how to check for network drive availability w/o delaying user interface

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I am writing a program that shows a drive/directory tree which then populates a files list (ListView). If the user tries to select a network drive that isn't available, the program stops responding to user input for about 25 seconds.

I think the program hangs on a call to DirectoryInfo.

so I have something like this:

C#

 private void DirCheck( string startPath) {
var directoryInfo = new DirectoryInfo(startPath);
                directoryInfo.GetDirectories();
 }

then I have two scenarios to try to get around the delay

Scenario 1:
I call it like:

C#

Task Test = Task.Factory.StartNew(() =>
    DirCheck("\\netstuff\shared");

On this Task call, I tried to omit any wait for the conclusion of the tasks.

Scenario 2:

C#

//BackGroundWorker1
   private void TreeWorker(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
   {
       string strVal;
       strVal = (string)e.Argument;

       DirCheck(strVal);
   }

The problem is that the program still hangs for 25 seconds.

In the complete code, I am looking for an exception to occur if the drive can't be found.

The two questions then are:
1) Is there a better way to verify access to the remote drive such that there is no delay to the responsiveness of the user interface?

2) Does the GetDirectories method invariably tie-up the whole process, even if called from within a thread of the process?

Thanks.

Posted 20-Jan-12 15:01pm

mikewhitney

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Nathan Stiles 21-Jan-12 10:24am

You can also try System.IO.Directory.Exists

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Nathan Stiles · Answer 1 · 2012-01-20T20:04:00

This uses threading to perform the task off the UI thread then calls back to the UI in a thread safe way.

C#

using System;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Threading;

namespace ReflectRefCount
{
    public partial class Form1 : Form
    {
        private delegate void dVoidObject(object anyType);
        public Form1()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void StartLongTaskWithoutUIHang()
        {
            // here i pass 5000 (5 seconds) to TaskThatTakesALongTime this method is performed on a seperate thread 
            ThreadPool.QueueUserWorkItem(new WaitCallback(TaskThatTakesALongTime), 5000); 
        }

        private void TaskToUpdateTheUserInterface(object anyType)
        {
            // need to check this to prevent cross thread errors
            if (InvokeRequired)
            {
                Invoke(new dVoidObject(TaskToUpdateTheUserInterface), anyType);
            }
            else
            {
                if (anyType != null)
                {
                    Text = anyType.ToString();
                }
            }
        }

        private void TaskThatTakesALongTime(object aNumber)
        {
            int i = (int)aNumber;
            Thread.Sleep(i);
            TaskToUpdateTheUserInterface("The task is complete");
        }

        private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            StartLongTaskWithoutUIHang();
        }
    }
}