How to resolve possible scheduling error with async ReactiveCommand?

Question

I'm relatively new to ReactiveUI and I'm trying to asynchronously execute a database query from a ReactiveCommand. From what I can tell, the problem isn't with executing the async query, but when I try to load the results into a ReactiveList in my view model. I believe that this is a scheduling issue but I'm not familiar enough with RxUI to come up with the correct approach.

I've tried subscribing to the command in the view model using ObserveOn with both RxApp.TaskPoolScheduler and RxApp.MainThreadScheduler but neither seems to help.

My view model:

   public class UsersViewModel : ReactiveObject, IRoutableViewModel
   {
      ReactiveList<LisUser> _users;
      IUserManagementService UsersService { get; }

      public IScreen HostScreen { get; }

      public ReactiveCommand<Unit, IEnumerable<LisUser>> LoadUsers { get; }

      public String UrlPathSegment => "users";

      public ReactiveList<LisUser> Users
      {
         get => _users;
         set => this.RaiseAndSetIfChanged(ref _users, value);
      } 

      public UsersSubPageViewModel(
         IScreen screen,
         IUserManagementService usersService)
      {
         HostScreen = screen ?? throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(screen));
         UsersService = 
            usersService ?? throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(usersService));

         Users = new ReactiveList<LisUser>();
         LoadUsers = ReactiveCommand.CreateFromTask(async () =>
         {
            return await UsersService.GetUsersAsync().ConfigureAwait(false);
         });
         LoadUsers
            .ObserveOn(RxApp.MainThreadScheduler)
            .Subscribe(list =>
            {
               Users.Clear();
               foreach (var u in list)
               {
                  Users.Add(u);
               }
            });
      }
   }

My view:

   public partial class UsersView : ReactiveUserControl<UsersViewModel>
   {
      public UsersPageView()
      {
         InitializeComponent();

         this.WhenActivated(disposables =>
         {
            this.WhenAnyValue(x => x.ViewModel.LoadUsers)
               .SelectMany(x => x.Execute())
               .Subscribe()
               .DisposeWith(disposables);
         });
      }
   }

What I want to occur is when the UsersView is activated, the GetUsers method of the UsersService executes asynchronously and loads the returned list of users into the Users ReactiveList. Instead, I see a new tab in VS with a title of "Source Not Found" and a message saying that "RxApp.cs not found". The actual exception is a System.Exception with a message stating "Cannot obtain value of the local variable or argument because it is not available at this instruction pointer, possibly because it has been optimized away."

So, my first question is "is this actually a scheduling issue?" And the second question is "how do I resolve it?"

Reactivelist has been deprecated in favour of DynamicData. It's thread safe where reactivelist wasn't — Glenn Watson
Thanks for the tip. I see the Obsolete warnings on ReactiveList but there's so much new stuff only so much time to learn. It's good to know the reason to move to DynamicData as soon as I can — mharges

Glenn Watson Glenn Watson · Accepted Answer · 2019-05-27T12:39:32

. First as stated in my comment reactivelist is deprecated.

There is a problem with the way the LoadUsers command is invoked.

One is you can do WhenActivated in your view model. You derive your view model from ISupportsActivation, your view will call the WhenActivated block inside your view when it's WhenActivated is called. See https://reactiveui.net/docs/handbook/when-activated/#viewmodels for ideas.

Second way is to use

this.WhenAnyValue(x => x.ViewModel.LoadUsers)
               .Select(x => x.Execute())
               .Switch()
               .Subscribe()
               .DisposeWith(disposables);

So the above says get the LoadUsers command, get the Execute() which is a observable, Switch() means only subscribe to the newest first, and dispose the old execute when a new value comes in, subscribe to that we will run the command, and dispose to stop potentially.

How to resolve possible scheduling error with async ReactiveCommand?

2 Answers