WPF ObservableList Dispatcher thread

Question

I'm converting a project from Windows Forms to WPF format. Currently, I've bounded all the data to elements. I now raise a problem in ObservableCollection, saying:

This type of CollectionView does not support changes to its SourceCollection from a thread different from the Dispatcher thread.

How can I make my code threadsafe? Or how do I guide the changes to the Dispatcher thread? I've seen a few posts about it but I'm confused on how to apply it on my own project. Maybe someone can shed some light on this for me?

This is my code of ObservableList.cs:

public class ObservableList<T> : ObservableCollection<T>
{
    #region Private members

    bool isInAddRange = false;

    #endregion Private members

    #region Public methods

    /// <summary>
    /// Creates a new empty ObservableList of the provided type. 
    /// </summary>
    public ObservableList()
    {

    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Handles the event when a collection has changed.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="e"></param>
    protected override void OnCollectionChanged(NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        // intercept this when it gets called inside the AddRange method.
        if (!isInAddRange)
            base.OnCollectionChanged(e);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Adds a collection of items to the ObservableList.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="items"></param>
    public void AddRange(IEnumerable<T> items)
    {
        isInAddRange = true;
        foreach (T item in items)
        {
            Add(item);
        }

        isInAddRange = false;

        var e = new NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs(NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add,items.ToList());
        base.OnCollectionChanged(e);

    }

    #endregion Public methods
}

}

EDIT: After the answer given by ywm I changed my AddRange class to:

public void AddRange(IEnumerable<T> items)
{
    isInAddRange = true;
    foreach (T item in items)
    {
        if (item != null)
        {
            Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.Invoke((Action)(() =>
                {
                    Add(item);
                }));
        }
    }

    isInAddRange = false;

    var e = new NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs(NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add,items.ToList());
    base.OnCollectionChanged(e);

}

Now, all my ObservableList's are null.

Answer 1

When you add items to an ObservableCollection you need to invoke the UI dispatcher thread to do so.

This is done like so:

  Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.Invoke(() =>
  {
        foreach (var myModel in itemsToAdd)
        {
                    Images.Add(mymodel);                   
        } 
  });

Then in the class using it,

    public ObservableList<String> Strings { get; set; }

    public MyViewModel()
    {
        this.Strings = new ObservableList<string>();

        this.Strings.AddRange(new[] { "1", "2", "3", "4" });
    }

Answer 2

While you are now calling the Add method in the UI thread, you are still raising the event in the AddRange method in the calling thread. So you'll end up with the same problem as before you made the change.

try this:

public void AddRange(IEnumerable<T> items)
{
    isInAddRange = true;
    foreach (T item in items)
    {
        if (item != null)
        {
            Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.Invoke((Action)(() =>
                {
                    Add(item);
                }));
        }
    }

    isInAddRange = false;

    var e = new NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs(NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add,items.ToList());
    Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher.Invoke((Action)(() =>
    {
        base.OnCollectionChanged(e);
    });

}

Answer 3

I've found a clean solution here.

The problem that probably occured here is not that the UI thread should be called on the changes, but the thread which created the Collection! And that doesn't necessarily have to be the UI thread!

So, I changed my code to the following:

public class ObservableList<T> : ObservableCollection<T>
{
    #region Private members

    bool isInAddRange = false;
    private readonly Dispatcher _currentDispatcher;

    #endregion Private members

    #region Public methods

    /// <summary>
    /// Creates a new empty ObservableList of the provided type. 
    /// </summary>
    public ObservableList()
    {
        //Assign the current Dispatcher (owner of the collection) 
        _currentDispatcher = Dispatcher.CurrentDispatcher;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Executes this action in the right thread
    /// </summary>
    ///<param name="action">The action which should be executed</param>
    private void DoDispatchedAction(Action action)
    {
        if (_currentDispatcher.CheckAccess())
            action.Invoke();
        else
            _currentDispatcher.Invoke(DispatcherPriority.DataBind, action);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Handles the event when a collection has changed.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="e"></param>
    protected override void OnCollectionChanged(NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs e)
    {
        // intercept this when it gets called inside the AddRange method.
        if (!isInAddRange)
        {
            DoDispatchedAction(() => base.OnCollectionChanged(e));
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Adds a collection of items to the ObservableList.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="items"></param>
    public void AddRange(IEnumerable<T> items)
    {
        isInAddRange = true;
        foreach (T item in items)
        {
            if (item != null)
                {
                    Add(item);
            }
        }       

        isInAddRange = false;

        var e = new NotifyCollectionChangedEventArgs(NotifyCollectionChangedAction.Add,items.ToList());
        DoDispatchedAction(() => base.OnCollectionChanged(e));

    }

    #endregion Public methods
}

I do admit I haven't tested the AddRange() method itself yet. A sample given on the linked site is:

/// <summary>
/// Inserts a item at the specified index
/// </summary>
///<param name="index">The index where the item should be inserted</param>
///<param name="item">The item which should be inserted</param>
protected override void InsertItem(int index, T item)
{
    DoDispatchedAction(() => base.InsertItem(index, item));
}

Thank you all for your attempts to help me out!