Persist layouts in background via new Thread/Task

[Johannes]

I want the layouts of some of my RadControls to be persisted in background via a new Thread/Task. The corresponding method is invoked so I can access the control that should be persisted without any error. But I'm always getting an exception at the time I call PersistenceManager.Save(control). Here's my code:

01.// --- Part of CustomRadGradView.cs (inherits from RadGridView) ---

02.

03.// Save this RadGridViews layout in background

04.Task.Run(() =>

05.    {

06.        using (var manager = new CustomPersistenceManager())

07.        {

08.            // this is current RadGridView

09.            manager.SaveLayout(this, file);

10.        }

11.    }

12.}

01.// --- Part of CustomPersistenceManager.cs (inherits from PersistenceManager) ---
02.
03.// Save a layout of any Telerik control
04.public bool SaveLayout(Control control, string file = null)
05.{
06.    // Current thread has no access to control -> Invoke required
07.    if (control.Dispatcher.CheckAccess() == false)
08.    {
09.        bool result = false;
10.        Application.Current.Dispatcher.Invoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, new Action(() => result = DoSaveLayout(control, file)));
11.        return result;
12.    }
13.
14.    // Current thread has access to control
15.    return DoSaveLayout(control, file);
16.}

01.// --- Part of CustomPersistenceManager.cs (inherits from PersistenceManager) ---
02.
03.// save layout
04.private bool DoSaveLayout(Control control, string file = null)
05.{
06.    // this lines work without any errors so method is invoked correctly; thread has access to control!
07.    string name = control.Name; // returns name of control
08.    control.Name = "New name"; // just for testing
09.
10.    // Next line always throws an InvalidOperationException
11.    using (var stream = Save(control)) // call save method of Teleriks PersistenceManager class
12.    {
13.        stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
14.
15.        using (var reader = new StreamReader(stream))
16.        {
17.            string text = reader.ReadToEnd();
18.            File.WriteAllText(path, text);
19.        }
20.    }
21.}

Can you please provide help why PersistenceManager.Save method is always throwing an exception here? How to use PersistenceManager to save a layout in background/new Task?

[Kiril Vandov]

Hello Johannes,

In order to save data to using the RadPersistenceFramework you just need to call simply its Save() method, you can find more information about in this article. However in your case you are getting InvalidOperation Exception "The calling thread cannot access this object because a different thread owns it" as you are creating the PersistanceManager in one thread and use try to use it from another. You can easily solve this issue if you move the Dispatcher logic directly after calling the Task:

Task.Run(()=>
{
    if (this.invisibleButton.Dispatcher.CheckAccess() == false)
    {
        Application.Current.Dispatcher.Invoke(DispatcherPriority.Normal, new Action(() =>
        {
            using (var provider = new CustomPersistenceManager())
            {
                provider.SaveLayout(this.invisibleButton, file);
            }
        }));
    }
});

and remove the logic from the SaveLayout.

I hope this information helps.

Kind regards,
Kiril Vandov
Telerik