How to update GUI with backgroundworker?

Question

I have spent the whole day trying to make my application use threads but with no luck. I have read much documentation about it and I still get lots of errors, so I hope you can help me.

I have one big time consuming method which calls the database and updates the GUI. This has to happen all the time(or about every 30 seconds).

public class UpdateController
{
    private UserController _userController;

    public UpdateController(LoginController loginController, UserController userController)
    {
        _userController = userController;
        loginController.LoginEvent += Update;
    }

    public void Update()
    {
        BackgroundWorker backgroundWorker = new BackgroundWorker();
        while(true)
        {
            backgroundWorker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(backgroundWorker_DoWork);
            backgroundWorker.RunWorkerAsync();
        }     
    }

    public void backgroundWorker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
    {
        _userController.UpdateUsersOnMap();
    }
}

With this approach I get an exception because the backgroundworker is not and STA thread(but from what I can understand this is what I should use). I have tried with a STA thread and that gave other errors.

I think the problem is because I try to update the GUI while doing the database call(in the background thread). I should only be doing the database call and then somehow it should switch back to the main thread. After the main thread has executed it should go back to the background thread and so on. But I can't see how to do that.

The application should update the GUI right after the database call. Firering events don't seem to work. The backgroundthread just enters them.

EDIT:

Some really great answers :) This is the new code:

public class UpdateController{
private UserController _userController;
private BackgroundWorker _backgroundWorker;

public UpdateController(LoginController loginController, UserController userController)
{
    _userController = userController;
    loginController.LoginEvent += Update;
    _backgroundWorker = new BackgroundWorker();
    _backgroundWorker.DoWork += backgroundWorker_DoWork;
    _backgroundWorker.RunWorkerCompleted += backgroundWorker_RunWorkerCompleted;
}

public void _backgroundWorker_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
    _userController.UpdateUsersOnMap();
}

public void Update()
{   
    _backgroundWorker.RunWorkerAsync();
}

void backgroundWorker_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    //UI update
    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(10000);
    Update();
}

public void backgroundWorker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
    // Big database task
}

}

But how can I make this run every 10 second? System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(10000) will just make my GUI freeze and while(true) loop in Update() as suggested gives an exception(Thread too busy).

Answer 1

You need to declare and configure the BackgroundWorker once - then Invoke the RunWorkerAsync method within your loop...

public class UpdateController
{
    private UserController _userController;
    private BackgroundWorker _backgroundWorker;

    public UpdateController(LoginController loginController, UserController userController)
    {
        _userController = userController;
        loginController.LoginEvent += Update;
        _backgroundWorker = new BackgroundWorker();
        _backgroundWorker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(backgroundWorker_DoWork);
        _backgroundWorker.ProgressChanged += new ProgressChangedEventHandler(backgroundWorker_ProgressChanged);
        _backgroundWorker.WorkerReportsProgress= true;
    }

    public void Update()
    {
         _backgroundWorker.RunWorkerAsync();    
    }

    public void backgroundWorker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
    {
        while (true)
        {
        // Do the long-duration work here, and optionally
        // send the update back to the UI thread...
        int p = 0;// set your progress if appropriate
        object param = "something"; // use this to pass any additional parameter back to the UI
        _backgroundWorker.ReportProgress(p, param);
        }
    }

    // This event handler updates the UI
    private void backgroundWorker_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        // Update the UI here
//        _userController.UpdateUsersOnMap();
    }
}