How to execute method calls of a custom class in a separate thread?

Question

I have an UI, a custom class, and a thread. I want to run the custom class completely in a separate thread. Is there a clean way of doing this?

For example. On the MainForm below, when UI calls _threadOneClass.Sleep, I need the UI to go to the spawned ThreadOne and invoke the Sleep method in ThreadOne, not in the main thread.

Basically, all method calls in MyClass need to be executed in ThreadOne, not in main thread. It is like, the MyClass runs on its own "process", while still visible to be called from MainForm.

The MainForm has 3 buttons, and 1 textbox for logging.

I was thinking of deriving the Thread class, but it is sealed. So deriving is definitely a wrong way per Microsoft.

Help dear experts?

Here is the output (MainThread ID=10, ThreadOne ID=11)

MyClass instantiated
Starting ThreadOne
11-Run.start
Sleeping ThreadOne
10-Run.sleep for 3000    'Need this to run on ThreadID 11
10-Run.woke up           'Need this to run on ThreadID 11
Stopping ThreadOne
11-Run.done

Here is how the code look like.

public partial class MainForm : Form
{
    public MainForm()
    {
        InitializeComponent();
    }

    private Thread _threadOneThread;
    private MyClass _threadOneClass;

    private void btnThreadOneCreate_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        _threadOneClass = new MyClass(this);
        _threadOneThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(_threadOneClass.Run));
        _threadOneThread.Start();
    }

    private void btnThreadOneStop_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        _threadOneClass.IsRunning = false;
    }

    private void btnThreadOneSleep_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        _threadOneClass.Sleep(3000);
    }

    public void Log(string txt)
    {
        MainForm.SetText(txtLog, txt);
    }

    internal static void SetText(Control ctl, string val)
    {
        if (ctl.InvokeRequired)
            ctl.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate() { ctl.Text += Environment.NewLine + val; });
        else
            ctl.Text += Environment.NewLine + val;
    }
}

class MyClass
{
    public MyClass(MainForm frm)
    {
        _mainForm = frm;
    }
    private MainForm _mainForm;
    public bool IsRunning = true;
    public void Run()
    {
        _mainForm.Log(Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId.ToString() + "-Run.start");
        while (IsRunning) { }
        _mainForm.Log(Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId.ToString() + "-Run.done");
    }

    public void Sleep(int milliseconds)
    {
        _mainForm.Log(Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId.ToString() + "-Run.sleep for " + milliseconds.ToString());
        Thread.Sleep(milliseconds);
        _mainForm.Log(Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId.ToString() + "-Run.woke up");
    }
}

Answer 1

Threads allow you to run heavy operations while you continue doing other things. In the case of user interfaces (your scenario), asynchronous behavior is almost always necessary as blocking the UI thread will cause to be unresponsive to the user and just isn't an option.

Luckily, the folks at Microsoft has made it extremely easy to write the same code, but in an asynchronous manner. I usually use Tasks because I like the control you get over the operation as well as the ContinueWith() lets you control what you do with the result should you need to propagate data back to the calling thread. If you prefer to use threads, ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem is just as easy.

Any operation you do not want to block the UI thread wrap it like this,

Task.Factory.StartNew(() => Object.PerformOperation());

or

ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(new WaitCallback((x) => Object.PeroformOperation()));

I find this allows me to write the same exact code, but without blocking the UI thread. If you have several statements to execute you can use a block as well.

Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
{
    // do something
    // do more stuff
    // done
}).ContinueWith((completedTask) =>
{
    // if you were computing a value with the task
    // you can now do something with it
    // this is like a callback method, but defined inline

    // use ui's dispatcher if you need to interact with ui compontents
    UI.Label.Dispatcher.Invoke(new Action(() =>
         UI.Item.Label.Text = completedTask.Result;
}

The upcoming async features that are being released in the next .net version actually streamline this even more! But since it uses tasks you will still want to get comfortable with using them.

// this will begin the operation, then return control back to the ui so it does not hang. 
var result = await Object.PerformLongTask(); 

// once the long task is completed then it continues and you can use the result
UI.Item.Label = result;

---

To give a real example, here is some code from an FTP client I wrote which has has a WPF front end. When the start button is clicked the ftp transfer is launched in it's own task, then a while loop which updates the interface every half a second is launched in a task, so neither interferes with the interface thread. Again it's the same code, just wrapped in lambada's.

    private void btnStart_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
    {
        Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
            ftp.Mirror(@"C:\LocalFolder", "/RemoteFolder", 10));

        Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
        {
            while (true)
            {
                lbPercentSuccess.Dispatcher.Invoke(new Action(() =>
                {
                    lbPercentSuccess.Content = ftp.FtpProgress.SuccessPercentage;
                    lbPercentError.Content = ftp.FtpProgress.ErrorPercentage;
                    lbPercentTotal.Content = ftp.FtpProgress.TotalPercentage;
                    lbDuration.Content = ftp.FtpProgress.Duration;
                }));

                Thread.Sleep(500);
            }
        });
    }