App freezes after Dispatcher.Invoke

Question

I have this application that freezes when calling the dispatcher.invoke for any control.

When i Call the Dispatcher in radiobutton, Grid, Image..etc the App freezes but without giving errors. any help please !!! thank you

I call the thread Method RunClient

private void RunClient()
    {

        TcpClient client;

        // instantiate TcpClient for sending data to server
        try
        {
            // Step 1: create TcpClient and connect to server

            client = new TcpClient();
            client.Connect(ip, 5001);

            // Step 2: get NetworkStream associated with TcpClient
            output = client.GetStream();

            // create objects for writing and reading across stream
            writer = new BinaryWriter(output);
            reader = new BinaryReader(output);

            string theReply = "";

            do
            {
                try
                {
                    // read the string sent to the server
                    theReply = reader.ReadString();

                    int i = 0;

                    foreach (var x in theReply.Split('#'))
                    {
                        ReadString[i] = x;
                        i++;
                    }

                    CheckConnection(ReadString[0]);



                }
                catch (Exception)
                {
                    //do nothing
                }

            } while (ReadString[6].Equals(" ") &&
                   connection.Connected);

            updatelabel = () => GameResult(ReadString[6]);
            Dispatcher.Invoke(new Action(updatelabel));

            if (!connection.Connected)
            {
                MessageBox.Show("The connection was lost. The game will be closed automatically.");
                writer.Close();
                reader.Close();
                output.Close();
                connection.Close();
                this.Close();
            }

        }
        // handle exception if error in establishing connection
        catch (Exception error)
        {
            MessageBox.Show("Check Internet Connectivity. Couldn't connect!");
        }


    }

when the code enters the method ( check connection ) and calls the dispatcher the app freezes.

     void CheckConnection(string ii)
    {
        try
        {
            if (ii.Equals("Connected"))
            {
                MessageBox.Show("A Connection was established");




                int x = Convert.ToInt32(ReadString[1]);

                if (x == 1)
                {

                    updatelabel = () => char1RadioButton2.IsEnabled = false;
                    char1RadioButton2.Dispatcher.Invoke(new Action(updatelabel));
                }

                else
                {
                    updatelabel = () => char5RadioButton2.IsEnabled = false;
                    char5RadioButton2.Dispatcher.Invoke(new Action(updatelabel));
                }


                updatelabel = () => CreatingGameGrid.Visibility = System.Windows.Visibility.Visible;
                CreatingGameGrid.Dispatcher.Invoke(new Action(updatelabel));



                updatelabel = () => JoinGameGrid.Visibility =        System.Windows.Visibility.Visible;
                JoinGameGrid.Dispatcher.Invoke(new Action(updatelabel));

            }
            else
            {
                MessageBox.Show("No Such Game found");
                this.Close();
            }
        }
        catch (Exception x)
        {
            MessageBox.Show(x.ToString());
        }
    }

Mark Travis Mark Travis · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-27T14:30:44

The Dispatcher.Invoke attempts to synchronously run the specified action on the Dispatcher Thread.

Assuming the RunClient is run on the Dispatcher Thread, and the while loop continues to run while you are trying to Invoke back onto the Dispatcher Thread, the call will freeze.

The simplest solution is to replace all the Dispatcher.Invoke with Dispatcher.BeginInvoke and give it a priority that will run once your RunClient is finished.

The other solution is to run RunClient on a BackgroundWorker.

App freezes after Dispatcher.Invoke

1 Answers