Question

Largely as a follow-up to this question test driven asynch tasks I have come up with some code that works if I don’t have the task wait, but fails if I do.

Can anyone explain why?

Exception:

I get this error when the code hits the constructor of a utility class written by Stephen Cleary on his blog here

public ProgressReporter()
{
    _scheduler = TaskScheduler.FromCurrentSynchronizationContext();
}

Test 'Smack.Core.Presentation.Tests.Threading.ProgressReporterTests.OnSuccessFullComplete_ExpectedResultIsReturned_JustWait' failed:
System.AggregateException : One or more errors occurred.
----> System.InvalidOperationException : The current SynchronizationContext may not be used as a TaskScheduler.
at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.ThrowIfExceptional(Boolean includeTaskCanceledExceptions)
at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Wait(Int32 millisecondsTimeout, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Wait()
Threading\ProgressReporterTests.cs(142,0): at Smack.Core.Presentation.Tests.Threading.ProgressReporterTests.OnSuccessFullComplete_ExpectedResultIsReturned_JustWait()
--InvalidOperationException
at System.Threading.Tasks.SynchronizationContextTaskScheduler..ctor()
at System.Threading.Tasks.TaskScheduler.FromCurrentSynchronizationContext()
Threading\ProgressReporter.cs(24,0): at Smack.Core.Lib.Threading.ProgressReporter..ctor()
Threading\ProgressReporterTests.cs(52,0): at Smack.Core.Presentation.Tests.Threading.ProgressReporterTests._startBackgroundTask(Boolean causeError)
Threading\ProgressReporterTests.cs(141,0): at Smack.Core.Presentation.Tests.Threading.ProgressReporterTests.<OnSuccessFullComplete_ExpectedResultIsReturned_JustWait>b__a()
at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.InnerInvoke()
at System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Execute()

The test (NUnit w/ TestDriven.Net runner):

private class MockSynchContext : SynchronizationContext{}

[Test]
public void OnSuccessFullComplete_ExpectedResultIsReturned_Wait()
{
    var mc = new MockSynchContext();
    SynchronizationContext.SetSynchronizationContext(mc);
    Assert.That(SynchronizationContext.Current, Is.EqualTo(mc));
    Assert.DoesNotThrow(() => TaskScheduler.FromCurrentSynchronizationContext());
    var task = Task.Factory.StartNew(() => _startBackgroundTask(false));
    task.Wait(2000);
    _actualResult = 42;
}

The SuT:

private void _startBackgroundTask(bool causeError)
{
    _cancellationTokenSource = new CancellationTokenSource();
    var cancellationToken = _cancellationTokenSource.Token;
    _progressReporter = new ProgressReporter();
    var task = Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
            {
                for (var i = 0; i != 100; ++i) {
                    // Check for cancellation 
                    cancellationToken.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();

                    Thread.Sleep(30); // Do some work. 

                    // Report progress of the work. 
                    _progressReporter.ReportProgress(
                        () =>
                            {
                                // Note: code passed to "ReportProgress" can access UI elements freely. 
                                _currentProgress = i;
                            });
                }

                // After all that work, cause the error if requested.
                if (causeError) {
                    throw new InvalidOperationException("Oops...");
                }


                // The answer, at last! 
                return 42;
            },
        cancellationToken);

    // ProgressReporter can be used to report successful completion,
    //  cancelation, or failure to the UI thread. 
    _progressReporter.RegisterContinuation(task, () =>
    {
        // Update UI to reflect completion.
        _currentProgress = 100;

        // Display results.
        if (task.Exception != null)
            _actualErrorMessage = task.Exception.ToString();
        else if (task.IsCanceled)
            _wasCancelled = true;
        else 
            _actualResult = task.Result;

        // Reset UI.
        _whenCompleted();
    });
}

Just to be clear: If I comment out task.Wait, that test actually succeeds. Why is that?

Extra points:

I know this is technically another question but it seems a shame to repeat all of this, so:

Why did my MockSynchContext not throw an exception on TaskScheduler.FromCurrentSynchronizationContext() in my test but did in the second task? More importantly, is there a way to pass the context along so I can do the test properly?

Answer 1

“If I comment out task.Wait, that test actually succeeds. Why is that?”

Task doesn’t report exceptions that happen in the Task itself until you actually examine the Task (either by ‘Wait’, ‘Value’, ‘Dispose’, etc). It then rethrows the exception. In a real app, eventually the GC would reach the Task and cause your app to crash.