Changing the value of a node in an asynchronous TreeView

Question

I have a treeview using BackGround worker to add nodes when you expand any. I display a "Loading.." message after the expand and remove it after the nodes are loaded. It works fine and all. Now I want to change the loading message to "Loading...node n/n". I was able to do it but the problem is this message is not displayed(updated to) while doing the node adding operation but after it's completed. I couldn't figure out what I'm doing wrong and I hope someone can shed a light on this.

Here's my code. I debugged SetValue method and it correctly updates the node text, but it doesn't displayed until the end of the operation..

private void t_AfterExpand(object sender, NodeEventArgs e)
{
    t.AppendNode(new object[] { "Loading.." }, e.Node);
    bw.RunWorkerAsync(new object[] { e.Node });
}

private void bw_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
    t.Invoke(new MethodInvoker( () => AddSubNodes(e.Argument) ));
    e.Result = e.Argument;
}

private void AddSubNodes(object arg)
{
    object[] args = arg as object[];
    TreeListNode parentNode = args[0] as TreeListNode;

    int nodeCount = 10;
    for (int i = 0; i < nodeCount; i++)
    {
        t.AppendNode(new object[] { "node cell text" }, parentNode);
        bw.ReportProgress(i, new object[]{ parentNode, "node: " + i.ToString() + "/" + nodeCount.ToString()});
    }
}

private void bw_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
    object[] args = e.UserState as object[];
    TreeListNode parentNode = args[0] as TreeListNode;
    string percentMsg = args[1].ToString(); //node: n/n message

    t.Invoke(new MethodInvoker(() => parentNode.Nodes[0].SetValue(0, percentMsg))); //change "Loading.." to "node: n/n"
    //parentNode.Nodes[0].SetValue(0, mesaj);
}

private void bw_RunWorkerCompleted(object sender, RunWorkerCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    object[] result = e.Result as object[];
    TreeListNode node = result[0] as TreeListNode;

    node.Nodes.RemoveAt(0); //remove loading text
}

Answer 1

The (main) problem is with your bw_ProgressChanged. It does not need to Invoke anything because it is the Bgw's job to synchronize the ProgressChanged. I doesn't hurt, but loose the Invoke anyway.

The reason you don't see any changes is the lack of an Update().

private void bw_ProgressChanged(object sender, ProgressChangedEventArgs e)
{
    object[] args = e.UserState as object[];
    TreeListNode parentNode = args[0] as TreeListNode;
    string percentMsg = args[1].ToString(); //node: n/n message

    parentNode.Nodes[0].SetValue(0, percentMsg); //change "Loading.." to "node: n/n"
    parentNode.TreeView.Update(); // or Form.Update

}

There is another problem in bw_DoWork(), you use Invoke on the AddSubNodes() method. As a result 99% of your code runs entirely on the main thread and your solution is not multi-threaded at all.

I would do something like:

//untested
private void bw_DoWork(object sender, DoWorkEventArgs e)
{
//    t.Invoke(new MethodInvoker( () => AddSubNodes(e.Argument) ));
    object[] args = arg as object[];
    TreeListNode parentNode = e;

    var newNodes = new List<TreeNode>();

    int nodeCount = 10;
    for (int i = 0; i < nodeCount; i++)
    {
       // t.AppendNode(new object[] { "node cell text" }, parentNode);
        newNodes.Add(new object[] { "node cell text" }); // ???
        bw.ReportProgress(i, new object[]{ parentNode, "node: " + i.ToString() + "/" + nodeCount.ToString()});
    }

    // e.Result = e.Argument;
    e.Result = newNodes;
}

And then, in bw_RunWorkerCompleted, quickly add the elements of newNodes to 't'.