Best/cleanest strategy to update an ObservableCollection from another thread

Question

Normally I check if I have access to the ObservableCollection and if not, I call a Dispatcher. Here (on Stackoverflow) are also some other solutions, but I don't know what is the best and cleanest way. I think my solution is obsolete and should not be used anymore.

In my example is the ItemsCollection bound to the UI. The _UpdateTheCollectionFromAnotherThread() would being called (from another thread or would open another thread) and save the data temporary to items. After that I would check the access and call a dispatcher if needed.

Is this the way I have to go or are there some better and cleaner solutions?

FooClass

public class FooClass
{
    // ##############################################################################################################################
    // Properties
    // ##############################################################################################################################

    /// <summary>
    /// This Items are bound to my UI.
    /// </summary>
    public ObservableCollection<string> ItemsCollection { get; } = new ObservableCollection<string>();

    // ##############################################################################################################################
    // Singleton pattern
    // ##############################################################################################################################

    /// <summary>
    /// The instance of <see cref="FooClass"/>.
    /// </summary>
    internal static FooClass Instance => _Instance ?? (_Instance = new FooClass());
    private static FooClass _Instance;

    // ##############################################################################################################################
    // Konstruktor
    // ##############################################################################################################################

    private FooClass()
    {

    }


    // ##############################################################################################################################
    // Method
    // ##############################################################################################################################

    private void _UpdateTheCollectionFromAnotherThread()
    {
        List<string> items = new List<string>();

        //Here would be some logic to create and fill the items list....


        //and now apply them to the public list

        if (System.Windows.Application.Current.Dispatcher.CheckAccess())
        {
            ItemsCollection.Clear();
            foreach (string item in items)
            {
                ItemsCollection.Add(item);
            }
        }
        else
        {
            System.Windows.Application.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, new Action(() =>
            {
                ItemsCollection.Clear();
                foreach (string item in items)
                {
                    ItemsCollection.Add(item);
                }
            }));
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

If you are on .NET Framework 4.5 or later you can enable the collection to be accessed across multiple threads by calling the BindingOperations.EnableCollectionSynchronization method. Note that this method must be called on the UI thread:

public class FooClass
{
    private readonly object _lock = new object();
    public ObservableCollection<string> ItemsCollection { get; } = new ObservableCollection<string>();

    internal static FooClass Instance => _Instance ?? (_Instance = new FooClass());
    private static FooClass _Instance;

    private FooClass()
    {
        BindingOperations.EnableCollectionSynchronization(ItemsCollection, _lock);
    }

    private void _UpdateTheCollectionFromAnotherThread()
    {
        List<string> items = new List<string>();
        ItemsCollection.Clear();
        foreach (string item in items)
        {
            ItemsCollection.Add(item);
        }
    }
}

If the FooClass may be created on a background thread, you might still improve your code a bit by not repeating yourself:

public class FooClass
{
    public ObservableCollection<string> ItemsCollection { get; } = new ObservableCollection<string>();

    internal static FooClass Instance => _Instance ?? (_Instance = new FooClass());
    private static FooClass _Instance;

    private FooClass() { }

    private void _UpdateTheCollectionFromAnotherThread()
    {
        List<string> items = new List<string>();

        if (System.Windows.Application.Current.Dispatcher.CheckAccess())
            ClearCollection(items);
        else
            System.Windows.Application.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, new Action(() => ClearCollection(items)));
    }

    private void ClearCollection(List<string> items)
    {
        ItemsCollection.Clear();
        foreach (string item in items)
        {
            ItemsCollection.Add(item);
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

I can't tell if you're implementing a MVC or MVW pattern here, but it's good practice to do that even with desktop apps.

As such I think ObservableCollection is part of the view, rather than model, as it's usually not required for a functioning model, but is for WPF UI binding. The primary reason I say this is that it is mutable & the whole way it interacts with WPF relies on mutability.

I would not have an _UpdateTheCollectionFromAnotherThread, because you should avoid updating the UI from another thread. Doing so usually means there's some mixing of roles of model-view-controller in your design.

Rather, do all the async/multithreading stuff in your model, because that is where the bulk of processing will happen.

Then it's simpler to just update your UI with the model, in the UI thread.