wpf c# backgroundworker wait until finished

Question

I have several textboxes in my wpf application. The LostFocus-Event of each textbox starts a backgroundworker to send the data to a connected serial port.

private readonly BackgroundWorker online_mode_send_worker = new BackgroundWorker();
online_mode_send_worker.DoWork += online_mode_send_worker_DoWork;
online_mode_send_worker.RunWorkerCompleted += online_mode_send_worker_RunWorkerCompleted;

private void TextBox_LostFocus(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    online_mode_send_worker.RunWorkerAsync(data);
}

private void online_mode_send_worker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
    List<object> data = (List<object>)e.Argument;
    Port.WriteLine(STARTCHARACTER + XMLSET + XML_TAG_START + data[0] + XML_TAG_STOP + data[1] + ENDCHARACTER);
    string received = Port.ReadLine();
}

private void online_mode_send_worker_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    //do some things after worker completed
}

At this point, everything is working fine.

But sometimes I have to send two data-points directly after each other and there I have a problem.

private void TextBox_LostFocus(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    online_mode_send_worker.RunWorkerAsync(data1);
    //wait until backgroundworker has finished 
    online_mode_send_worker.RunWorkerAsync(data2);
}

The Backgroundworker is still running and I get an exception thrown. Is it possible to wait after the first online_mode_send_worker.RunWorkerAsync(data) until it has finished and then start the second online_mode_send_worker.RunWorkerAsync(data)?

while(online_mode_send_worker.isBusy); is not working because the main-thread is blocking and the RunWorkerCompleted() is not thrown and so the Backgroundwoker is always busy.

I have found something like this, but Application.DoEvents() is not available in wpf.

while (online_mode_send_worker.IsBusy)
{
    Application.DoEvents();
    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(100);
}

Answer 1

Here is a rough idea of what I mentioned in the comments.

public class Messenger {
    private readonly BackgroundWorker online_mode_send_worker = new BackgroundWorker();
    private readonly ConcurrentQueue<object> messages;

    public Messenger() {
        messages = new ConcurrentQueue<object>();
        online_mode_send_worker.DoWork += online_mode_send_worker_DoWork;
        online_mode_send_worker.RunWorkerCompleted += online_mode_send_worker_RunWorkerCompleted;
    }

    public void SendAsync(object message) {
        if (online_mode_send_worker.IsBusy) {
            messages.Enqueue(message);
        } else {
            online_mode_send_worker.RunWorkerAsync(message);
        }
    }

    public Action<object> MessageHandler = delegate { };

    private void online_mode_send_worker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e) {
        if (MessageHandler != null)
            MessageHandler(e.Argument);
    }

    private void online_mode_send_worker_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e) {
        object nextMessage = null;
        if (messages.Count > 0 && messages.TryDequeue(out nextMessage)) {
            online_mode_send_worker.RunWorkerAsync(nextMessage);
        }
    }

}

You have a queue to hold on to messages that were sent while the background worker was busy and have the worker check the queue for any pending messages when it has completed doing its work.

The messenger can be used like this.

private Messenger messenger = new Messenger();

private void Initialize() { //I would expect this to be in the constructor
    messenger.MessageHandler = MessageHandler;
}

private void TextBox_LostFocus(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
    messenger.SendAsync(data);
}

private void MessageHandler(object message)
{
    List<object> data = (List<object>)message;
    Port.WriteLine(STARTCHARACTER + XMLSET + XML_TAG_START + data[0] + XML_TAG_STOP + data[1] + ENDCHARACTER);
    string received = Port.ReadLine();
}