8

I need to send emails asychronously through a console application. I need to do some DB updates on the callback but my application is exiting before the callback code gets run!

How can I stop this from happening in a nice manner rather than simply guessing how long to wait before exiting. I would imagine the Async calls get placed in some form of thread? Is it possible to check if any are waiting to be called?

Sample Code

private static void SendCompletedCallback(object sender, AsyncCompletedEventArgs e)
{
   // Get the unique identifier for this asynchronous operation.
   String token = (string) e.UserState;
   if (e.Cancelled)
   {
      Console.WriteLine("[{0}] Send canceled.", token);
   }
   if (e.Error != null)
   {
      Console.WriteLine("[{0}] {1}", token, e.Error.ToString());
   } 
   else
   {
       // update DB
       Console.WriteLine("Message sent.");
   }
}

public static void Main(string[] args)
{
    var users = Repository.GetUsers();
    SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient("Host");
    client.SendCompleted += new SendCompletedEventHandler(SendCompletedCallback);
    MailAddress from = new MailAddress("system@domain.com", "System", Encoding.UTF8);
    foreach (var user in users)
    {
        MailAddress to = new MailAddress(user.Email);
        MailMessage message = new MailMessage(from, to);
        message.Body = "This is a test";
        message.BodyEncoding =  System.Text.Encoding.UTF8;
        message.Subject = "test message 1" + someArrows;
        message.SubjectEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8;
        string userState = String.Format("Message for user id {0}", user.ID);
        client.SendAsync(message, userState);
        message.Dispose();   
    }

    // need to wait here until I have received a callback for each message
    // otherwise the application will exit
}
James
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1 Answers1

8

Create a ManualResetEvent call WaitOne one it on it before exiting. When the last email/dbupdate is performed, call Set on the ManualResetEvent.


public static void Main(string[] args)
{
    object someArrows = ">>>";
    var users = Repository.GetUsers();
    SmtpClient client = new SmtpClient("Host");
    client.SendCompleted += SendCompletedCallback;
    MailAddress from = new MailAddress("system@domain.com", "System", Encoding.UTF8);
    int numRemaining = users.Length;
    using(ManualResetEvent waitHandle = new ManualResetEvent(numRemaining == 0))
    {
        object numRemainingLock = new object();
        foreach(var user in users)
        {
            MailAddress to = new MailAddress(user.Email);
            MailMessage message = new MailMessage(from, to);
            try
            {
                message.Body = "This is a test";
                message.BodyEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8;
                message.Subject = "test message 1" + someArrows;
                message.SubjectEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8;
                string userState = String.Format("Message for user id {0}", user.ID);
                client.SendCompleted += delegate
                {
                    lock(numRemainingLock)
                    {
                        if(--numRemaining == 0)
                        {
                            waitHandle.Set();
                        }
                    }
                };
                client.SendAsync(message, userState);
            }
            catch
            {
                message.Dispose();
                throw;
            }
        }
        waitHandle.WaitOne();
    }
}
Hasani Blackwell
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  • Hi could you provide a sample of how you would advise this be done? I have updated my answer to show you an example – James Nov 20 '09 at 09:12
  • You are setting SendCompleted += SendCompletedCallback, but then in the loop you are assigning SendCompleted to a delegate? Does this mean the delegate code gets run and then the SendCompletedCallback gets called? – James Nov 20 '09 at 18:20
  • Yep. But note, the ordering in which the callbacks are called is not guaranteed. So, the SendCompleted may either call SendCompletedCallback 1st or my delegate 1st. – Hasani Blackwell Nov 20 '09 at 18:40