Silverlight – Thread And Timer (C#)

How to use thread and timer in C#/Silverlight.

Timer

System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherTimer timer;...timer = new System.Windows.Threading.DispatcherTimer();
timer.Interval = new TimeSpan(0, 0, 0, 0, duration); // duration in ms
timer.Tick+=new EventHandler(timer_Tick);timer.Start();

....
void timer_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e){
...
}

Tread

using System.Threading;
...
ThreadStart asyncMethod = new ThreadStart(Generate);
Thread thread = new Thread(asyncMethod);
thread.Start();
...
protected void Generate(){
...
}

Inter thread operation

When you use timer or thread, you may use cross thread functions. If you do that, you need to use the dispatcher as I do in the following example. In this example, I create an object Threaded. Threaded just request the mainpage to print a message on the screen.

//(Threaded.cs)
class Threaded{    // Basic class
MainPage page;
Threaded(MainPage parent){         // save main page
page = parent;         // start thread
ThreadStart asyncMethod = new ThreadStart(PrintAMessage);
Thread thread = new Thread(asyncMethod);
thread.Start();
}
protected void PrintAMessage()    {         // ask to put a text to the screen
page.Print("Hey I am the thread!");
}
}

//(mainpage.xaml.cs)
public partial class MainPage : UserControl{
// code - constructor - etc...
.........

protected void StartThread(){        // create thread
Threaded th = new Threaded(this);
}

// called by thread
protected void Print(string mess){         // use dispatcher
Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() =>
{
MyTextBox.Text = message;
});
}
}

Without dispatcher this example will fail, because we try to access data from a thread that is not allowed, only the proprietary thread can use it.