Starting async method as Thread or as Task

Question

I\'m new to C#s await/async and currently playing around a bit.

In my scenario I have a simple client-object which has a WebRequest

Answer 1

In your code there is no need to using async/await, just set up a new thread to perform long operation.

private void SendAliveMessage()
{
    const string keepAliveMessage = "{\"message\": {\"type\": \"keepalive\"}}";
    var sreamWriter = new StreamWriter(_webRequest.GetRequestStream());
    while (IsRunning)
    {
        sreamWriter.WriteLine(keepAliveMessage);
        Thread.Sleep(10 * 1000);
    }    
}

Using Task.Factory.StartNew(SendAliveMessage, TaskCreationOptions.LongRunning) to perform the operation.

If you really want to using async/await pattern, just call it in constructor without await modifier and the forget it.

public Client()
{
    _webRequest = WebRequest.Create("some url");
    _webRequest.Method = "POST";

    IsRunning = true;

    SendAliveMessageAsync();    //just call it and forget it.
}

I think it's not good idea to set up a long running thread or using async/await pattern. Timers maybe more suitable in this situation.