Best Way to Invoke Any Cross-Threaded Code?

Question

I know that this question has been asked before, but I'm looking for a way to:

1. streamline the creation of safe cross-threaded code.
2. reuse this code in any situation (no Windows Forms references).

Here's what I have so far, but I want to remove the Windows Forms references. Any ideas?

public delegate void SafeInvokeDelegate(System.Action action);
public class SafeInvoke
{
    private readonly System.Windows.Forms.Control _threadControl;

    public SafeInvoke()
    {
        _threadControl = new System.Windows.Forms.Control();
    }

    public void Invoke(System.Action action)
    {
        if (_threadControl.InvokeRequired)
            _threadControl.Invoke(new SafeInvokeDelegate(Invoke), new object[] {action});
        else if (action != null) action();
    }
}

The above class might be used this way:

SafeInvoke _safeInvoker = new SafeInvoke();
void SafeClearItems()
{
    _safeInvoker.Invoke(delegate
        {
            listView1.Items.Clear();
        });
}

How would I remove the System.Windows.Forms.Control in the SafeInvoke class but keep the same functionality?

Answer 1

You also could use an extension method and lambdas to make your code much cleaner.

using System.ComponentModel;
public static class ISynchronizeInvokeExtensions
{
  public static void InvokeEx<T>(this T @this, Action<T> action) where T : ISynchronizeInvoke
  {
    if (@this.InvokeRequired)
    {
      @this.Invoke(action, new object[] { @this });
    }
    else
    {
      action(@this);
    }
  }
}

So now you can use InvokeEx on any ISynchronizeInvoke and be able to access the properties and fields of implementing class.

this.InvokeEx(f => f.listView1.Items.Clear());