Wrapping an asynchronous method synchronously in C#

asynchronous, c#, synchronous, wrapper

Solution

At a stab it might be worth trying something like the following which uses a WaitHandle to block the current thread rather than spinning and checking a flag.

using System;
using System.Threading;

class Program
{
    AutoResetEvent _autoEvent;

    static void Main()
    {
        Program p = new Program();
        p.RunWidget();
    }

    public Program()
    {
        _autoEvent = new AutoResetEvent(false);
    }

    public void RunWidget()
    {
        ThirdParty widget = new ThirdParty();           
        widget.Completed += new EventHandler(this.Widget_Completed);
        widget.DoWork();

        // Waits for signal that work is done
        _autoEvent.WaitOne();
    }

    // Assumes that some kind of args are passed by the event
    public void Widget_Completed(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        _autoEvent.Set();
    }
}

Problem

I have a third party library containing a class which performs a function asynchronously. The class inherits from the Form. The function basically performs a calculation based on data stored in a database. Once it has finished, it calls a _Complete event in the calling form. What I would like to do is call the function synchronously but from a non-windows form application. The problem is, no matter what I do, my application blocks and the _Complete event handler never fires. From a windows form I can simulate the function running synchronously by using a "complete" flag and a "while (!complete) application.doevents", but obviously application.doevents isnt available in a non-windows form application. Is there something that would stop me using the class's method outside of a windows form application (due to it inheriting from 'Form') ? Is there some way I can work around this ? Thanks, Mike

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