Any other ideas/suggestions? I can't guarantee which page will be the start page, because the app could be resuming to any page. I'm also thinking of having the MessageBox.Show delay itself until the app has initialized, perhaps polling away for a flag set by App.RootFrameNavigating - does that make sense?
I think your problem is a result of kicking off the worker thread in the Application constructor. You should use the appropriate life-cycle event, in this case: PhoneApplicationService.Activated Event
So, the solution I've come up with is to still kick off the data load in a worker-thread from the Application's constructor, but in my PhoneService's class ShowDialog method that I invoke to invoke MessageBox.Show, I check to see if the initial navigation has occurred:
private readonly ManualResetEvent _appInitialized = new ManualResetEvent(false);
public void AppInitialized()
{
_appInitialized.Set();
}
public void ShowDialog(string caption, string text, Action<MessageBoxResult> callback, MessageBoxButton button = MessageBoxButton.OKCancel)
{
_appInitialized.WaitOne();
DispatcherHelper.CheckBeginInvokeOnUI(() =>
{
var result = MessageBox.Show(text, caption, button);
if (callback != null)
{
callback(result);
}
});
}
Then in my Application class:
private bool _firstNavigate = true;
private void RootFrameNavigating(object sender, NavigatingCancelEventArgs e)
{
if (_firstNavigate)
{
_firstNavigate = false;
var navigationService = (NavigationService) sender;
navigationService.Navigated += NavigationServiceNavigated;
}
....
private void NavigationServiceNavigated(object sender, NavigationEventArgs e)
{
var navigationService = (NavigationService)sender;
navigationService.Navigated -= NavigationServiceNavigated;
PhoneServices.Current.AppInitialized();
}
Anyone see any issues with this approach? Anyone come up with a better way?

What is the Alternative to show "Please wait" window in wpf while the call is non threaded

Recently I needed to implement please wait dialog in wpf application. i found below code. it's really good but it always open an window in saprate thread and hold the position. is there any other alter for below code. while my request of code is non threaded.
private void NewWindowThread<T,P>(Func<P, T> constructor, P param) where T : Window
{
Thread thread = new Thread(() =>
{
T w = constructor(param);
w.Show();
w.Closed += (sender, e) => w.Dispatcher.InvokeShutdown();
System.Windows.Threading.Dispatcher.Run();
});
thread.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
thread.Start();
}
to call above method use below lines. where loading window is you window which you want to show at dialog (please wait. windows)
string t = "Please Wait…";
NewWindowThread<LoadingWindow, string>(c => new LoadingWindow(c), t);
Blocking the ui thread was never a good idea, but it is increasingly more a bad idea.
Windows will tell the user that your app stopped responding. This may incite them to force your appliccations. If you render progress bars, they will lose the animation effects, and they may render incorrect. In WPF the gui animations will stop.
Use background threads for the heavy processing, and if you need to write data back in the objects used by your main thread, marshall them back to the gui thread. BackgroundWorker can be useful there.
this might help you out.
public partial class Splash : Window
{
private static Splash splash = new Splash();
// To refresh the UI immediately
private delegate void RefreshDelegate();
private static void Refresh(DependencyObject obj)
{
obj.Dispatcher.Invoke(System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherPriority.Render,
(RefreshDelegate)delegate { });
}
public Splash()
{
InitializeComponent();
}
public static void BeginDisplay()
{
splash.Show();
}
public static void EndDisplay()
{
splash.Close();
}
public static void Loading(string test)
{
splash.statuslbl.Content = test;
Refresh(splash.statuslbl);
}
}
using above code
Splash.BeginDisplay();
// Setting the status to show the application is still loading data
Splash.Loading("Connecting...");
// Set to sleep to simulate long running process
Thread.Sleep(1500);
Splash.Loading("Retrieving....");
Thread.Sleep(1500);
Splash.Loading("Success....");
Thread.Sleep(1500);
Splash.EndDisplay();

Confused by the behavior of Dispatcher.BeginInvoke()

Could someone shed some light on an issue I'm having?
I'm working on a wpf project. The scenario is as below:
I need to pop up a window(model window) on main UI thread and then close it. These works are started from another UI thread (to deter user from clicking on the main UI window.) then I close this window. The main code are displayed below. And it works.
As far as I know the close method would not get excuted before ShowDialog() returns (at least this is the case on UI thread, I mean code without dispatcher), does anyone have experience with multithread?
Window window;
private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
Thread thread = new Thread(() =>
{
//create a window and let user work from this thread
//code is omitted.
//create another window on main UI thread
Application.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(new Action(() =>
{
window = new Window();
window.ShowDialog();
}));
//do some work here
Thread.Sleep(1000);
Application.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(new Action(() =>
{
//Thread.Sleep(1000);
window.Close();
}));
});
thread.Start();
}
Thank you for your time!
So if I understand your question correctly, you're saying that this code works exactly the way you want, but you're just trying to understand how (and why) it works?
Here's how it works. First, your thread runs this code:
Application.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(new Action(() =>
{
window = new Window();
window.ShowDialog();
}));
That queues your action on the main (UI) thread's dispatcher queue, and then returns immediately: your worker thread continues running.
When the Application first started up (typically via the compiler-generated code that initializes your App.xaml object, though you can also do it explicitly by calling Application.Run), it started its message loop, which goes something like this (pseudocode, very very simplified):
public class Application {
public void Run() {
while (!Exited && action = Dispatcher.DequeueAction())
action();
}
}
So at some point shortly after you queue the action, the UI thread will get around to pulling your action off the queue and running it, at which point your action creates a window and shows it modally.
The modal window now starts its own message loop, which goes something like this (again, very simplified):
public class Window {
public bool? ShowDialog() {
DisableOtherWindowsAndShow();
while (!IsClosed && action = Dispatcher.DequeueAction())
action();
EnableOtherWindowsAndHide();
return DialogResult;
}
}
Later, your worker thread runs this code:
Application.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(new Action(() =>
{
window.Close();
}));
Again, your action is queued to the UI thread's dispatcher queue, and then the BeginInvoke call returns immediately and your worker thread continues running.
So sooner or later, the UI thread's message loop will get around to dequeuing and executing your action, which tells the window to close. This has essentially the same effect as the user clicking the title bar's "X" button, which of course is perfectly OK to do even when you're inside a modal dialog. This causes ShowDialog's message loop to terminate (because the window is now closed), at which point the dialog is hidden and the other windows are re-enabled, ShowDialog returns, your original (ShowDialog) action is complete and so returns, and control falls back to the original message loop in Application.Run.
Note that there's one dispatcher queue per thread, not one per message loop. So your "close" action goes into the same queue that your "show dialog" action did. It's a different piece of code doing the message-loop polling now (the one inside ShowDialog instead of the one inside Application.Run), but the basics of the loop are the same.
BeginInvoke is a non-blocking method; it adds the action to the dispatcher queue, and doesn't wait for its completion. You should use Invoke instead, which calls the method synchronously on the dispatcher thread.

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