Difference between this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke() and Deployment.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke() methods in Silverlight

Question

I know Dispatcher.BeginInvoke() is used to execute some piece of code in the UI thread.Recently I noticed that there is another way to get the Dispatcher instance by using 'Deployment' class. I would like to know

Is there any diffrence between the invokation of this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke() and Deployment.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke() functions ?, and

when should I use this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke() and Deployment.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke() ?

Thanks Alex

Answer 1

Short answer: They are the same in Silverlight, so use the shorter one (if available in the context of your code).

this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke() ensures it is run on the thread that the control in question is running under.

Deployment.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke() ensures it is run on the main UI thread.

The two are always the same in Silverlight (and usually the same in WPF, unless you have created extra UI threads).

Use this.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke() unless your current context does not have a dispatcher, then use the global one instead.