How to activate app through protocol activation from share charm

Question

I am trying to activate my app from its own share contract (please - don't comment about whether or not this is okay to do from a Certification point of view... The app activation is done through a button on the share contract UI and will not happen unless the user proactively it. I am asking about the technical issue here, not about the user experience side of things - thanks!!)

The way I have it is set up is like this:

this.m_shareOperation.ReportStarted();

// ....

this.m_shareOperation.ReportCompleted();

await Launcher.LaunchUriAsync(new Uri("se-myapp:///something"));

Everything seems to work fine - the Activation event/override fires, the app actually activates and shows up, but then, AFTER my OnActivated code completes, the following error shows up:

The operation cannot be completed because the window is being closed. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x802A0201)

What can I do to make this work? Any idea?

The callstack where this appears is this (no user code, does not get handled by the UnhandledException event)...

mscorlib.dll!System.Threading.Tasks.AwaitTaskContinuation.ThrowAsyncIfNecessary.AnonymousMethod__1(object s) + 0x33 bytes mscorlib.dll!System.Threading.QueueUserWorkItemCallback.WaitCallback_Context(object state) + 0x3e bytes mscorlib.dll!System.Threading.ExecutionContext.RunInternal(System.Threading.ExecutionContext executionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback callback, object state, bool preserveSyncCtx) + 0xa7 bytes mscorlib.dll!System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(System.Threading.ExecutionContext executionContext, System.Threading.ContextCallback callback, object state, bool preserveSyncCtx) + 0x16 bytes mscorlib.dll!System.Threading.QueueUserWorkItemCallback.System.Threading.IThreadPoolWorkItem.ExecuteWorkItem() + 0x60 bytes mscorlib.dll!System.Threading.ThreadPoolWorkQueue.Dispatch() + 0x149 bytes mscorlib.dll!System.Threading._ThreadPoolWaitCallback.PerformWaitCallback() + 0x5 bytes [Native to Managed Transition]

Shahar Prish Shahar Prish · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-25T19:59:56

The solution is fairly simple, if somewhat old school (though fully supported by WinRT)...

Step 0: Define a named event you are going to use in your app:

public static EventWaitHandle GetActivationEvent()
{
    EventWaitHandle sync = new EventWaitHandle(false, EventResetMode.ManualReset, Constants.ActivationEventName);
    return sync;
}

Step 1: In the OnActivate() override, get that event and set it:

using (var sync = Utils.GetActivationEvent())
{
    sync.Set();
}

Step 2: From the share target, activate yourself in the following way:

using (EventWaitHandle sync = Utils.GetActivationEvent())
{
    await Launcher.LaunchUriAsync(new Uri(String.Format("my-protocol:///?id={0}&operation={1}", id, op)));
    await Task.Run(() => sync.WaitOne(5000));
    this.m_shareOperation.ReportCompleted();
}

That's it. This will make sure Windows does not get confused and whines about the app closing and opening at the same time.

How to activate app through protocol activation from share charm

2 Answers