Whenever you create a WinForm application, it is spun up into a new process and a new thread is created. Any updates to the User Interface are all done on the same thread as your process. This means when your application is doing "busy work", your UI will be blocked because they are on the same thread. What this means is that, in order to achieve what it is you're trying to achieve, you have to do a little extra work.
First step we need to do is create a function for your work routine (we could use an anonymous function, but since you are new to C#, I think it'll be easier to understand if we break it out), like this:
private void DoWork()
{
for (int i = 1; i <= sourceTable.Rows.Count - 1; i++)
{
string checkout;
checkout= sourceTable.Rows[i].Field<string>(0);
dest = new SqlConnection(System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["local"].ConnectionString);
dest.Open();
destcmd = new SqlCommand(checkout, dest);
destcmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
dest.Close();
prcmail();
prcmessagecheck();
lblProgress.Text = "Hello World"+i;
Thread.Sleep(1000); // I changed this from 10000 to 1000 (10 seconds down to 1 second)
}
}
Next, we need to create a new thread that executes our DoWork() function. Its unclear what the "trigger" is for doing your work, but I'm going to assume its a button click:
private void button1_click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var work = new Thread(DoWork);
work.Start();
}
So now, whenever someone click the button, we will start a new thread that executes our DoWork function in that thread. The new thread spawns, then execution is immediate returned and our GUI will now update in real time as our thread is executing in the background.
But wait! We still have one more problem to take care of. The problem is that Window's form controls are not thread safe and if we try to update a control from another thread, other then the GUI's thread, we will get a cross-thread operation error. The key to fixing this is to use InvokeRequired and Invoke.
First, we need to make another function that does just the label update:
private void SetProgressLabel(int progress)
{
lblProgress.Text = "Hello World" + progress;
}
In your form class, we also need to create a new delegate:
public partial class Form1 : Form
{
private delegate void ProgressCallback(int progress);
// ..
// The rest of your code
// ..
}
Finally, change your DoWork() method to something like this:
private void DoWork()
{
for (int i = 1; i <= sourceTable.Rows.Count - 1; i++)
{
string checkout;
checkout= sourceTable.Rows[i].Field<string>(0);
dest = new SqlConnection(System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["local"].ConnectionString);
dest.Open();
destcmd = new SqlCommand(checkout, dest);
destcmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
dest.Close();
prcmail();
prcmessagecheck();
if (lblProgress.InvokeRequired)
{
lblProgress.Invoke(new ProgressCallback(SetProgressLabel), new object[] { i });
}
else
{
SetProgressLabel(i);
}
Thread.Sleep(1000); // I changed this from 10000 to 1000 (10 seconds down to 1 second)
}
}
This uses the label's (derived from Control) InvokeRequired property to determine if an Invoke is required. It returns true or false. If its false, we can just call our SetProgressLabel() function like we'd normally do. If its true, we must use Invoke to call our function instead.
Congratulations! You just made your first thread safe application.
Now, just as an aside note, you are not properly releasing and disposing of your objects. I recommend you change your DoWork() code to something like this:
private void DoWork()
{
for (int i = 1; i <= sourceTable.Rows.Count - 1; i++)
{
string checkout;
checkout = sourceTable.Rows[i].Field<string>(0);
using (dest = new SqlConnection(System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["local"].ConnectionString))
{
dest.Open();
using (destcmd = new SqlCommand(checkout, dest))
{
destcmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
dest.Close();
prcmail();
prcmessagecheck();
if (lblProgress.InvokeRequired)
{
lblProgress.Invoke(new ProgressCallback(SetProgressLabel), new object[] { i });
}
else
{
SetProgressLabel(i);
}
Thread.Sleep(1000); // I changed this from 10000 to 1000 (10 seconds down to 1 second)
}
}
}
}
Because I wrapped your IDisposable's into using blocks, the resources will automatically be disposed of once it goes out of scope.
