Cross thread ошибка

I have a scenario. (Windows Forms, C#, .NET)

1. There is a main form which hosts some user control.
2. The user control does some heavy data operation, such that if I directly call the UserControl_Load method the UI become nonresponsive for the duration for load method execution.
3. To overcome this I load data on different thread (trying to change existing code as little as I can)
4. I used a background worker thread which will be loading the data and when done will notify the application that it has done its work.
5. Now came a real problem. All the UI (main form and its child usercontrols) was created on the primary main thread. In the LOAD method of the usercontrol I’m fetching data based on the values of some control (like textbox) on userControl.

The pseudocode would look like this:

CODE 1

UserContrl1_LoadDataMethod()
{
    if (textbox1.text == "MyName") // This gives exception
    {
        //Load data corresponding to "MyName".
        //Populate a globale variable List<string> which will be binded to grid at some later stage.
    }
}

The Exception it gave was

Cross-thread operation not valid: Control accessed from a thread other than the thread it was created on.

To know more about this I did some googling and a suggestion came up like using the following code

CODE 2

UserContrl1_LoadDataMethod()
{
    if (InvokeRequired) // Line #1
    {
        this.Invoke(new MethodInvoker(UserContrl1_LoadDataMethod));
        return;
    }

    if (textbox1.text == "MyName") // Now it won't give an exception
    {
    //Load data correspondin to "MyName"
        //Populate a globale variable List<string> which will be binded to grid at some later stage
    }
}

But it still seems that I’ve come back to square one. The Application again
becomes unresponsive. It seems to be due to the execution of line #1 if condition. The loading task is again done by the parent thread and not the third that I spawned.

I don’t know whether I perceived this right or wrong.

How do I resolve this and also what is the effect of execution of Line#1 if block?

The situation is this: I want to load data into a global variable based on the value of a control. I don’t want to change the value of a control from the child thread. I’m not going to do it ever from a child thread.

So only accessing the value so that the corresponding data can be fetched from the database.

A new look using Async/Await and callbacks. You only need one line of code if you keep the extension method in your project.

/// <summary>
/// A new way to use Tasks for Asynchronous calls
/// </summary>
public class Example
{
    /// <summary>
    /// No more delegates, background workers etc. just one line of code as shown below
    /// Note it is dependent on the XTask class shown next.
    /// </summary>
    public async void ExampleMethod()
    {
        //Still on GUI/Original Thread here
        //Do your updates before the next line of code
        await XTask.RunAsync(() =>
        {
            //Running an asynchronous task here
            //Cannot update GUI Thread here, but can do lots of work
        });
        //Can update GUI/Original thread on this line
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// A class containing extension methods for the Task class 
/// Put this file in folder named Extensions
/// Use prefix of X for the class it Extends
/// </summary>
public static class XTask
{
    /// <summary>
    /// RunAsync is an extension method that encapsulates the Task.Run using a callback
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="Code">The caller is called back on the new Task (on a different thread)</param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public async static Task RunAsync(Action Code)
    {
        await Task.Run(() =>
        {
            Code();
        });
        return;
    }
}

You can add other things to the Extension method such as wrapping it in a Try/Catch statement, allowing caller to tell it what type to return after completion, an exception callback to caller:

Adding Try Catch, Auto Exception Logging and CallBack

    /// <summary>
    /// Run Async
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="T">The type to return</typeparam>
    /// <param name="Code">The callback to the code</param>
    /// <param name="Error">The handled and logged exception if one occurs</param>
    /// <returns>The type expected as a competed task</returns>

    public async static Task<T> RunAsync<T>(Func<string,T> Code, Action<Exception> Error)
    {
       var done =  await Task<T>.Run(() =>
        {
            T result = default(T);
            try
            {
               result = Code("Code Here");
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Unhandled Exception: " + ex.Message);
                Console.WriteLine(ex.StackTrace);
                Error(ex);
            }
            return result;

        });
        return done;
    }
    public async void HowToUse()
    {
       //We now inject the type we want the async routine to return!
       var result =  await RunAsync<bool>((code) => {
           //write code here, all exceptions are logged via the wrapped try catch.
           //return what is needed
           return someBoolValue;
       }, 
       error => {

          //exceptions are already handled but are sent back here for further processing
       });
        if (result)
        {
            //we can now process the result because the code above awaited for the completion before
            //moving to this statement
        }
    }

answered May 16, 2016 at 1:55

This is not the recommended way to solve this error but you can suppress it quickly, it will do the job . I prefer this for prototypes or demos . add

CheckForIllegalCrossThreadCalls = false

in Form1() constructor .

answered May 10, 2017 at 11:02

Here is an alternative way if the object you are working with doesn’t have

(InvokeRequired)

This is useful if you are working with the main form in a class other than the main form with an object that is in the main form, but doesn’t have InvokeRequired

delegate void updateMainFormObject(FormObjectType objectWithoutInvoke, string text);

private void updateFormObjectType(FormObjectType objectWithoutInvoke, string text)
{
    MainForm.Invoke(new updateMainFormObject(UpdateObject), objectWithoutInvoke, text);
}

public void UpdateObject(ToolStripStatusLabel objectWithoutInvoke, string text)
{
    objectWithoutInvoke.Text = text;
}

It works the same as above, but it is a different approach if you don’t have an object with invokerequired, but do have access to the MainForm

answered May 24, 2012 at 22:49

I found a need for this while programming an iOS-Phone monotouch app controller in a visual studio winforms prototype project outside of xamarin stuidio. Preferring to program in VS over xamarin studio as much as possible, I wanted the controller to be completely decoupled from the phone framework. This way implementing this for other frameworks like Android and Windows Phone would be much easier for future uses.

I wanted a solution where the GUI could respond to events without the burden of dealing with the cross threading switching code behind every button click. Basically let the class controller handle that to keep the client code simple. You could possibly have many events on the GUI where as if you could handle it in one place in the class would be cleaner. I am not a multi theading expert, let me know if this is flawed.

public partial class Form1 : Form
{
    private ExampleController.MyController controller;

    public Form1()
    {          
        InitializeComponent();
        controller = new ExampleController.MyController((ISynchronizeInvoke) this);
        controller.Finished += controller_Finished;
    }

    void controller_Finished(string returnValue)
    {
        label1.Text = returnValue; 
    }

    private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        controller.SubmitTask("Do It");
    }
}

The GUI form is unaware the controller is running asynchronous tasks.

public delegate void FinishedTasksHandler(string returnValue);

public class MyController
{
    private ISynchronizeInvoke _syn; 
    public MyController(ISynchronizeInvoke syn) {  _syn = syn; } 
    public event FinishedTasksHandler Finished; 

    public void SubmitTask(string someValue)
    {
        System.Threading.ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(state => submitTask(someValue));
    }

    private void submitTask(string someValue)
    {
        someValue = someValue + " " + DateTime.Now.ToString();
        System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(5000);
//Finished(someValue); This causes cross threading error if called like this.

        if (Finished != null)
        {
            if (_syn.InvokeRequired)
            {
                _syn.Invoke(Finished, new object[] { someValue });
            }
            else
            {
                Finished(someValue);
            }
        }
    }
}

Along the same lines as previous answers,
but a very short addition that Allows to use all Control properties without having cross thread invokation exception.

Helper Method

/// <summary>
/// Helper method to determin if invoke required, if so will rerun method on correct thread.
/// if not do nothing.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="c">Control that might require invoking</param>
/// <param name="a">action to preform on control thread if so.</param>
/// <returns>true if invoke required</returns>
public bool ControlInvokeRequired(Control c, Action a)
{
    if (c.InvokeRequired) c.Invoke(new MethodInvoker(delegate
    {
        a();
    }));
    else return false;

    return true;
}

Sample Usage

// usage on textbox
public void UpdateTextBox1(String text)
{
    //Check if invoke requied if so return - as i will be recalled in correct thread
    if (ControlInvokeRequired(textBox1, () => UpdateTextBox1(text))) return;
    textBox1.Text = ellapsed;
}

//Or any control
public void UpdateControl(Color c, String s)
{
    //Check if invoke requied if so return - as i will be recalled in correct thread
    if (ControlInvokeRequired(myControl, () => UpdateControl(c, s))) return;
    myControl.Text = s;
    myControl.BackColor = c;
}

For example to get the text from a Control of the UI thread:

Private Delegate Function GetControlTextInvoker(ByVal ctl As Control) As String

Private Function GetControlText(ByVal ctl As Control) As String
    Dim text As String

    If ctl.InvokeRequired Then
        text = CStr(ctl.Invoke(
            New GetControlTextInvoker(AddressOf GetControlText), ctl))
    Else
        text = ctl.Text
    End If

    Return text
End Function

this.Invoke(new MethodInvoker(delegate
            {
                //your code here;
            }));

answered Nov 2, 2017 at 22:20

Same question : how-to-update-the-gui-from-another-thread-in-c

Two Ways:

1. Return value in e.result and use it to set yout textbox value in backgroundWorker_RunWorkerCompleted event

2. Declare some variable to hold these kind of values in a separate class (which will work as data holder) . Create static instance of this class adn you can access it over any thread.

Example:

public  class data_holder_for_controls
{
    //it will hold value for your label
    public  string status = string.Empty;
}

class Demo
{
    public static  data_holder_for_controls d1 = new data_holder_for_controls();
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        ThreadStart ts = new ThreadStart(perform_logic);
        Thread t1 = new Thread(ts);
        t1.Start();
        t1.Join();
        //your_label.Text=d1.status; --- can access it from any thread 
    }

    public static void perform_logic()
    {
        //put some code here in this function
        for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
        {
            //statements here
        }
        //set result in status variable
        d1.status = "Task done";
    }
}

Simply use this:

this.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate
            {
                YourControl.Property= value; // runs thread safe
            });

answered Apr 28, 2019 at 20:56

Action y; //declared inside class

label1.Invoke(y=()=>label1.Text=»text»);

answered Dec 17, 2017 at 6:40

There are two options for cross thread operations.

Control.InvokeRequired Property 

and second one is to use

SynchronizationContext Post Method

Control.InvokeRequired is only useful when working controls inherited from Control class while SynchronizationContext can be used anywhere. Some useful information is as following links

Cross Thread Update UI | .Net

Cross Thread Update UI using SynchronizationContext | .Net

answered Apr 3, 2018 at 9:04