Closing MessageBox in separate thread after parallel process is done-CodePudding

I'm writing a program that, when started, will open a WPF window which has a couple of time-consuming tasks in its constructor (mostly gathering data from a db).

Opening this WPF window is the very first thing that this program is doing, so, because it takes a couple of seconds to gather the data, you call the program and nothing happens for a couple of seconds and then the window pops up. Therefore I thought I'd add a simple message that pops up in the meantime saying that something's happening in the background.

I tried by putting a MessageBox in a separate thread and then closing the thread when the main process is done, but so far that's not working. My code for the main method is:

        Thread t = new Thread(() => MessageBox.Show("Gathering data..."));
        t.Start();

        // Ui that takes a few seconds to popup
        FileCreationWindow setupWindow = new FileCreationWindow();

        t.Join();

t.Join() doesn't work because it starts popping up a Server Busy error. If I use t.Abort() instead nothing happens (plus I know that that isn't the right way of doing it) and finally, of course, if I don't put anything the MessageBox will stay open.

How do I do this?
I'm also happy to review how I do it if, for example, you guys say that the MessageBox is not the best way. In general I'd prefer something pretty simple that doesn't involve a lot of code and reinventing the wheel.

Thanks!

CodePudding user response：

Using invoke to join curren thread and see answer in the question: Close a MessageBox after several seconds

Invoke(new Action(() =>
            {
                ....
            }));

CodePudding user response：

I actually went for the easiest solution possible, which for some reason I hadn't think of initially. I guess for some reason I got stuck with having to use a separate thread and couldn't see Occam's razor. Here where I landed now:

        WaitDataWindow userNotification = new WaitDataWindow();
        userNotification.Show();

        // Pop ui
        FileCreationWindow setupWindow = new FileCreationWindow();

        userNotification.Close();

Interested in hearing if there are evident weaknesses doing this.

Cheers

CodePudding user response：

You can use the async await, or may use semaphore for waiting for the thread to complete.

public async static Task Main(string[] args)
    {
        var msgBox = new Form();
        Task t = new Task(() => msgBox.ShowDialog());
        t.Start();
        await Program.DataProcessor();
        Task.WaitAll();
        

    }
    public static async Task<bool> DataProcessor()
    {
        Thread.Sleep(2000);
        Console.WriteLine("done with data");
        return true;
    }