Update View automatically

Question

I have a TextBox which tells the status of a running application (lets say notepad). If notepad is running Text of TextBox is running and not running for other case.

public string ProcessStatus
{
    get 
    {
         IsProcessRunning("Notepad.exe")
              return "Running";
         return "Not Running";
    }
}

Now problem here is that view updates itself only once when it is launched. At that time if notepad is running it works fine. Now lets suppose I ran my application and notepad was not running then TextBox says not running. Now I launch notepad, now application is still saying not running as application has not updated the view. If I call notify of property changed event for the TextBox then it will say running. But I want here is that TextBox updates automatically.

The only solution what I am thinking right now is that I start a background process which keeps on updating ProcessStatus. But is this the right way? Is there any better way? Something like DirectoryWatcher for processes?

I think the culprit is the calling code. The UI thread is probably blocked by your polling mechanism or something. — Gerrie Schenck, Sep 11 '13 at 09:29
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8455873/how-to-detect-a-process-start-end-using-c-sharp-in-windows and http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1986249/c-sharp-process-monitor — S_F, Sep 11 '13 at 09:31

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 11 '13 at 09:31

You could use a System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherTimer to check at regular intervals:

DispatcherTimer timer = new DispatcherTimer();
timer.Interval = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(10000); // checks every 10 seconds
timer.Tick += Timer_Tick;
timer.Start();

...

private void Timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    // do your checks here
    textbox.Text = ProcessStatus;
}

You can find out more about the DispatcherTimer class from the DispatcherTimer Class page at MSDN.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 11 '13 at 09:33

0

Why not use the timer class to periodically run ProcessStatus, you can define the interval.

answered Sep 11 '13 at 09:33

Nathan Smith

8,271
3
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score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

0

On this other question Can I Get Notified When Some Process Starts? there are two answers on how you can get notified if a process (e.g. Notepad.exe) starts. Both are neither ideal nor simple, I would probably stick to polling as Sheridan and NSmeef suggested.

edited May 23 '17 at 10:31

Community

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1

answered Sep 11 '13 at 09:39

FallenSquirrel

197
7

Update View automatically

3 Answers3