Make a c# application that runs continuously

Question

I am writing a client side app that pushes data from users computers up to a website. I want this application to update the website every 60ish seconds. Right now I have my function wrapped in an infinite while loop with a 45 second sleep. But, windows says the application is not responding even though its updating the website. Here is how my code is structured.

Answer 1

Your problem is that your while loop is blocking the UI thread . To fix this, you need to run your code on a separate thread.

The easiest way to do this to start off.. might be to use a Timer :

System.Timers.Timer timer = new System.Timers.Timer(45000); // timer will execute every 45 seconds

timer.Elapsed += (sender, e) => {
    // your upload code here
};

timer.Start();

You should definitely look into Threading at a later stage though. Perhaps a BackgroundWorker or the Task Parallel Library.

Answer 2

Thread.Sleep(...) blocks the UI thread for the number of specified milliseconds. One approach is to use Task.Delay(..) to not block the UI thread, but rather wait 45 seconds concurrently:

private async void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    running = true;

    while (running)
    {
        //your code

        await System.Threading.Tasks.Task.Delay(4500);
    }
}