Pfthb

I’m working on a plugin WPF application, which is instantiated from a larger application and regularly interfaces with the API of the main application. The problem I have is that my plugin UI is blocked whenever an intensive operation takes place interfacing with the main application.
In an attempt to resolve this I execute a task, and use the SynchronizationContext of the UI to call the operation which accesses the main application.
For test purposes I have simple WPF application MainWindow and set the ViewContext of the view model as follows

((MainWindowViewModel)DataContext).ViewContext = SynchronizationContext.Current;

Then within my view model I perform the intensive operation from a task as follows.

public void BeginTaskWork()

 Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
 
 ViewContext.Post(new SendOrPostCallback((o) =>
 
 PerformIntensiveOperation();
 ), null);
 

This overcomes the obstacle of calling objects on the UI thread from a task but does not prevent the UI from hanging.

I suppose this is to be expected because I am still executing an intensive task on the UI thread.

So, basically I am asking if there is something I can do to prevent the UI from being blocked when I try to perform operations that interface with the parent application.

Update:

To clarify, the intensive operation involves accessing the API to the parent application and this is owned by the UI thread.

Also, when I simply attempt to perform this on another thread or task I get the error "System.InvalidOperationException: The calling thread cannot access this object because a different thread owns it." This is the reason I tried to the combination of a task and Synchronization context.

Thanks.

Perform your intensive operation in another thread. This will not block the UI. If you need to call objects on UI thread from another thread than do exactly that - call them on UI thread. You can do this by doing an Invoke on current dispatcher.

await Application.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() => SetPropertyOnUIThread());