Asynchronous File Download with Progress Bar

Josh Ferrara picture Josh Ferrara · Feb 27, 2012 · Viewed 83k times · Source

I am attempting to have a progress bar's progress change as the WebClient download progress changes. This code still downloads the file yet when I call startDownload() the window freezes as it downloads the file. I would like for the user to be able to see the progress change as the splash screen loads. Is there any way to fix this so that the user can see the progress of progressBar2 change?

private void startDownload()
{
    WebClient client = new WebClient();
    client.DownloadProgressChanged += new DownloadProgressChangedEventHandler(client_DownloadProgressChanged);
    client.DownloadFileCompleted += new AsyncCompletedEventHandler(client_DownloadFileCompleted);
    client.DownloadFileAsync(new Uri("http://joshua-ferrara.com/luahelper/lua.syn"), @"C:\LUAHelper\Syntax Files\lua.syn");
}
void client_DownloadProgressChanged(object sender, DownloadProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
    double bytesIn = double.Parse(e.BytesReceived.ToString());
    double totalBytes = double.Parse(e.TotalBytesToReceive.ToString());
    double percentage = bytesIn / totalBytes * 100;
    label2.Text = "Downloaded " + e.BytesReceived + " of " + e.TotalBytesToReceive;
    progressBar1.Value = int.Parse(Math.Truncate(percentage).ToString());
}
void client_DownloadFileCompleted(object sender, AsyncCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    label2.Text = "Completed";
}

Answer

Peter PAD picture Peter PAD · Feb 27, 2012

UI Thread will be freezed when you click startDownload(). If you don't want get form freezed, you use startDownload() in another thread and make progress updating in cross-threaded. One way,

private void startDownload()
{
    Thread thread = new Thread(() => {
          WebClient client = new WebClient();
          client.DownloadProgressChanged += new DownloadProgressChangedEventHandler(client_DownloadProgressChanged);
          client.DownloadFileCompleted += new AsyncCompletedEventHandler(client_DownloadFileCompleted);
          client.DownloadFileAsync(new Uri("http://joshua-ferrara.com/luahelper/lua.syn"), @"C:\LUAHelper\Syntax Files\lua.syn");
    });
    thread.Start();
}
void client_DownloadProgressChanged(object sender, DownloadProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
    this.BeginInvoke((MethodInvoker) delegate {
        double bytesIn = double.Parse(e.BytesReceived.ToString());
        double totalBytes = double.Parse(e.TotalBytesToReceive.ToString());
        double percentage = bytesIn / totalBytes * 100;
        label2.Text = "Downloaded " + e.BytesReceived + " of " + e.TotalBytesToReceive;
        progressBar1.Value = int.Parse(Math.Truncate(percentage).ToString());
    });
}
void client_DownloadFileCompleted(object sender, AsyncCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    this.BeginInvoke((MethodInvoker) delegate {
         label2.Text = "Completed";
    }); 
}

Read more multi-threading in Google like this http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms951089.aspx

-Fixed missing close ); to the bgThread declaration