Code Reference A collection of code for my reference (and perhaps other people too)

Background workers

Background workers are VERY useful. They keep you to do run intensive process without locking up your UI.

Again, a picture (or code) is worth a thousand words...

// Declare your background worker
private BackgroundWorker bgWorker = new BackgroundWorker();

// In the constructor or some other method you must initialize things
private void StartBackgroundWorker()
{
   // When the background worker finishes, this event is triggered
   bgWorker.RunWorkerCompleted += new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(bgWorker_RunWorkerCompleted);

   // When the background worker is started, this event is triggered
   bgWorker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(bgWorker_DoWork);

   // If the background worker is canceled, this event is triggered
   bgWorker.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;

   // Create a button someplace to stop the background worker
   btnStop.Click += new RoutedEventHandler(btnStop_Clicked);
   // start the background worker
   try
   {
      bgWorker.RunWorkerAsync();
   }
   catch (Exception ex) { // do something }
}

private void btnStop_Clicked(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
   // Unregister the events or they may not get garbage collected
   btnStop.Click -= new RoutedEventHandler(btnStop_Clicked);
   bgWorker.RunWorkerCompleted -= new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(bgWorker_RunWorkerCompleted);
   bgWorker.DoWork -= new DoWorkEventHandler(bgWorker_DoWork);

   // stop the background worker
   bgWorker.CancelAsync();
}

private void bgWorker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
   // Start the process
   // This will be done in a seperate thread
}

private void bgWorker_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
   if (e.Cancelled)
   {
       return;
   }
   if (e.Error != null)
   {
       return;
   }

   // show the user the results of the process that was running... or whatever you want to do

   // Unregister the events or they may not get garbage collected
   btnStop.Click -= new RoutedEventHandler(btnStop_Clicked);
   bgWorker.RunWorkerCompleted -= new RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(bgWorker_RunWorkerCompleted);
   bgWorker.DoWork -= new DoWorkEventHandler(bgWorker_DoWork);
}

That is all there is to it! Simple? Sure it is.

However, there are some things you should know.

* If you cancel the background worker, they process is not stopped. It will continue running until it finishes. Canceling simple disconnects that thread and stops listening to it.
* If you want to stop that thread, then you should have that thread often check for the cancel event and stop itself if it is TRUE.
* If you start and cancel a process too many time, you can will ecounter problems. You should develope a way to prevent this.