Question

While maintaining some code, I discovered that we have an infinite hang-up in a background worker. The worker requires access to a script file. The original code was written to pop up a file dialog if no script file was defined, to allow the user to select one. It looks something like this:

private void bgworker_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
    ... snip ...

    if (String.IsNullOrWhitespace(scriptFile))
    {
         scriptFile = PromptForScript();
    }

    ... snip ...
}

private string PrompForScript()
{
    string script = "";
    OpenFileDialog openDialog = new OpenFileDialog();

    if (openDialog.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
    {
        script = openDialog.FileName;
    }

    return script;
}

I’ve read up a bit about MethodInvoker, but almost all of the invoke methods require that you call them from a control. The background worker in question is running from a separate class, which doesn’t extend Control. Do I use the form that calls the class with the bgworker for that? Or is there another way of interrupting the thread for user input?

Answer 1

It’s not recommended to invoke the UI from the background worker DoWork event handler. BackgroundWorker is meant to do work on a non-UI thread to keep the UI responsive. You should ask for any file information before starting the BackgroundWorker object with RunWorkerAsync.