How to use a BackgroundWorker?

Question

I know it has 3 methods. In my program I have a method to send a message. It is often late and the program sometimes doesn\'t send the message at all in response to a button

Answer 1

I know this is a bit old, but in case another beginner is going through this, I'll share some code that covers a bit more of the basic operations, here is another example that also includes the option to cancel the process and also report to the user the status of the process. I'm going to add on top of the code given by Alex Aza in the solution above

public Form1()
{
    InitializeComponent();

    backgroundWorker1.DoWork += backgroundWorker1_DoWork;
    backgroundWorker1.ProgressChanged += backgroundWorker1_ProgressChanged;
    backgroundWorker1.RunWorkerCompleted += backgroundWorker1_RunWorkerCompleted;  //Tell the user how the process went
    backgroundWorker1.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
    backgroundWorker1.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true; //Allow for the process to be cancelled
}

//Start Process
private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    backgroundWorker1.RunWorkerAsync();
}

//Cancel Process
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    //Check if background worker is doing anything and send a cancellation if it is
    if (backgroundWorker1.IsBusy)
    {
        backgroundWorker1.CancelAsync();
    }

}

private void backgroundWorker1_DoWork(object sender, System.ComponentModel.DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
    {
        Thread.Sleep(1000);
        backgroundWorker1.ReportProgress(i);

        //Check if there is a request to cancel the process
        if (backgroundWorker1.CancellationPending)
        {
            e.Cancel = true;
            backgroundWorker1.ReportProgress(0);
            return;
        }
    }
    //If the process exits the loop, ensure that progress is set to 100%
    //Remember in the loop we set i < 100 so in theory the process will complete at 99%
    backgroundWorker1.ReportProgress(100);
}

private void backgroundWorker1_ProgressChanged(object sender, System.ComponentModel.ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
    progressBar1.Value = e.ProgressPercentage;
}

private void backgroundWorker1_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, System.ComponentModel.RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Cancelled)
    {
         lblStatus.Text = "Process was cancelled";
    }
    else if (e.Error != null)
    {
         lblStatus.Text = "There was an error running the process. The thread aborted";
    }
    else
    {
       lblStatus.Text = "Process was completed";
    }
}

Answer 2

You can update progress bar only from ProgressChanged or RunWorkerCompleted event handlers as these are synchronized with the UI thread.

The basic idea is. Thread.Sleep just simulates some work here. Replace it with your real routing call.

public Form1()
{
    InitializeComponent();

    backgroundWorker1.DoWork += backgroundWorker1_DoWork;
    backgroundWorker1.ProgressChanged += backgroundWorker1_ProgressChanged;
    backgroundWorker1.WorkerReportsProgress = true;
}

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    backgroundWorker1.RunWorkerAsync();
}

private void backgroundWorker1_DoWork(object sender, System.ComponentModel.DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
    {
        Thread.Sleep(1000);
        backgroundWorker1.ReportProgress(i);
    }
}

private void backgroundWorker1_ProgressChanged(object sender, System.ComponentModel.ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
    progressBar1.Value = e.ProgressPercentage;
}