VB.Net Multi-Threading InvokeRequired and Passing Thread - vb.net

I need to be able to pass the thread name into a subroutine in order to abort it when I need to.
So I have this so far:
Dim BrowserSpawn As New System.Threading.Thread(AddressOf BrowserSub)
BrowserSpawn.Start()
Private Async Sub BrowserSub(BrowserSpawn)
...
End Sub
Because the subroutine creates a browser within Form1 groups I needed to invoke access to these controls within the sub.
Note: This works fine when I'm not passing in the thread name.
If Me.GroupNamehere.InvokeRequired Then
Me.GroupNamehere.Invoke(New MethodInvoker(AddressOf BrowserSub))
Else
'Do nothing
End If
When I'm passing in the thread name these become a problem when trying to compile:
Method does not have a signature compatible with delegate 'Delegate Sub MethodInvoker()'.
I'm hoping this is just a syntax thing but I can't seem to get it to work. Is there any way I'm able to pass in this thread name without breaking my invokerequired check?
If I try and change it to the obvious:
Me.GroupNamehere.Invoke(New MethodInvoker(AddressOf BrowserSub(BrowserSpawn)))
It tells me Addressof operand must be the name of a method (without parentheses). Although without the parentheses it's not happy either so I don't know where to go from here.
/edit:
Stumbled across How can I create a new thread AddressOf a function with parameters in VB?
Which seems to confirm what I was trying passing something like:
Private Sub test2(Threadname As Thread)
' Do something
End Sub
And the sub seems happy with that. But I'm not sure how to do that without breaking the invoker part.
Me.GroupNameHere.Invoke(New MethodInvoker(AddressOf SubNameHere))
Works normally. If SubNameHere() becomes SubNameHere(threadname as thread) then that seems happy enough but the invoke line breaks and doesn't want more than the address of.

Two slight syntax changes sorted it:
Private Async Sub SubName(ThreadNameAs Thread)
and
GroupName.Invoke(New MethodInvoker(Sub() Me.SubName(ThreadName)))

Related

Asynchronous DataClass running post Exit Sub

I have a custom class in VBA that pulls historical data from Bloomberg. The class, and the Bloomberg objects it uses, are asynchronous and based on the RTD platform.
The issue I'm having is that I run Subs that call this custom class, but the event handling code in the custom class only runs once my Sub is finished.
Dim bbHist As New HistDataControl
Sub PullDataAndDoStuff()
bbHist.MakeHistRequest StockTicker, "MOV_AVG_50D", startDate, Date
Call DoStuffWithTheData
End Sub
Private Sub DoStuffWithTheData()
..... 'None of this works, because MakeHistRequest / bbHist class hasn't run
End Sub
Is there a way to force Excel to wait until the bbHist has run?
If it has a property to check to see if it's done, then you can just put a DoEvents in a Do Until loop, checking that property for its completion.
The problem is that the bbg handler waits.
So the solution is to make your sub wait for the bbg query to end, and then call your processing data sub.
There are plenty of solutions for that on stackoverflow so I'll let you look for that.

Invoke method for multi thread application?

I have a bug in my application which is the same as here which this person was running into the same problem. My application is multi threaded where the worker thread is updating the Waveformgraph on the UI. I believe that is where my problem is and why, periodically, and on occassion I get a big red X in at least one of my waveformgraph objects when running the application. From reading and research, I need to use an Invoke or BeginInvoke method? Can someone please explain better and provide a sample code that is relevant to my code? The samples that I've found so far still have me hazy on how I need to do this or what I need to do. Thank you for your help.
This code is on the swScopeOnOff click event, main thread.
thread2 = New System.Threading.Thread(AddressOf dataAcquiring)
thread2.Start()
This code is in dataAcquiring Sub
Public Sub dataAcquiring()
'While Scope switch is on, stream each Ai channel's data continuously to its respective WaveForm graph
Do While swScopeOnOff.Value = True
data = reader.ReadWaveform(readRate)
i = 0
For Each WaveformGraph In WFGS
WaveformGraph.PlotWaveformAppend(data(i)) 'This line is updating the UI's waveform graphs
i += 1
Next
i = 0
Loop
End Sub
Proper, thread-safe invocation is actually not as hard as one might think (not even for thread-safe events, but that's irrelevant for this question).
I would recommend you to use the normal Invoke method, such as Me.Invoke() (where Me is the current form, if not, use Form1 or whatever it's called instead). Using BeginInvoke() may be asynchronous but it stacks memory usage and can cause memory leaks if EndInvoke() is not called correctly.
If you target .NET 4.0 or higher you can simply do like this:
Me.Invoke(Sub() WaveformGraph.PlotWaveformAppend(data(i)))
However if you target .NET 3.5 or lower it requires a few more lines of code.
'Outside your Sub.
Delegate Sub WaveformAppendDelegate(ByRef WaveformGraph, ByRef data)
'Create a new sub.
Public Sub AppendData(ByRef WaveformGraph, ByRef data)
WaveformGraph.PlotWaveformAppend(data)
End Sub
'Inside your sub, when you're going to invoke.
Me.Invoke(New WaveformAppendDelegate(AddressOf AppendData), WaveformGraph, data(i))

When I call an pre-existing event handler from a subroutine, it doesn't come back. VB

I'm looking to call a pre-existing event handler subroutine from the form_Load event handler.
But the below doesn't work because control doesn't come back and I want to do more.
UPDATE:
I'm new to this so I don't know what the proper protocol is but...
The reason for the non-return was that a statement like the below ended the subroutines execution.
If aLabel.Tag = 1...
the fix was adding New to the declaration to create an instance of it, ie..
changing....
Dim aLabel As Label
... to ...
Dim aLabel As New Label
I'm surprised I didn't get a warning but instead they just abruptly stopped execution of the sub. That wasn't very helpful :)
Thanks again for your time guys...
(Maybe this question should be deleted now that it has served its purpose)
#konrad #karl
END OF UPDATE
What doesn't work is....
Private Sub Form1_Load...
button1_Click(sender, e) 'But Control doesn't come back.
end sub
Do I change the sender to something?
Thanks in advance
Dave
Invoking event handlers like this is a bad idea, because you are trying to simulate the event context by making sender and/or EventArgs be something else.
Instead, put the logic that you want to invoke into a Subroutine or Function and have your Form1_Load method call that; likewise if you really do have a real click event handler, then that handler code can call the method too, like this:
Private Sub Form1_Load()
DoSomeWork()
End Sub
Protected Sub button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
DoSomeWork()
End Sub
Private Sub DoSomeWork()
' Put logic here that you want to do from form load and a button click
End Sub
This has the benefit of making the code cleaner, clearer and easier to maintain as you only need to change the logic in one place should you need to change the logic.
Note: Obviously, you can pass parameters to the DoSomeWork method, if need be, and change it to a Function if you need it to return something.

How to make a very simple asynchronous method call in vb.net

I just have a simple vb.net website that need to call a Sub that performs a very long task that works with syncing up some directories in the filesystem (details not important).
When I call the method, it eventually times out on the website waiting for the sub routine to complete. However, even though the website times out, the routine eventually completes it's task and all the directories end up as they should.
I want to just prevent the timeout so I'd like to just call the Sub asynchronously. I do not need (or even want) and callback/confirmation that it ran successfully.
So, how can I call my method asynchronously inside a website using VB.net?
If you need to some code:
Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
Call DoAsyncWork()
End Sub
Protected Sub DoAsyncWork()
Dim ID As String = ParentAccountID
Dim ParentDirectory As String = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings("AcctDataDirectory")
Dim account As New Account()
Dim accts As IEnumerable(Of Account) = account.GetAccounts(ID)
For Each f As String In My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFiles(ParentDirectory)
If f.EndsWith(".txt") Then
Dim LastSlashIndex As Integer = f.LastIndexOf("\")
Dim newFilePath As String = f.Insert(LastSlashIndex, "\Templates")
My.Computer.FileSystem.CopyFile(f, newFilePath)
End If
Next
For Each acct As Account In accts
If acct.ID <> ID Then
Dim ChildDirectory As String = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings("AcctDataDirectory") & acct.ID
If My.Computer.FileSystem.DirectoryExists(ChildDirectory) = False Then
IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(ChildDirectory)
End If
My.Computer.FileSystem.DeleteDirectory(ChildDirectory, FileIO.DeleteDirectoryOption.DeleteAllContents)
My.Computer.FileSystem.CopyDirectory(ParentDirectory, ChildDirectory, True)
Else
End If
Next
End Sub
I wouldn't recommend using the Thread class unless you need a lot more control over the thread, as creating and tearing down threads is expensive. Instead, I would recommend using a ThreadPool thread. See this for a good read.
You can execute your method on a ThreadPool thread like this:
System.Threading.ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(AddressOf DoAsyncWork)
You'll also need to change your method signature to...
Protected Sub DoAsyncWork(state As Object) 'even if you don't use the state object
Finally, also be aware that unhandled exceptions in other threads will kill IIS. See this article (old but still relevant; not sure about the solutions though since I don't reaslly use ASP.NET).
You could do this with a simple thread:
Add :
Imports System.Threading
And wherever you want it to run :
Dim t As New Thread(New ThreadStart(AddressOf DoAsyncWork))
t.Priority = Threading.ThreadPriority.Normal
t.Start()
The call to t.Start() returns immediately and the new thread runs DoAsyncWork in the background until it completes. You would have to make sure that everything in that call was thread-safe but at first glance it generally seems to be so already.
I also was looking for information on Asynchronous programming in VB. In addition to this thread, I also found the following: beginning with Visual Studio 2012 and .Net Framework 4.5, VB was given two new keywords to make a method asynchronous right in the declaration, without using Thread or Threadpool. The new keywords are "Async" and "Await". You may refer to the following links if you wish:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/hh191443%28vs.110%29.aspx
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh191564%28v=vs.110%29.aspx
This is an older thread, but I figured I'd add to it anyway as I recently needed to address this. If you want to use the ThreadPool to call a method with parameters, you can modify #Timiz0r's example as such:
System.Threading.ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(Sub() MethodName( param1, param2, ...))

VB.Net App Stuck in Loop

I would just like the program to end itself.
Application.Exit just keeps rolling me back in a loop.
EDITED to Include Code::
Module Module 1
Sub Main()
Sub1()
Sub2()
End Sub
Sub1()
EndSub
Sub2()
End Sub
End Module
EDIT: It seems to be looping back here to Sub ChooseDomain2.. I am including Sub 1 as well.
Sub ChooseDomain1()
Dim DomainName As Object
'Get List of all users on Domain using WinNT
DomainName = InputBox(messageOK, Title, defaultValue)
de.Path = "WinNT://****".Replace("****", DomainName)
If DomainName Is "" Then ChooseDomain2() Else StoreUserData1()
End Sub
Sub ChooseDomain2()
MsgBox("Welcome to the Domain Searcher. Click OK to Auto Search for Domain")
Dim MsgBoxResult As Object = ActiveDirectory.Domain.GetCurrentDomain.Name
MsgBoxResult = InputBox(messageCan, Title, MsgBoxResult)
de.Path = "WinNT://*****".Replace("*****", MsgBoxResult)
StoreUserData1()
End Sub
When it hits end Module it Just starts back from Square one.
Modules don’t execute at all – so it never “hits end module” and never starts “from square one”. Modules merely group methods that can be executed, and Main is a special method that serves as the start of your application.
That said, your code is guaranteed (!) not to execute repeatedly. Also, there is no Application.Exit anywhere in your code so it’s hard to see what you are actually executing. Not the code you showed, anyway.
Note that VB potentially executes code that you didn’t write (code can be auto-generated by the compiler, in particular the application framework) but this doesn’t seem to be happening in your case, and shouldn’t loop in any case. But again, this is impossible to say from the information you have given.
Application.Exit is not required as the console app will quit after it finishes executing the last line in Sub Main. As previously mentioned it is likely you have Sub1 calling Sub2 (or something similar), so set a breakpoint on the start of each sub to find which one is continually being called. Then you can do a search in your code to find where this sub is being called from.