I had a Invalid Cross Thread access issue, but a little research and I managed to fix it by using the Dispatcher.
Now in my app I have objects with lazy loading. I'd make an Async call using WCF and as usual I use the Dispatcher to update my objects DataContext, however it didn't work for this scenario. I did however find a solution here. Here's what I don't understand.
In my UserControl I have code to call an Toggle method on my object. The call to this method is within a Dispatcher like so.
Dispatcher.BeginInvoke( () => _CurrentPin.ToggleInfoPanel() );
As I mentioned before this was not enough to satisfy Silverlight. I had to make another Dispatcher call within my object. My object is NOT a UIElement, but a simple class that handles all its own loading/saving.
So the problem was fixed by calling
Deployment.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke( () => dataContext.Detail = detail );
within my class.
Why did I have to call the Dispatcher twice to achieve this? Shouldn't a high-level call be enough? Is there a difference between the Deployment.Current.Dispatcher and the Dispatcher in a UIElement?
Ideally, store a single instance of Dispatcher
that you can use elsewhere without having the thread check on it.
Calling any singleton .Current instance may in fact cause a cross-thread access check to be invoked. By storing it first, you can avoid this to actually get the shared instance.
I use a "SmartDispatcher" that uses a dispatcher when called off-thread, and just invokes otherwise. It solves this sort of issue.
Post: http://www.jeff.wilcox.name/2010/04/propertychangedbase-crossthread/
Code:
// (c) Copyright Microsoft Corporation.
// This source is subject to the Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL).
// Please see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=131993 for details.
// All other rights reserved.
using System.ComponentModel;
namespace System.Windows.Threading
{
/// <summary>
/// A smart dispatcher system for routing actions to the user interface
/// thread.
/// </summary>
public static class SmartDispatcher
{
/// <summary>
/// A single Dispatcher instance to marshall actions to the user
/// interface thread.
/// </summary>
private static Dispatcher _instance;
/// <summary>
/// Backing field for a value indicating whether this is a design-time
/// environment.
/// </summary>
private static bool? _designer;
/// <summary>
/// Requires an instance and attempts to find a Dispatcher if one has
/// not yet been set.
/// </summary>
private static void RequireInstance()
{
if (_designer == null)
{
_designer = DesignerProperties.IsInDesignTool;
}
// Design-time is more of a no-op, won't be able to resolve the
// dispatcher if it isn't already set in these situations.
if (_designer == true)
{
return;
}
// Attempt to use the RootVisual of the plugin to retrieve a
// dispatcher instance. This call will only succeed if the current
// thread is the UI thread.
try
{
_instance = Application.Current.RootVisual.Dispatcher;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("The first time SmartDispatcher is used must be from a user interface thread. Consider having the application call Initialize, with or without an instance.", e);
}
if (_instance == null)
{
throw new InvalidOperationException("Unable to find a suitable Dispatcher instance.");
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Initializes the SmartDispatcher system, attempting to use the
/// RootVisual of the plugin to retrieve a Dispatcher instance.
/// </summary>
public static void Initialize()
{
if (_instance == null)
{
RequireInstance();
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Initializes the SmartDispatcher system with the dispatcher
/// instance.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="dispatcher">The dispatcher instance.</param>
public static void Initialize(Dispatcher dispatcher)
{
if (dispatcher == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("dispatcher");
}
_instance = dispatcher;
if (_designer == null)
{
_designer = DesignerProperties.IsInDesignTool;
}
}
/// <summary>
///
/// </summary>
/// <returns></returns>
public static bool CheckAccess()
{
if (_instance == null)
{
RequireInstance();
}
return _instance.CheckAccess();
}
/// <summary>
/// Executes the specified delegate asynchronously on the user interface
/// thread. If the current thread is the user interface thread, the
/// dispatcher if not used and the operation happens immediately.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="a">A delegate to a method that takes no arguments and
/// does not return a value, which is either pushed onto the Dispatcher
/// event queue or immediately run, depending on the current thread.</param>
public static void BeginInvoke(Action a)
{
if (_instance == null)
{
RequireInstance();
}
// If the current thread is the user interface thread, skip the
// dispatcher and directly invoke the Action.
if (_instance.CheckAccess() || _designer == true)
{
a();
}
else
{
_instance.BeginInvoke(a);
}
}
}
}